killer micro

2 definitions found

killer micro - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  killer micro
  
     [Popularised by Eugene Brooks] A microprocessor-based
     machine that infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer
     performance turf.  Often heard in "No one will survive the
     attack of the killer micros!", the battle cry of the
     downsizers.  Used especially of RISC architectures.
  
     The popularity of the phrase "attack of the killer micros" is
     doubtless reinforced by the movie title "Attack Of The Killer
     Tomatoes" (one of the canonical examples of
     so-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers).  This has even more
     flavour now that killer micros have gone on the offensive not
     just individually (in workstations) but in hordes (within
     massively parallel computers).
  
     [Jargon File]
  

killer micro - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  killer micro
   n.
  
     [popularized by Eugene Brooks c.1990] A microprocessor-based machine
     that infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf.
     Often heard in "No one will survive the attack of the killer
  micros!",
     the battle cry of the downsizers.
  
     The popularity of the phrase `attack of the killer micros' is
     doubtless reinforced by the title of the movie Attack Of The Killer
     Tomatoes (one of the canonical examples of so-bad-it's-wonderful
     among hackers). This has even more flavor now that killer micros
     have gone on the offensive not just individually (in workstations)
  but
     in hordes (within massively parallel computers).
  
     [2002 update: Eugene Brooks was right. Since this term first entered
     the Jargon File in 1990, the minicomputer has effectively vanished,
     the mainframe sector is in deep and apparently terminal decline,
  and
     even the supercomputer business has contracted into a smaller niche.
     It's networked killer micros as far as the eye can see. --ESR]