From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   Lawrence D'Oliveiro   wrote:   
   >What exactly are they good for? Nothing, really, except perhaps   
   >compatibility with ancient legacy code that has long passed its EOL, just   
   >like the companies that might still be running it.   
      
   It's a weird thing... it's an I/O machine that happens to have a CPU   
   controlling it.  You can run a database and most of the database operations   
   take place in the disk controllers without anything more than mediation   
   by the CPU.  You can back up a disk to a tape with the CPU shut down.   
      
   It's a very different way of thinking about computing and it's still   
   a good thing for transaction processing systems with big databases   
   behind it, the sort of thing that is I/O intensive but cannot be   
   easily distributed.   
      
   Not many MIPS but plenty of TIPS.   
      
   It's kind of a shame that the software hasn't kept up with the hardware   
   on those machines, though.   
   --scott   
      
   --   
   "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)