killer micro


killer micro

[Popularised by Eugene Brooks] A microprocessor-basedmachine that infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputerperformance turf. Often heard in "No one will survive theattack of the killer micros!", the battle cry of thedownsizers. Used especially of RISC architectures.

The popularity of the phrase "attack of the killer micros" isdoubtless reinforced by the movie title "Attack Of The KillerTomatoes" (one of the canonical examples ofso-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers). This has even moreflavour now that killer micros have gone on the offensive notjust individually (in workstations) but in hordes (withinmassively parallel computers).