17 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
17 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>killer micro</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../K.html" title="K"/><link rel="previous" href="killer-app.html" title="killer app"/><link rel="next" href="killer-poke.html" title="killer poke"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">killer micro</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="killer-app.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">K</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="killer-poke.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="killer-micro"/><dt xmlns="" id="killer-micro"><b>killer micro</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [popularized by Eugene Brooks c.1990] A microprocessor-based machine
|
||
that infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf.
|
||
Often heard in “<span class="quote">No one will survive the attack of the killer
|
||
micros!</span>”, the battle cry of the downsizers.</p><p>The popularity of the phrase ‘attack of the killer
|
||
micros’ is doubtless reinforced by the title of the movie
|
||
<i class="citetitle">Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes</i> (one of the
|
||
<a href="../C/canonical.html"><i class="glossterm">canonical</i></a> examples of so-bad-it's-wonderful among
|
||
hackers). This has even more <a href="../F/flavor.html"><i class="glossterm">flavor</i></a> now that killer
|
||
micros have gone on the offensive not just individually (in workstations)
|
||
but in hordes (within massively parallel computers).</p><p>[2002 update: Eugene Brooks was right. Since this term first entered
|
||
the Jargon File in 1990, the minicomputer has effectively vanished, the
|
||
<a href="../M/mainframe.html"><i class="glossterm">mainframe</i></a> 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.
|
||
—ESR]</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="killer-app.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../K.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="killer-poke.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">killer app </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> killer poke</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|