''CPU Wars'' is an
underground comic strip by Charles Andres that circulated around
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...
and other
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
manufacturers starting in 1977. It described a hypothetical invasion of Digital's slightly disguised
Maynard,
ex-woolen mill headquarters (now located in ''Barnyard, Mass'') by troops from ''IPM'', the ''Impossible to Program Machine Corporation'' in a rather-blunt-edged parody of
IBM. The humor hinged on the differences in style and culture between the invading forces of IPM and the laid-back employees of the Human Equipment Corporation. For example, even at gunpoint, the employees were unable to lead the invading forces to their leaders because they had no specific leaders as a result their corporation's use of
matrix management
Matrix management is an organizational structure in which some individuals report to more than one supervisor or leader–relationships described as solid line or dotted line reporting. More broadly, it may also describe the management of cross-f ...
.
The comic was drawn by a DEC employee, initially anonymous and later self-revealed to be Charles Andres. A compendium of the strips was finally published in 1980.
The most notable trace of the comic is the phrase ''Eat flaming death'', supposedly derived from a famously turgid line in a World War II-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic that ran “Eat flaming death, non-Aryan mongrels!” or something of the sort (however, it is also reported that on the Firesign Theatre's 1975 album
In The Next World, You're On Your Own
''In the Next World, You're on Your Own'' is the ninth and last comedy album recorded by the Firesign Theatre for Columbia Records. It was released in October 1975.
Track listing
Side one
#"Police Street" – 21:30
Side two
#"We've Lost O ...
a character won the right to scream “Eat flaming death, fascist media pigs” in the middle of Oscar night on a game show; this may have been an influence). Used in humorously overblown expressions of hostility. “Eat flaming death, EBCDIC users!”
["Eat flaming death" entry of the '']Jargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) and others of the old ARPANET A ...
'' (public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
)
References
External links
*
Digital Equipment Corporation
History of computing hardware
Underground comix
{{comic-strip-stub