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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Thoughts on IBM 360
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2025 20:43:07 -0000 (UTC)
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On Thu, 3 Apr 2025 12:29:36 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> "The 1967 IBM System/360 Model 91 could execute up to 16.6 million
> instructions per second."
> 
> [Wiki]
> 
> A Raspberry PI PICO could outperform that.

This was IBM’s attempt at the time to compete with the CDC 6000-series 
machines. These were designed by the legendary Seymour Cray, who came up 
with processors that were an order of magnitude faster than anything else 
around -- basically, they were the first “supercomputers”. IBM mounted a 
mighty FUD campaign to try to dissuade its customers from buying CDC 
machines, promising that its upcoming “360 Model 90” would be way ahead.

When it finally shipped, about two years late, as the Model 91, it fell a 
bit short of what was promised.