[vcf-midatlantic] Another history story

[Dave McGuire]

On 02/25/2017 07:19 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>>> Very nice take on an overlooked storage architecture concept!
>
> Thanks. I happened to read the ZDnet columnist's piece (quoted in my story). Saw his /38 reference and knew I had to write about that.

   Single-level storage is one of a couple of attributes that makes me 
believe the AS/400 is one of the most advanced computer architectures 
ever designed.  "Storage-class memory" is an absolutely awful name for 
it, but it's the exact same concept as you (and Dr. Soltis) point out.

   If anyone here wants to understand the unbelievable awesomeness and 
elegance of this architecture and why I'm so enamored with it, I 
recommend reading "Inside the AS/400" by Dr. Soltis.  While reading it, 
I lost count of how many times I literally shouted aloud something like 
"YES!  THAT'S how this should work!"  Autumn thought I had finally lost it.

  The AS/400's only problem in the industry is that IBM's target market 
for it is boring and unglamorous, and the people who really push 
architectures key on exciting and glamorous applications for systems. 
If the whole world were built on an architecture like this, we'd have 
ten times the functionality, 10% of the code, and 1/1000th of the bugs. 
Seriously, get the book and check it out.

             -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA