On Tuesday 10 December 2002 4:39 pm, Peter B Van Campen wrote: [...]
The mainframe manufacturers actually 'underclock' systems that are sold to customers that DEMAND reliability.
I know of one "mainframe" manufacturer that underclocks for reasons related wholly to marketing $$$: HP. HP has two lines of "business class" computers: the HP3000 series and the HP9000 series. The 3000 series uses a proprietary OS called MPE/iX while the 9000 series uses HP-UX. "for quite some time now", the -ONLY- difference between a series 3000 system and a series 9000 system has been the inclusion of a bit of "firmware" on the 3000 side that enabled the MPE/iX OS to load. The CPU is EXACTLY the same in all other regards except one: the latest "offering" from HP for the 3000 line are dubbed "A-class" and "N-class" and use the latest PA-RISC cpu's. Between the A and N classes, the CPU's themselves are rated at the same speed [roughly between 400 and 500mhz, I believe -- remember, these are RISC cpu's, so 500mhz is actually screaming] but the "A-class" series 3000 is "clock-crippled" to operate at 110mhz, mainly to make an "N-class" system that more attractive. If that were the entire story, this would make sense [i.e., they offer a lower capability machine for less $$$, even though the CPU is the same -- you're basically not paying for "full use" of the cpu cycles] Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there: as I mentioned, an A-class processor for the 3000 line runs at a crippled speed, BUT THE CORRESPONDING A-class series 9000 system runs at full speed! What's worse, is that the "crippled" 3000 costs MORE than the full-speed 9000. [the irony of the whole situtation is that even WITH the crippled clock speed, the MPE/iX based system can outperform the same HP-UX system running at full speed] The saddest part of this whole saga is the fact that, in their "infinite" wisdom, HP has cancelled the 3000 line in their quest to become another "me-too" windows NT distributor. (or would that be "infinitesimal" wisdom?)