Big iron
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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".
The term bears a slightly ironic, but respectful, connotation.
The term is used, e.g. in reference to IBM mainframes, often when discussing their comeback/survival after the assault of "Unix boxes". More recently the term is also applied to powerful computer servers and computer ranches, whose steel racks naturally invoke the same association.
The expression may be compared with the slang expression for heavy handguns, derived from the slang "iron" for a handgun ("shooting iron"), as exemplified by the classical country music ballad Big Iron by Marty Robbins about "the ranger with the big iron on his hip".
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This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain.
