little machines for big tasks

[jgf at hou5g.UUCP]

>From: tbray at mprvaxa.UUCP
>*note
>As to the reduced machine efficiency of modern software, this was really
>brought home to me one time I was touring a DEC manufacturing plant, and
>there were these 6 huge backplane-wiring machines running flat out, all
>being driven by a little wee PDP-8 (!).  When I expressed surprise, the
>manager explained that the 8 could do it with room to spare because there
>was no operating system to get in the way...

In at least one of IBM's manufacturing (or is it just testing)
facilities in New York, they were using IBM 1130s (remember those
little suckers?) to run tests on the wiring of the then new 303X
machines.

Joe Friedman
AT&T-IS Holmdel
hou3c!hou5g!jgf