Replies

"But dumb terminals are HOT HOT HOT!"

Actually, you're not that far off the mark. "Everything old is new again!"

We started out with batch processing on centralized computers, formerly known as minicomputers or mainframes. Technology got more and more powerful, allowing the switch from tape and card readers to dumb terminals, allowing for "time sharing systems." As technology advanced, new devices designed to handle the communications between the end users and the central computer (front end processors) freed up even more processing power on the central system. Eventually the processors got powerful enough to allow multiple individual systems to run as "virtual machines" on these mainframes, and shortly thereafter the PCs began to hit the market.

The march of technology REALLY exploded in the PC type systems, going from 8 bit (Intel 8086/8088 @ 4.77MHz) to 16 bit (Intel 80286 @ 8MHz) to 32 bit (Intel 80386 @ 16MHz) to 64 bit, multi-core (as many as 8 cores) processors running at speeds faster than 3GHz! This new computing power allowed for the demise of the older centralized computing, putting incredible power directly on the desktop, allowing distributed computing.

Eventually those processors go so powerful that we're now moving back to centralized computing, using virtualization similar to the original methods used on mini-computers and mainframes! And now that's happening with desktop PCs, moving to the graphical equivalent of "dumb terminals" again!

Mark