Ric writes:

> >Much of the speculation about possible futures for MPE seems to ignore the
>  >fact that MPE is undoubtedly very hardware-specific in its design.  To
port
>  >it to a platform with a different architecture would be a huge effort.
>
>  Yes, in my mind, MPE w/o a 3000 doesn't compute.  Also, I believe that MPE
>  is so stable because both parts are made by the same company.

It's been my experience that I see no great difference in reliability of Dell
Intel-based hardware in contrast to HP. It's very important to separate in
your mind software failures from hardware.

Software failures are fairly common with Windows and Macintosh-based systems,
and I presume with Linux as well, although I have no experience so far with
the latter. But these aren't hardware failures. Hardware failures are easy to
identify by the two sure signs of a hardware failure: small puffs of smoke
rising from the back of the machine and a pungent smell that fills the room.
When these other O/S'es fail, it is rarely due to any form of hardware
failure.

I personally don't think you'd ever notice any difference in MPE's famous
reliability on a Dell server than you would on a dyed-in-the-wool HP3000. But
if such a system did break, you could fix it yourself, replacing whatever
broke for just a few hundred dollars.

Wirt Atmar

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