dinosaurs mating

2 definitions found

dinosaurs mating - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  dinosaurs mating
  
     <humour> The activity said to occur when yet another big iron
      merger or buy-out occurs; reflects a perception by
     hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow
     dying of the mainframe industry.  Also described as
     "elephants mating": lots of noise and action at a high level,
     with an eventual outcome in the somewhat distant future.
  
     In its glory days of the 1960s, it was "IBM and the Seven
     Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric,
     Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac.  Early on, RCA sold
     out to Univac and GE also sold out, and it was "IBM and the
     BUNCH" (an acronym for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data,
     and Honeywell) for a while.  Honeywell was bought out by Bull.
  
     Univac in turn merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac,
     which was later merged (although the employees of Sperry
     called it a hostile takeover) with Burroughs to form Unisys
     in 1986 (this was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was
     coined).  In 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR, only to spit it out
     again in 1996.  Unisys bought Convergent Technologies in
     1988 and later others.
  
     More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem
     inevitable.
  
     [More dates?]
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1998-07-10)
  

dinosaurs mating - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  dinosaurs mating
   n.
  
     Said to occur when yet another big iron merger or buyout occurs;
     originally reflected a perception by hackers that these signal
  another
     stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. In the
     mainframe industry's glory days of the 1960s, it was `IBM and the
     Seven Dwarfs': Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell,
     NCR, RCA, and Univac. RCA and GE sold out early, and it was `IBM and
     the Bunch' (Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for
  a
     while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull; Burroughs merged with Univac
     to form Unisys (in 1984 -- this was when the phrase dinosaurs mating
     was coined); and in 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR (but spat it back out a
  few
     years later). Control Data still exists but is no longer in the
     mainframe business. In similar wave of dinosaur-matings as the PC
     business began to consolidate after 1995, Digital Equipment was
  bought
     by Compaq which was bought by Hewlett-Packard. More such
  earth-shaking
     unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.