Watson on Jeopardy!: The end of the Microsoft/Intel computer era

On this day five years ago, IBM's Watson competed against Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings on the game show Jeopardy!, winning the competition. (The actual competition happened January 14, 2011 with the first broadcast of the two episodes on February 14 and 15, 2011.)

To me, this event marked the end of the Microsoft/Intel computer era that we have been living in for so long and the start of the Watson era, which continues today. To my knowledge, Watson's software and hardware does not contain much, if any, Microsoft code or Intel processors.

The Microsoft/Intel computer era was an age where cheap software running on cheap hardware was king. It was an era where Version 1.0 was garbage and everyone waited until at least Version 1.1 came out. It was an era where Intel microprocessors would take arbitrary text and execute it as a program (allowing over 30 million viruses and other malware to date).

Sadly, other companies fell into this trap of bad software with bad security. Adobe Systems is a leading example of this. In the Watson era, Adobe's Flash is near the end of its life.

I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Computer Science (College of Engineering) in 1976. Some of the best practices of that time were simply ignored by Microsoft and Intel and have only been rediscovered in this decade, some 40 years later. What if the cars of today were designed and built with the technology of the 1970s? Air bags and antilock brakes would not be included. People would be furious! But many business people didn't want to pay for good-quality hardware and software over the last 40 years, so they bought technology that was poorly designed even for the 1970s.

What is different about the Watson era of computing? IBM's Power Systems servers, like the ones running Watson, running the IBM i Operating System have multiple parity bits (including error-correcting memory) and other checks to prevent memory errors and even adder errors from corrupting the operating system, user programs or data. These processors and operating system require that programs be compiled by a compiler and will not run arbitrary text as a program. I know of no viruses or worms that run on IBM Power Systems (with the caveat that there may be malware that affects the two other operating systems that run on IBM Power, AIX and Linux). Ironically, many of IBM Power Systems do run antivirus software, but not as much for themselves: They do it to detect viruses affecting Microsoft/Intel systems which have been uploaded into their file systems by infected computers (how ironic)!

The IBM i Operating System, including its predecessors going back to 1979 (longer than any Windows Server has existed), have always more robust than Windows Server. Today they can manage multiple workloads in multiple virtual machines without conflict or crashing and dependable resource allocation. It's not unusual to have a 10-year-old Power Systems server that has never crashed. There have been cases where one IBM Power Systems server has replaced over 100 Windows and Linux servers. There are companies that have 15,000 active users working on one Power Systems server with sub-second response time.

What did the end of the Microsoft/Intel computer era and the start of the Watson era five years ago mean for the typical computer person? For many, nothing. Companies will still buy cheap: They can buy Windows 2012 R2 running on a server with an Intel processor for less than $1,000. They will still pay lots of money to load this system up with antivirus software, which is unlikely to block zero-day vulnerabilities, and pay technicians to keep this system running and to restart it when it crashes. They will continue taking the server down to install monthly patches from Microsoft. If they need another function, they will buy another server, and another, and another... I know a company that buys a skid of servers with Intel processors (at least 20 servers) whenever they have a planned power outage to replace the servers that will not boot up when the power comes back.

But there's another group of companies out there which understand the false economy of the Microsoft/Intel world. These companies will spend the money for better servers and operating systems, without the need for antivirus software for their operating system, and end up with better results with a lower cost of ownership. And many good computer people will work for these companies, because they don't want to deal with things keeping them from writing dependable programs which can run 24/7 without having to deal with crashes and glitches.




Notes: I have donated $10 in both 2015 and 2014 to Wikipedia for its operations. Have you donated?
This is cross-posted on my personal blog, The World According to Bruce. 




Updated February 11, 2016.

Updated LinkedIn summary

I updated my summary on LinkedIn tonight. Here's the updated version:

Specialization: IBM Power Systems (IBM i, iSeries®, System i®, AS/400®) servers.

I prefer working with real-time (batch is obsolete) systems designed to run continuously 24/7. I also specialize in integrating the IBM i to everything on the plant floor but I’m flexible enough for other tasks as well.

Currently, I’m looking for an opportunity involving an equity investment in a business, in contrast to being an employee or a consultant. Although my experience is in writing real-time programs, my forte is gathering complex information and determining the underlying principles and trends.

Please don’t send me unsolicited ideas as I already have a list of 50+ ideas and I wouldn’t want you to think I stole yours. But if you think I could help you with your business, contact me through LinkedIn, at bruce.hobbs@gmail.com or at bruce@netburg.com.

To be honest, I am growing disillusioned with the IBM Power Systems platform. It’s like a Swiss Army knife, which is both an asset and a liability. The one thing IBM needs to add is the ability to run Windows Server 2012 R2 either natively or through emulation in its own partition. IBM sold its x86 server line to Lenovo and now manufactures nothing that can run Windows Server.

IBM, Power Systems, iSeries, System i and AS/400 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Netburg is a service mark of Stevens Communications Inc. Netburg is not affiliated with IBM.

Previously, it read:

Specialization: IBM Power Systems (IBM i, iSeries®, System i®, AS/400®) servers.

I prefer working with real-time (batch is obsolete) systems designed to run continuously 24/7. I also specialize in integrating the IBM i to everything on the plant floor. But I do other tasks as needed; I work on everything from hardware to Java. I'm one of the few people who has repaired an IBM disk drive to avoid a full system restore.

If you're looking for someone to improve an accounts receivable report, I can do it but I won't get excited about it. But if you want to be the first plant engineer to install a new type of machine in a group of over 200 manufacturing plants and you need help getting the IBM i to dance, then I could be your person. I don't do 40 hours a week well, but I will be there when the job needs to get done.

Availability for new clients: April 2015.

I recently worked on interfacing the IBM i to two systems, one of which uses SQL Server for its database and one that has an OData connector (here's a shout out to Scott Klement whose information was helpful with both of these interfaces). Both interfaces are running smoothly.

Many years ago, I designed a system to interface an SAP ERP system to bar code readers and process control equipment. This system allows real-time updating of SAP data from these sources outside SAP so that the ERP view is always up to date with the actions on the plant floor. Soon, I will be adding caching so that this system can run independently of SAP for several days with full editing.

I have modified packaged software to allow commission statements to be e-mailed directly to sales agencies with a PDF check image attachment. The payment is made by an ACH transfer.

IBM, Power Systems, iSeries, System i and AS/400 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Netburg is a service mark of Stevens Communications Inc. Netburg is not affiliated with IBM. zl43x3q