[Info-vax] The Machine - Dows Jones newswire report

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Tuesday, 29 November 2016 03:46:35 UTC, Arne Vajhøj  wrote:
> On 11/28/2016 7:03 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> > x86-64 server boxes are around for multiple decades, low-volume hardware
> > tends to be really expensive hardware, lower-volume hardware or software
> > and that requires specialized programming tools or skills tends to be
> > more expensive,
> 
> And if time has shown one thing then it is that high volume and
> low cost solutions tend to win in IT.
> 
> Arne

Maybe. It may depend on the criteria used to
define "win".

High profit tends to win, but isn't always high
visibility, whereas high volume is often by
definition high visibility. Exception to "high
volume = high visibility": not many people
realise how dependent they have been on ARM 
system-on-chip designs in their hard drives, TVs,
routers, etc. That said...

"High profit" may mean a little profit on a lot of
systems (e.g. generic x86 tin, "ARM everywhere",
etc), stuff that Joe Public can readily see, names
familiar from the technology/fashion media.

Or it may mean higher margins on a much smaller 
number of systems (e.g. the niche stuff that gets
used in high frequency financial trading and where
customers don't mind paying a fortune because the
extra millisecond they save gets them at the front
of the queue for million-dollar profits rather
than second in the queue). Joe Public may not see
much of these, maybe systems sell by the hundreds
not by  the millions, but **they win in the market
in which they choose to compete** (for now).

Closer to home, is Non-Stop successful in its chosen
markets? It's nearly invisible to Joe Public, even
if they work in a 'modern' IT department.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonStop_(server_computers)