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IBM Introduces Two Open-Source-Only Mainframes
IBM is introducing two mainframe servers that run only on the open-source Linux operating system.
The new hardware will make it easier to run technology like the MongoDB database and the open-source software Spark. Presently more than a third of IBM's mainframe clients are running the Linux operating system. IBM also said it will release mainframe code to the public and join a new cohort of less than a dozen academic, government and corporate entities in what's called the Open Mainframe Project, an open source endeavor devoted to helping companies using mainframe computers.
IBM is sweetening the pot by contributing 250,000 lines of mainframe code to the Linux community, hoping to attract a new generation of developers to their platform. To help coax new users, IBM will be offering free access to the LinuxOne cloud, a mainframe simulation tool it developed for creating, testing and piloting Linux mainframe applications.
Some of the specs for the machines can be found in this article from Reuters, including a partnership with Canonical Ltd. to distribute Ubuntu on the LinuxONE and zSeries systems.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday August 18 2015, @06:12PM
"Some of the specs for the machines can be found in this article from Reuters"
Really? Where? Because the only vaguely relevant line I see is: IBM said LinuxONE Emperor can scale up to 8,000 virtual machines or thousands of containers, which would be the most for any single Linux system.
That's not really a spec, so much as some upper limit on the most kitted out version.
Even the "spec sheet" for the Z13 it *might* be based on is nothing but vague: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/z13_specs.html [ibm.com]
But I found a line somewhere that says: "In its maximum configuration, z13 is powered by up to 141 client characterizable microprocessors (cores) running at 5 GHz" and up to 10Tb of memory. That's a spec. But's it not at all clear why that's "mainframe" rather than just, say, a rack.
Hell, I can get that at ~3.5Ghz in a 42U, no problem at all. With more than enough room to spare, and maybe even a ton of other junk.
Obviously, mainframes are specialist and you design your workload to the mainframe not the other way around, but to me a huge expensive mainframe giving "up to" 141 cores at 5Ghz and 10Tb isn't all that impressive. A few BladeCenter-style things, fully kitted with the GPUs and all sorts of junk in them would seem to provide much more power in a much more conventional box, with more than enough room for runtime redundancy and not cost anywhere near the same.
(Score: 2) by schad on Tuesday August 18 2015, @06:57PM
You buy a mainframe because you need reliability. Everything else a mainframe offers can be gotten in other ways, and usually for a lot less money.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday August 18 2015, @07:52PM
It IS a rack.
A rack of custom processors, each with costume numbers of multiple Cores, married with custom IO channels (of monumental bandwidth) and power and cooling etc, etc.
I'd recommend reading http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/z13.html [ibm.com]
or taking the virtual tour https://dqtl7hbb9l3l0.cloudfront.net/4882011/product.html#10/1066;40 [cloudfront.net] (works in firefox, but maybe not in chrome).
IBM has been selling Linux racks for a long time. Whats new here is the horsepower (they've abandoned x86) and the packaging/integration and versatility. True: I hate to think about the cost, but, hey, its IBM: goes with the territory.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.