2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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killer micro
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [popularized by Eugene Brooks c.1990] A microprocessor-based machine that
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infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf. Often heard
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in No one will survive the attack of the killer micros! , the battle cry of
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the downsizers. The popularity of the phrase attack of the killer micros is
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doubtless reinforced by the title of the movie Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes
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(one of the canonical examples of so-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers). This
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has even more flavor now that killer micros have gone on the offensive not
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just individually (in workstations) but in hordes (within massively parallel
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computers). [2002 update: Eugene Brooks was right. Since this term first
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entered the Jargon File in 1990, the minicomputer has effectively vanished,
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the mainframe sector is in deep and apparently terminal decline, and even
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the supercomputer business has contracted into a smaller niche. It's
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networked killer micros as far as the eye can see.
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