Packed decimal predates the idea of "big iron" even. The original driver was control applications: doing user output on machines with tiny memories that couldn't spare the conversion logic to produce a decimal value. Check the BCD instructions that still exist (albeit in very slow microcoded form, and I think they still work only on the 8 bit registers) on your 8 core Sandy Bridge monster.
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Packed decimal predates the idea of "big iron" even. The original driver was control applications: doing user output on machines with tiny memories that couldn't spare the conversion logic to produce a decimal value. Check the BCD instructions that still exist (albeit in very slow microcoded form, and I think they still work only on the 8 bit registers) on your 8 core Sandy Bridge monster.