Convergence of Architure

Reference and Images from Only the Paranoid Survive - Andy Grove

In the early days of computing, before the introduction of the personal computer, all computers were made by large corporations such as IBM, DEC, WANG and Sperry Univac. These companies were in what was known as a "vertically alligned" arrangement. In other words, everything that related to these computers was provided by the company. No two companied products could be interchanged. Each company made it's own computer components from its own design, they made their own operating system and their own application software. They had total control on the computer environment from the ground up.

The major advantage of this arrangement was that the systems were totally integrated and they worked "seemlessly"

The major disadvantage with this is that once you purchased a system, that was the one you had to stick to. It was just to expensive to move to an alternate solution.

The Old Vertical Computer Industry - Circa 1980 (not to scale)

The development of the Microprocessor changed all this. This technology allowed the development of inexpensive, mass produced computer systems by many different developers and manufactures. As well, specialised manufactures could produce specialised components for these computers. These included not only the processor but motherboards, daughterboards and other peripheral devices. Competion between developers was a key issue in the rapid changes seen within the industry.

The entire structure of the industry changed as specialised industry sectors were emerging.

• A huge variety of chip manufacturers emenrged. Japanese companies specialised in memory production while companies like Intel and Motorola specialised in processors.
• Uses could choose the operating system they liked. DOS was developed by many software companies. Alternate operating systems such as Unix were also developed as an alternative to DOS. Windows environments and other shell products were also developed, giving consumers a wide choice.
• Software vendors competed against each other for a share in the software market, thus a plethora of products appeared. Some competed against each other and others developed entirely new products never though of before by the vertical industry.
• Computers were now being manufactured and sold by many people. The big companies such as IBM were there as well as the hobbyist down the corner. All were able to produce computers and sell them competitively on the world market.

The New Horizontal Computer Industry - Circa 1995 (not to scale)

Author: Mike Leishman 1999