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[CM] Mainframe tech is here to stay: just add innovation

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  [CM] Mainframe tech is here to stay: just add innovation RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-06-24 16:51 +0000
    Re: [CM] Mainframe tech is here to stay: just add innovation Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2014-06-24 13:37 -0400
    Re: [CM] Mainframe tech is here to stay: just add innovation Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-06-24 21:24 +0000

#3817 — [CM] Mainframe tech is here to stay: just add innovation

From the «it's the SecondaryFrame that's outta here» department:
Title: Mainframe technology is here to stay. Just add innovation.
Author: zafiro17@pipedot.org
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 08:23:58 -0400
Link: http://pipedot.org/story/2014-06-24/mainframe-technology-is-here-to-stay-just-add-innovation

Where mainframe computers are concerned, the Technology Spectator says it
better than I could[1]:

In a world where IT continues to power forward, the longevity of the
mainframe and its place in today’s computing environment is increasingly
being questioned. With ‘change’ often confused with ‘progress’, a
mainframe’s durability can work against it. As demand grows for more agile
and innovative systems, it is difficult to reconcile a technology in its
sixth decade with the technology we carry around in our pockets or use at
home. But while dissenters continue to challenge the validity of the
mainframe, the technology keeps on proving its worth.

Few consumers know or understand that "ancient" mainframe technology is
working behind the scenes in the banking, travel, and insurance sectors, and
that's unlikely to change. What is changing though is the insertion of
start-up mentality and innovation into the mainframe ecosystem, like Splunk,
a search specialist, teaming up with Syncsort[2] to unlock some of the data
being produced by mainframe systems. What does not change though, is the fact
that mainframe systesm require specialized skillsets, and those experts are
getting hard to find[3]. Not a good thing in an environment of
ever-more-stringent compliance and regulatatory requirements.

Links:
[1]: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/6/9/technology/ibm-mainframe-golden-oldie-or-modern-marvel (link)
[2]: http://www.zdnet.com/splunk-teams-with-syncsort-for-mainframe-machine-data-7000030822/ (link)
[3]: http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2014/Jun/12/banking-system-compliance-and-complexity-set-to-test-mainframe-mettle.html (link)

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#3821

there are a couple of such discussions in linkedin mainframe oriented
groups (both ibm employees and customers).

1qtr2014 IBM financials has the equivalent of 17-18 max-configured ec12
(latest ibm mainframe) being sold (56 on annualized basis) @33M which is
rated at 75BIPS ...  or about $440K/BIPS ... is built out of 32nm
technology, six processors in 597mm chip.

a typical cloud megadatacenter has more processing power than the
aggregate of all mainframes in the world today ... a typical component
is e5-2600v1 blade which they build for possibly $1/BIPS. currently
selling are e5-2600v2 and coming on line this year are e5-2600v3 blades
using 14nm technology ... intel has spent $5B on 14nm technology fab and
will feature move from 300mm wafers to 450mm wafers

if the ec12 chip was simply remapped from 32nm to 14nm 450mm wafer ... a
total full years sale of ec12 then is single wafer.

ibm mainframe CKD DASD haven't been manufactured for decades ... being
simulated on industry standard fixed-block disk ... because their
mainstream mainframe operating system doesn't have support for
fixed-block disks.

ibm mainframe i/o "channels" are called "FICON", a heavyweight protocol
layer that runs on industry standard fibre-channel (and drastically
reduces native throughput). A mainframe max I/O benchmark published for
z196 (precursor to ec12) used 104 FICON to get 2M IOPS ... about the
same time a single fibre-channel was announced for e5-2600 claiming over
1M IOPS (two such "native" fibre-channel having higher throughput than
104 FICON).

again for z196 (i don't think they have published for ec12 yet), peak
i/o SSCH operations is 2.2M/sec with all i/o system assist processors
running at 100% busy ... however, they recommend not running the
mainframe SAPs more than 75% busy or 1.5M SSCH/sec.

the published numbers for ec12 claim only 30% increase in I/O over z196
(possibly because of combination of FICON and SAP limitations). max
configured z196 was 80 processors for 50BIPS (625MIPS/processor) while
ec12 is 101 processors for 75BIPS (743MIPS/processor)

posts mentioning FICON
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ficon

recent posts mentioning ec12 &/or z196
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#49 Beyond the EC12
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#50 Beyond the EC12
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#51 Beyond the EC12
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#53 IBM hopes new chip can turn the tables on Intel
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#65 non-IBM: SONY new tape storage - 185 Terabytes on a tape
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#67 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#69 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#72 Mainframe (in general) running at 100% not always a bad thing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#73 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#75 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#78 Over in the Mainframe Experts Network LinkedIn group
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#80 IBM Sales Fall Again, Pressuring Rometty's Profit Goal
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#86 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#92 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#2 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#4 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#12 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#14 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#20 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#49 Is end of mainframe near ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#105 Fifty Years of nitpicking definitions, was BASIC,theProgrammingLanguageT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#2 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#4 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#5 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#7 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#8 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#9 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#11 Demonstrating Moore's law
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#41 The Tragedy of Rapid Evolution?

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

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#3836

On 2014-06-24, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:

> What does not change though, is the fact
> that mainframe systesm require specialized skillsets, and those experts are
> getting hard to find[3]. 

At my Place of Work, they're all retiring.  We've just had to get back
our retired Assembler programmer, the last one in the place, to do some
changes.

(I told him to think of a number, change up to the next unit
of measure and then treble it.)

-- 
Today is Setting Orange, the 29th day of Confusion in the YOLD 3180
"I do not believe in revealed religion — I will have nothing to do with your
immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without speculating on
another." Lord Byron, 1778-1824, letter to Rev. Francis Hodgson, 1811

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