I think there might have only been about one year of Unics (later UNIX) development on the PDP-7. The PDP-7 Unics "version 0" is from 1969 and UNIX was on PDP-11/20 in 1970. In 1973, Version 4 Unix was rewritten in C, a language that maps to the PDP-11 which suggests that the PDP-11 was a stronger influence on UNIX than the PDP-7.
You wrote "the PDP-7/VAX model" but the lineages go "PDP-1, PDP-7, PDP-9, PDP-15" (all 18-bit) vs. "PDP-11, VAX-11, VAX (without the -11 as backward-compatibility with the PDP-11 was deprecated in later models)".
In support of some of your comments.... there was a time when older model IBM mainframes were returned and they re-appeared as disk controllers. The IBM mainframe is generally based on separate functional units closely coupled.
Hi Ant, Yes absolutely, and that's really interesting on mainframe re-use. It was interesting seeing some of the debates that we see today on SoC's also appear in the 1970s/80s about mainframes. For example, IBM was criticised I think for how closed the code in the Processor Controller was. Just as we see criticism of binary blobs for GPUs today.
Um, no? You can use a modern phone all day long for tons of tasks without touching a network. It’s a full “computer”. And Android phones, especially, you can have full programming environments and self hosted compilers etc.
Comparing them to a dumb terminal is missing the mark so far as to seem purposefully obtuse.
There is a lot of talk of this lately, mostly it seems from people who do not have or do not know how to use a desktop or laptop computer. I see this as a general societal phenomenon I will call DDoT. The dumbing down of things. Device mobility has always involved tradeoffs.
I am going to disabuse those who believe it is a computer of this notion right here and now.
Definition: a programmable electronic device designed to accept data, perform prescribed
mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations.
Does a smartphone do calculations like a computer? Yes, but so does a pocket calculator, is that a computer? Does it have a display? Yes, but again so does a pocket calculator. Only in the absolute broadest sense of the word it may be, but still a very under-powered limited use-computing device.
If you disconnect as smartphone from the Internet, what will it do? Is it still smart, or is it just a
dumb terminal connecting to AWS, Azure, or the Google Plex like in the old mainframe computer days?
Or maybe it is really just a color Newton 2.0. You can calculate waitress tips and keep your golf
score with it right?
A smartphone, or a tablet for that matter, is a mostly under-powered limited use device that can do some computer like things. Much like a lathe in a machine shop, a real computer is a device that can recreate itself. A smartphone cannot design, engineer, or manufacture itself.
They do not have the specs of modern PC's, gpu's are mobile ones, processors are small power
saving ones. Nothing like Intel Core I3's, I5's, I7’s, or I9's. Smartphones have multicore CPU chips to save battery power. Desktop and laptop computers have multicore chips to produce computing power.
You are not going to do these things on a smartphone:
File conversions
Audio editing, Audio encoding
Video editing, Video encoding
Spreadsheet creating or calculating
Database creation or querying
Gaming
Run an image data backup to an external drive
Run a RAID array for data redundancy
Stream an HD movie on a 60 inch screen with Dolby Surround sound
Play a Blu-Ray disc on a 60 inch screen with Dolby Surround sound
Drive multiple viewing screens
Boot from a disc to fix your OS
Run a Firefox browser with extensions to block ads and also block telemetry
Block all surveillance and location tracking on your system
Sure you can connect your phone to a larger display, use a dongle to connect to wired Ethernet, and maybe even an external keyboard and mouse. Sure, you can do some things in the cloud with Google Docs, Amazon AWS, or Microsoft Office 365 and Azure. But why would you even want to?
I think there might have only been about one year of Unics (later UNIX) development on the PDP-7. The PDP-7 Unics "version 0" is from 1969 and UNIX was on PDP-11/20 in 1970. In 1973, Version 4 Unix was rewritten in C, a language that maps to the PDP-11 which suggests that the PDP-11 was a stronger influence on UNIX than the PDP-7.
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3212479
You wrote "the PDP-7/VAX model" but the lineages go "PDP-1, PDP-7, PDP-9, PDP-15" (all 18-bit) vs. "PDP-11, VAX-11, VAX (without the -11 as backward-compatibility with the PDP-11 was deprecated in later models)".
In support of some of your comments.... there was a time when older model IBM mainframes were returned and they re-appeared as disk controllers. The IBM mainframe is generally based on separate functional units closely coupled.
Hi Ant, Yes absolutely, and that's really interesting on mainframe re-use. It was interesting seeing some of the debates that we see today on SoC's also appear in the 1970s/80s about mainframes. For example, IBM was criticised I think for how closed the code in the Processor Controller was. Just as we see criticism of binary blobs for GPUs today.
A phone is not a mainframe, it is a dumb terminal mostly useless if not connected to a network.
https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsOnAndroid
Um, no? You can use a modern phone all day long for tons of tasks without touching a network. It’s a full “computer”. And Android phones, especially, you can have full programming environments and self hosted compilers etc.
Comparing them to a dumb terminal is missing the mark so far as to seem purposefully obtuse.
Is a smartphone a computer?
There is a lot of talk of this lately, mostly it seems from people who do not have or do not know how to use a desktop or laptop computer. I see this as a general societal phenomenon I will call DDoT. The dumbing down of things. Device mobility has always involved tradeoffs.
I am going to disabuse those who believe it is a computer of this notion right here and now.
Definition: a programmable electronic device designed to accept data, perform prescribed
mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/computer
Does a smartphone do calculations like a computer? Yes, but so does a pocket calculator, is that a computer? Does it have a display? Yes, but again so does a pocket calculator. Only in the absolute broadest sense of the word it may be, but still a very under-powered limited use-computing device.
If you disconnect as smartphone from the Internet, what will it do? Is it still smart, or is it just a
dumb terminal connecting to AWS, Azure, or the Google Plex like in the old mainframe computer days?
Or maybe it is really just a color Newton 2.0. You can calculate waitress tips and keep your golf
score with it right?
A smartphone, or a tablet for that matter, is a mostly under-powered limited use device that can do some computer like things. Much like a lathe in a machine shop, a real computer is a device that can recreate itself. A smartphone cannot design, engineer, or manufacture itself.
They do not have the specs of modern PC's, gpu's are mobile ones, processors are small power
saving ones. Nothing like Intel Core I3's, I5's, I7’s, or I9's. Smartphones have multicore CPU chips to save battery power. Desktop and laptop computers have multicore chips to produce computing power.
You are not going to do these things on a smartphone:
File conversions
Audio editing, Audio encoding
Video editing, Video encoding
Spreadsheet creating or calculating
Database creation or querying
Gaming
Run an image data backup to an external drive
Run a RAID array for data redundancy
Stream an HD movie on a 60 inch screen with Dolby Surround sound
Play a Blu-Ray disc on a 60 inch screen with Dolby Surround sound
Drive multiple viewing screens
Boot from a disc to fix your OS
Run a Firefox browser with extensions to block ads and also block telemetry
Block all surveillance and location tracking on your system
Sure you can connect your phone to a larger display, use a dongle to connect to wired Ethernet, and maybe even an external keyboard and mouse. Sure, you can do some things in the cloud with Google Docs, Amazon AWS, or Microsoft Office 365 and Azure. But why would you even want to?