nemesis wrote:
> in other words:  mainframes were never supercomputers.  They were 
> commerce-oriented machines rather than scientific number-crunchers.

Some were.  Of course, "supercomputer" at the time had somewhat different 
connotations. But the mainframe I learned on had the optional "business 
unit" (i.e., support for COBOL instructions like BCD and block move) and the 
"scientific unit" (i.e., floating point hardware). You maxed that sucker out 
with four CPUs all with floating point hardware, and you could (and did) 
calculate orbits to the moon and such. It was a Sigma-9 Scientific Data 
Processor (aka Xerox-650 aka Honeywell <mumble>).

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Ada - the programming language trying to avoid
    you literally shooting yourself in the foot.

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