killer micro

n. [popularized by Eugene Brooks c.1990] A microprocessor-based machine that
infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf. Often heard
in No one will survive the attack of the killer micros! , the battle cry of
the downsizers. The popularity of the phrase attack of the killer micros is
doubtless reinforced by the title of the movie Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes
(one of the canonical examples of so-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers). This
has even more flavor now that killer micros have gone on the offensive not
just individually (in workstations) but in hordes (within massively parallel
computers). [2002 update: Eugene Brooks was right. Since this term first
entered the Jargon File in 1990, the minicomputer has effectively vanished,
the mainframe sector is in deep and apparently terminal decline, and even
the supercomputer business has contracted into a smaller niche. It's
networked killer micros as far as the eye can see.

