Mainframes are great, already using almost[0] memory safe systems programming language on the 60's with Burroughs, followed by IBM and a few other vendors.
Virtualization and containers with the 360.
Bytecode as universal binary format with JIT/AOT at kernel level, DB based file system, System/38 and AS/400.
Object based OS, AS/400.
[0] - They still have the issue of leaks and double free though, but everything else is safe Algol style with explicit unsafe blocks/modules required.
Talk about a commitment to backwards compatibility – you can run binaries built 30 years ago for god knows what proprietary processor on a modern POWER8 system without recompiling.
I also find it kind of amusing that IBM, a primarily consulting company, developed AS/400, given that part of its sales pitch is that integrated database requires no maintenance and you can forget entirely about your IBM i and just leave it running for a decade.
It's a neat system. I wish I had the opportunity to use one. In many ways it feels like we're still catching up to what System/38 was doing in 1979.
I was responsible for doing backups on a AS/400 during a Summer internship in the early 90's. Sadly did not do much more than exchanging the tapes, logging in and starting the backup.
> "Wish there was a good book about the history of crays. It's the kind of thing you hear talked about but are unlikely to ever see."
That would be a great read.
My favorite Cray tidbit: for fun, Seymour Cray dug tunnels underneath his home, and had a lot of his breakthroughs while doing so.
he attributed the secret of his success to "visits by elves" while he worked in the tunnel:
"While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem."
Mainframes are great, already using almost[0] memory safe systems programming language on the 60's with Burroughs, followed by IBM and a few other vendors.
Virtualization and containers with the 360.
Bytecode as universal binary format with JIT/AOT at kernel level, DB based file system, System/38 and AS/400.
Object based OS, AS/400.
[0] - They still have the issue of leaks and double free though, but everything else is safe Algol style with explicit unsafe blocks/modules required.