Talk:Big iron

Not primary disambiguation
This little-used jargon usage doesn't belong as the primary disambiguation. Gene Nygaard 23:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * What is primary in your opinion, of the options available? not to say that you are thoroughly mistaken about "little-used". Obviously your primary training is not in computers. `'mikka (t) 00:20, 7 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Probably the best is to move this Big iron &rarr; Big iron (computers) and then move Big iron (disambiguation) &rarr; Big iron.  You don't need to have any primary disambiguation page.  It is at least as likely that someone entering "big iron" would be looking for the Marty Robbins song at just a different capitalization, Big Iron, or one of the other meanings as the computer one.  Let those who capitalize both initial letters go to the song, everything else to a disambiguation page unless it includes the disambiguation info.  Gene Nygaard 02:39, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Relevance of Marty Robbins song?
What's the relevance to this particular article of the quote from the Marty Robbins song Big Iron? Can anybody show with a citation from any reliable source that this meaning of "big iron" has any relationship to that gunfighter's gun?

Far more likely that this computer "big iron" is of the same ilk as the construction "big iron" of the Knight Rider episode (scroll up from to last entry before here or the farm equipment "big iron" of the Big Iron Farm Show here. Gene Nygaard 23:56, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * You seem fail to notice the time difference Knight Rider and Farm Show and "big iron". The big iron became a universal catch phrase after the "big iron". There is even ironing services called "big iron" `'mikka (t) 00:12, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
 * No, I am not failing to notice anything. For one thing, there is no date of first use in this article.  Second, it is the preexisting use for big machinery that is being used in all three cases, computers and construction and farm machinery.  Whether or not that use predated the Marty Robbins song, there is no clear connection in any of them to that song.  At most, I'd think there might be a little secondary influence.  Sounds  pretty tenuous and shaky to me, unless you can find any published, reliable source which makes that connection.  Gene Nygaard 02:34, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
 * The text does not say that the term was influenced by the song. The song is just a popular example. The slang term itself dates back to Wild West times the song glorifies. `'юзырь:mikka 17:39, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Definition does not make sense
Big iron, as the hacker's dictionary the Jargon File defines it, "refers to large, expensive, ultra-fast computers. It is used generally for number crunching supercomputers such as Crays, but can include more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes".

In this sentence, "big iron" is singular, but the definition requires a plural. Either the subject of this sentence or the definition needs to be rephrased. &mdash; 217.46.147.13 (talk) 10:47, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

mainframe
I would say that defintion is wrong anyway, or at least not the only definition in the IT world, I with 20+ years in IT have never heard it used for large fast server/super computers, I would use it as a term for large old fashioned Mainframes. These machines would have been fast in their day, but by comparison to say the machine I am typing this on now would by rather sluggish.

Yakacm (talk) 12:24, 23 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with this being mostly an old-fangled term. After polling computer scientists that I know, the only person who had heard the term was my father in reference to the IBM360. I realize that this is anecdotal evidence, however, for its use to be 'colloquial' in nature, I'd expect more people to be using the term colloquially for current mainframe devices. --The wiki page for the IBM360 actually does use the term 'big iron' in reference to Stanford's 'big iron'. "The control panel of the most complex System/360 model type built, the FAA IBM 9020, comprising up to 12 System/360 Model 65s and Model 50s in its maximum configuration is on display in the Computer Science department of Stanford University as IBM 360 display and Stanford Big Iron. It was manufactured in 1971 and decommissioned in 1993." . Kitty4777 (talk) 23:47, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I just saw this article, I was doing ancillary search concerning mainframes at the time, so someone is using it, in a tech field, to refer to it. That still feels more like jargon, to me, and not a colloquialism.Kitty4777 (talk) 00:00, 25 April 2015 (UTC)