4 Jan
2016
4 Jan
'16
2:52 p.m.
On 4 Jan 2016, at 04:40, Armando Stettner <aps(a)ieee.org> wrote:
I guess I experienced things a little differently:
computer science basis notwithstanding, the VAX was hugely successful for DEC.
I think it was, too. What I meant, though, was that, although x86 demonstrates that
it's possible to make almost anything fast by the application of sufficient money,
the VAX was something which was expensive to keep performance-competitive, especially in
the era when RISC could make really easy wins, and the cost of doing that hurt DEC pretty
badly, I would expect (and made VAXes increasingly expensive compared to the competition,
which I remember them being in the late 80s). And I guess Alpha was too late.
--tim