SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the bringing-the-mainframe-into-the-21st-century dept.
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: 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.