Unisys Phasing Out Decades-Old Mainframe Processor For x86

angry tapir writes: Unisys is phasing out its decades-old mainframe processor. The chip is used in some of Unisys' ClearPath flagship mainframes, but the company is moving to Intel's x86 chips in Libra and Dorado servers in the ClearPath line. The aging CMOS chip will be "sunsetted" in Libra servers by the end of August and in the Dorado line by the end of 2015. Dorado 880E and 890E mainframes will use the CMOS chip until the servers are phased out, which is set to happen by the end of 2015.

Comments

Re:what's the point anymore

[idontgno]

I don't know much (ok, anything at all) about the Libre lines but the Dorado machines have some very unusual characteristics such as 9-bit bytes which would render anything other than hardware compatibility a total disaster necessitating a forced conversion to another platform immediately.

Right. Goes back to the multiple-of-9-bit native word length of the the entire 11xx/22xx heritage, back to the Univac 418. Since bytes aren't the native access mode in that architecture anyway, they're an afterthought and rather harder to code for in assembler.

That's not the only oddity of that architecture, too. 1s complement math? Negative zero?

Yeah. I'm an old grey geek that started out on an 1180 back in the day. Mostly assembler real-time stuff.

I'm a bit misty-eyed at the thought of that heritage code running, essentially, by run-time emulation rather than natively.

Sic transit gloria mundi.