Tag Archives: mainframes

IBM Introduces z13, a Mainframe for the Smartphone Economy

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These real-time applications, according to Donna Dillenberger, a distinguished engineer at IBM’s Watson lab, can be done in a mainframe environment. They are not yet possible on clusters of smaller, industry-standard computers, she said. But there are several open-source software projects, like Apache Spark, that focus on real-time data processing across large numbers of computers.

via IBM Introduces z13, a Mainframe for the Smartphone Economy – NYTimes.com.

He estimates the total cost of ownership including hardware, software and labor will be 50 percent less with a mainframe than on his “sprawling server farm,” given the growing complexity of managing hardware and software from several suppliers.

The Eternal Mainframe

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The Internet and web applications have been enablers for these server farms, for these mainracks, if you will. People use these web apps on smartphones, on notebooks, on tablets, and on the fading desktop. The client paints pixels while the server farm — the mainrack — does the backend work. More than a dozen iterations of Moore’s Law later, and the Wheel of Reincarnation has returned us to terminals connected to Big Iron.

And there’s the rub. The movement to replace the mainframe has re-invented not only the mainframe, but also the reason why people wanted to get rid of mainframes in the first place.

via The Eternal Mainframe – Throwww.com.

DB2 – the secret database

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Certainly, according to the Winter Corporation’s 2005 survey, the largest OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing) databases in the world are hosted on DB2. The volume prize goes to the Land Registry at 23.1 TB and the prize for the number of rows goes to UPS – 89.6 billion; both run on DB2.

via DB2 – the secret database • The Register.

DB2 has always ruled in the mainframe environment: on that platform it has no peer. In 1996 (ten years ago!) IBM made all the right technical moves to expand the use of DB2 down to the mini and even the PC markets. DB2 was produced in three versions. These have had various names over the years – UDB (Universal DataBase) was often used but it now being gently dropped by IBM. The most useful names I’ve come across are:

• DB2 for z/OS (Mainframe)

• DB2 for iSeries (AS400 as was)

• DB2 for LUW (Linux, UNIX and Windows)

Dated 18 January 2006.

NASA unplugs last mainframe

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Of course NASA is just one of the latest high profile mainframe decommissionings. In 2009 The U.S. House of Representatives took its last mainframe offline. At the time Network World wrote: “The last mainframe supposedly enjoyed “quasi-celebrity status” within the House data center, having spent 12 years keeping the House’s inventory control records and financial management data, among other tasks. But it was time for a change, with the House spending $30,000 a year to power the mainframe and another $700,000 each year for maintenance and support.”

via Layer 8: NASA unplugs last mainframe.

Cue violins.