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92-407: From its first machine in 1975, Amdahl's business was to provide mainframe computers that were plug-compatible with contemporary IBM mainframes, but offering higher reliability, running somewhat faster, and costing somewhat less. They often had additional practical advantages as well, in terms of size, power requirements, of being air-cooled instead of requiring a chilled water supply. This offered

184-469: A chip package with a heat-dissipating cooling attachment consisting of a cylindrical arrangement of fins, similar to the heat-dissipating fins on a motorcycle engine, mounted directly on the top of the chip. This patented technology allowed the Amdahl mainframes of this era to be completely air-cooled, unlike IBM systems that required chilled water and its supporting infrastructure. Originally designed for

276-558: A mainframe or big iron , is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses , industry and consumer statistics , enterprise resource planning , and large-scale transaction processing . A mainframe computer is large but not as large as a supercomputer and has more processing power than some other classes of computers, such as minicomputers , servers , workstations , and personal computers . Most large-scale computer-system architectures were established in

368-540: A price/performance ratio superior to the IBM lineup, and made Amdahl one of the few real competitors to "Big Blue" in the very high-margin computer market segment. The company won about 8% of the mainframe business worldwide, but was a market leader in some regions, most notably in the Carolinas . Proverbially, savvy IBM customers liked to have Amdahl coffee mugs visible in their offices when IBM salespeople came to visit. As

460-503: A 64-bit system. The 31-bit Linux distributions will survive as long as the open source community and distributors have an interest. So while there is still some potential life for Amdahl's hardware, the transition to 64-bit systems is essentially complete. Some companies and governments still had Amdahl systems performing useful work into mid-2006, and Fujitsu/Amdahl promised support to those customers with replacement parts and other services through March 31, 2009. Arguably IBM did not have

552-494: A five-by-five arrangement of components on a card, during development this evolved into a six-by-seven array on multi-layer cards (up to 14 layers), which were then mounted in vertical columns in the computer chassis. The cards had eight connectors attached to micro-coaxial cables that interconnected the system components. A conventional backplane was not used in the central processing units. The card columns held at least three cards per side (two per column in rare exceptions, such as

644-452: A fraction of the acquisition price and offer local users much greater control over their own systems given the IT policies and practices at that time. Terminals used for interacting with mainframe systems were gradually replaced by personal computers . Consequently, demand plummeted and new mainframe installations were restricted mainly to financial services and government. In the early 1990s, there

736-546: A level of sophistication not usually available with most server solutions. Modern mainframes, notably the IBM Z servers, offer two levels of virtualization : logical partitions ( LPARs , via the PR/SM facility) and virtual machines (via the z/VM operating system). Many mainframe customers run two machines: one in their primary data center and one in their backup data center —fully active, partially active, or on standby—in case there

828-571: A meeting with their high-ranking engineers. After three days of intensive meetings, their lead engineer had enough and said they were going to invest $ 5 million. This news prompted a surprise investment of the same amount from Nixdorf . Worried this would dilute their influence, Fujitsu then invested another 5 million. The company was officially launched in 1971. During this period, IBM announced their new System/370 series. These were, initially at least, System/360's with new electronics that allowed them to run faster and be less expensive in comparison to

920-442: A memo stating that their older software was going to be released into the public domain and that new software would be sold as separate line items, not part of the purchase of a system. This seemingly small change alerted Amdahl to the possibility of IBM-compatible machines; if the software was sold separately, then IBM could not refuse to sell it to other computers or they would violate anti-trust rules. In May 1969, Amdahl outlined

1012-437: A merger with a well-known vendor in the enterprise storage space. Most Amdahl mainframe customers would purchase storage devices (hard disk and tape drives) from IBM or its plug-compatible competitors. Amdahl first attempted a merger with one of the largest of these vendors, Memorex, in 1979. After this deal fell through, Amdahl went much further on a deal to merge with Colorado-based Storage Technology Corporation (STC). The deal

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1104-418: A much looser arrangement of five by five components on a standardized card. Although a machine using these cards would not be able to run as fast as ACS, they would be much easier to design and cheaper to build. A key concept in the system was the automated layout of the circuit board interconnections using software running on IBM 1130 computers. Looking for partners to produce the circuits, they found Motorola

1196-434: A reference to the anticipated Year 2000 problem (Y2K). That trend started to turn around in the late 1990s as corporations found new uses for their existing mainframes and as the price of data networking collapsed in most parts of the world, encouraging trends toward more centralized computing. The growth of e-business also dramatically increased the number of back-end transactions processed by mainframe software as well as

1288-507: A series of three machines developed from the ACS concept. This followed IBM's pricing model of offering a series of designs that were separated by about three times in performance and two times in cost, offering customers a reason to upgrade to a larger system. To make the top-end system affordable, it would have to be priced in a way that would push the prices of the smaller systems below what their current machines sold for. Management decided against

1380-407: A single mainframe can replace higher-functioning hardware services available to conventional servers . While mainframes pioneered this capability, virtualization is now available on most families of computer systems, though not always to the same degree or level of sophistication. Mainframes can add or hot swap system capacity without disrupting system function, with specificity and granularity to

1472-440: A stand-alone computer system somewhat impractical. It implemented a small subset of 25 instructions of the full Spectra 70 architecture, and was not downward compatible with the rest of the range. Also, the limited memory size available "obviates the need for a base address in that the displacement has the necessary addressing range by the addition of a high-order bit to permit addressing of up to 8,192 bytes." In this respect it

1564-451: A subsystem in a multi-processor complex. High throughput was facilitated by the use of fast memory and multiple simultaneous input/output streams. Equipped with selector channels and a multiplexer channel, the 70/25 could concurrently operate eight low-speed devices in addition to eight high-speed devices. Like the Model 15, it implemented a (slightly larger) subset of 31 instructions of

1656-553: A suitable replacement model for many Amdahl customers until the May 2004 introduction of the zSeries 890. The previous zSeries 800 also became an attractive replacement for Amdahl machines by late 2005 as that model's typical used price fell below $ 100,000 and continued to fall. The System z9 BC model, introduced in May 2006, increased IBM's attractiveness yet again, and the BC drove z800 and z890 prices down even more. The late 2008 introduction of

1748-421: A system with 8 KB of memory. The remainder could run in 4 KB. Programs could be run from punched cards or magnetic tape. The Spectra 70/15 weighed 600 pounds (270 kg). The RCA Model 70/25 (1965) was a discrete small-to-medium scale computer system that supported a wider variety of applications, including use as a free-standing system. In large installations, the 70/25 might also be used as

1840-518: A variable-speed feature - the '470 accelerator' - on the /5 and /7 systems that allowed the customer to run the CPUs at the higher level of performance of the /6 and /8 systems, respectively, when desired. The customer was charged by the number of hours used. Some at Amdahl thought this feature would anger customers, but it became quite popular as customer management could now control expenses while still having greater performance available when necessary. In

1932-530: A variety of specialized interface equipment. The system architecture and instruction set were largely compatible with the non-privileged instruction set of the IBM System/360 , including use of the EBCDIC character set. While this degree of compatibility made some interchange of programs and data possible, differences in the operating system software precluded transparent movement of programs between

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2024-403: A wide range of tasks at almost twice the speed of other general-purpose computers in its price range. Unlike the Model 70/45 and 70/55 it did not offer the option of a floating-point processor. The maximum memory was limited to 32,768 bytes from two 16,384-byte core memories. It was offered with both synchronous and asynchronous controllers that allowed it to communicate with other computers. It

2116-686: Is a catastrophe affecting the first building. Test, development, training, and production workload for applications and databases can run on a single machine, except for extremely large demands where the capacity of one machine might be limiting. Such a two-mainframe installation can support continuous business service, avoiding both planned and unplanned outages. In practice, many customers use multiple mainframes linked either by Parallel Sysplex and shared DASD (in IBM's case), or with shared, geographically dispersed storage provided by EMC or Hitachi. Mainframes are designed to handle very high volume input and output (I/O) and emphasize throughput computing. Since

2208-585: Is a mainframe instruction set emulator that supports ESA/390 and, in some cases, z/Architecture operating systems and software. The vestiges of Amdahl's ESA/390 emulation project were resurrected under a new name: Platform Solutions Inc. Using capital from Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and other major investors they designed a line of Itanium -based computers and software to emulate z/Architecture machines so that they could run zSeries operating systems, with zSeries channels for attaching real IBM equipment as well as virtual simulators for most hardware to minimize

2300-450: Is also spurring major mainframe investments to solve exceptionally difficult computing problems, e.g. providing unified, extremely high volume online transaction processing databases for 1 billion consumers across multiple industries (banking, insurance, credit reporting, government services, etc.) In late 2000, IBM introduced 64-bit z/Architecture , acquired numerous software companies such as Cognos and introduced those software products to

2392-634: Is being refreshed. In the late 1950s, mainframes had only a rudimentary interactive interface (the console) and used sets of punched cards , paper tape , or magnetic tape to transfer data and programs. They operated in batch mode to support back office functions such as payroll and customer billing, most of which were based on repeated tape-based sorting and merging operations followed by line printing to preprinted continuous stationery . When interactive user terminals were introduced, they were used almost exclusively for applications (e.g. airline booking ) rather than program development. However, in 1961

2484-760: Is dependent on its ability to scale, support mixed workloads, reduce labor costs, deliver uninterrupted service for critical business applications, and several other risk-adjusted cost factors. Mainframes also have execution integrity characteristics for fault tolerant computing. For example, z900, z990, System z9, and System z10 servers effectively execute result-oriented instructions twice, compare results, arbitrate between any differences (through instruction retry and failure isolation), then shift workloads "in flight" to functioning processors, including spares, without any impact to operating systems, applications, or users. This hardware-level feature, also found in HP's NonStop systems,

2576-421: Is known as lock-stepping, because both processors take their "steps" (i.e. instructions) together. Not all applications absolutely need the assured integrity that these systems provide, but many do, such as financial transaction processing. IBM , with the IBM Z series, continues to be a major manufacturer in the mainframe market. In 2000, Hitachi co-developed the zSeries z900 with IBM to share expenses, and

2668-555: Is most similar to classic IBM MVS/ESA , and XSP is most similar to classic IBM VSE/ESA . Fujitsu GS21 mainframe hardware would most closely correspond to the late 1990s IBM G5 or G6 mainframes in terms of their instruction set support. Fujitsu has stated the company has no intention to license or implement z/Architecture (64-bit). Fujitsu will discontinue their GS21 mainframe with end-of-sale in 2030, and end-of-support in 2035 "to promote customer modernization". Mainframe computer A mainframe computer , informally called

2760-482: Is the last release of IBM's flagship operating system still able to run on 31-bit mainframes, including Amdahl and older IBM systems. IBM effectively ended support for z/OS 1.5 on March 29, 2007. In May 2006, IBM announced that the next version of z/VSE , Version 4, would require a 64-bit system, signaling the end to 31-bit support for that operating system. z/TPF , which became available in December 2005, also requires

2852-455: Is up to 2 MB. With 2 KB pages these numbers are halved. The RCA Model 70/55 (1966) was a medium-to-large scale processor with excellent processor characteristics well suited to both scientific and large-scale commercial processing. The 70/55 maintained a high-throughput capability by offering up to 14 simultaneous job streams. Like the 70/45, the Model 70/55 made extensive use of monolithic integrated circuits. Memory capacity for

Amdahl Corporation - Misplaced Pages Continue

2944-600: The Enterprise System/9000 family, which were based on bipolar technology, giving Amdahl a temporary advantage. However, IBM's CMOS strategy paid off in the long run, allowing IBM's Poughkeepsie factory to produce even faster mainframes at a lower cost as the technology matured. By the time IBM introduced its 64-bit zSeries 900 in 2000, Amdahl's hardware business could no longer compete with IBM with its Millennium and OmniFlex servers that only had 31-bit -addressing. In late 2000, Fujitsu/Amdahl announced that

3036-738: The IBM System z10 BC yet again made IBM's equipment more enticing. In fact, Fujitsu/Amdahl now sells used IBM mainframes and offers services to migrate customers to the IBM machines (This migration is straightforward and comparable to upgrading from one IBM model to a newer IBM model). The IBM z13 is the last z Systems server to support running an operating system in ESA/390 architecture mode; z14, and future machines will support only 64-bit operating systems. Other, generally less attractive options include running without support, rewriting applications, or possibly running applications under FLEX-ES. FLEX-ES

3128-497: The Telum . Unisys produces code compatible mainframe systems that range from laptops to cabinet-sized mainframes that use homegrown CPUs as well as Xeon processors. Furthermore, there exists a market for software applications to manage the performance of mainframe implementations. In addition to IBM, significant market competitors include BMC and Precisely ; former competitors include Compuware and CA Technologies . Starting in

3220-410: The U.S. Department of Justice , which ensured that Amdahl's customers could license IBM's mainframe software under reasonable terms. The machines could also use any 360 or 360 peripheral, and while IBM initially refused to maintain these machines when connected to Amdahl systems, they were eventually forced to when Amdahl began making a profit maintaining IBM hardware. In February 1977, Amdahl announced

3312-651: The University of Michigan . Texas A&M received theirs in October and Computer Usage Corporation in November. By August 1977, 55 systems had been installed and the production line had to be expanded from four to six machines a month. For the next quarter-century, Amdahl and IBM competed aggressively against one another in the high-end mainframe market. At its peak, Amdahl had a 24% market share. Amdahl owed some of its success to antitrust settlements between IBM and

3404-408: The venture capital industry's feeling that attempting to compete with IBM was doomed; RCA had spent billions developing and marketing their Spectra 70 series and had yet to come close to a profit, while Xerox had attempted a different attack by buying Scientific Data Systems and was suffering as a result. The effort was saved by Amdahl's relationship with Fujitsu , which allowed him to arrange

3496-684: The 1960s, but they continue to evolve. Mainframe computers are often used as servers. The term mainframe was derived from the large cabinet, called a main frame , that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers. Later, the term mainframe was used to distinguish high-end commercial computers from less powerful machines. Modern mainframe design is characterized less by raw computational speed and more by: The high stability and reliability of mainframes enable these machines to run uninterrupted for very long periods of time, with mean time between failures (MTBF) measured in decades. Mainframes have high availability , one of

3588-528: The 1980s, Amdahl entered the IBM-compatible peripherals business in front-end processors and storage products, shipping its first 4705 communications controller in August 1980 and its first 6000 DASD in August 1982. These products were very successful for a number of years with the support of Jack Lewis, the former CEO of Amdahl. The reliance upon a limited product line, restricted to containment within

3680-504: The 1980s, many mainframes supported general purpose graphic display terminals, and terminal emulation, but not graphical user interfaces. This form of end-user computing became obsolete in the 1990s due to the advent of personal computers provided with GUIs . After 2000, modern mainframes partially or entirely phased out classic " green screen " and color display terminal access for end-users in favour of Web-style user interfaces. The infrastructure requirements were drastically reduced during

3772-601: The 2010s, cloud computing is now a less expensive, more scalable alternative. Several manufacturers and their successors produced mainframe computers from the 1950s until the early 21st century, with gradually decreasing numbers and a gradual transition to simulation on Intel chips rather than proprietary hardware. The US group of manufacturers was first known as " IBM and the Seven Dwarfs ": usually Burroughs , UNIVAC , NCR , Control Data , Honeywell , General Electric and RCA , although some lists varied. Later, with

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3864-592: The 360's they replaced. Amdahl's new target was to offer a lower-cost version of the high-end member of the 370 family. Amdahl felt that this would trap IBM in their own pricing structure; if they lowered the cost of their high-end machine, they would be forced to lower the cost of their lower-end offerings where they made much of their profit. The new machines were given the name 470/6 . Amdahl engineers, working with Fujitsu circuit designers, developed unique, air-cooled chips which were based on high-speed emitter-coupled logic (ECL) circuit macros. These chips were packaged in

3956-471: The 470V/6-II, which offered 5 to 15 percent greater performance but at a slightly higher cost. The next month they announced the 470V/5, a smaller system based on the same circuitry that offered about 60 to 70 percent of the performance of the 6-II. Customers could upgrade from the /5 to the /6-II at any time for $ 780,000. Deliveries began in September 1977. At the same March announcement, they also introduced

4048-503: The 470V/7 as competition to the recently announced IBM 3033 system, a re-implementation of the 370 series using newer circuitry and incorporating some ideas from the ACS project. The first /7's shipped in August 1978. The 470V/8, first shipped in 1980, incorporated high-speed 64 KB cache memories to improve performance, and the first real hardware-based virtualization (known as the "Multiple Domain Facility"). Amdahl also pioneered

4140-926: The 64-bit IBM Z CMOS servers have nothing physically in common with the older systems. Notable manufacturers outside the US were Siemens and Telefunken in Germany , ICL in the United Kingdom , Olivetti in Italy, and Fujitsu , Hitachi , Oki , and NEC in Japan . The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries manufactured close copies of IBM mainframes during the Cold War ; the BESM series and Strela are examples of independently designed Soviet computers. Elwro in Poland

4232-401: The 7,400 remaining) later in that year, as well as canceling hardware development projects in favor of reselling computers from Sun Microsystems . Amdahl perhaps enjoyed its best success during IBM's transition from bipolar to CMOS technology in the early to mid-1990s. The first generations of IBM's CMOS mainframe processors, the IBM 9672 G3 and G4, could not perform as well as those from

4324-507: The 70/15 and 70/25. These systems all ran RCA's real-memory operating systems, DOS and TDOS. The 70/45 could also run a time-sharing operating system, The RCA 70/45 Basic Time Sharing System (BTSS) , supporting up to 16 users. The systems that supported virtual memory , the Spectra 70/46 and 70/61 and the later RCA 3 and 7, could also run the RCA's Virtual Memory Operating System (VMOS). VMOS

4416-413: The 70/55 ranged from 65,536 bytes (64 KB) of core memory to 524,288 bytes (512 KB). The memory cycle time was 0.84 microseconds to access four bytes of information. This model weighed 3,000–5,100 pounds (1.5–2.6 short tons; 1.4–2.3 t). The RCA Model 70/60 was a later addition to the Spectra 70 series, having been announced in 1969. The RCA Model 70/61 was the virtual memory model of

4508-525: The 70/60, and it was referred to as the Octoputer II in some advertisements. The 70/60 and 70/61 were the first RCA central computers to be capable of supporting 1 MB of core memory which was housed in four standard racks that formed a "T" with the rest of the computer. Each memory cabinet housed 256 KB of core memory with memory stacks and control logic and power supply in the bottom. These machines later became RCA 6 and RCA 7 respectively when

4600-547: The Japanese market. The amount of vendor investment in mainframe development varies with market share. Fujitsu and Hitachi both continue to use custom S/390-compatible processors, as well as other CPUs (including POWER and Xeon) for lower-end systems. Bull uses a mixture of Itanium and Xeon processors. NEC uses Xeon processors for its low-end ACOS-2 line, but develops the custom NOAH-6 processor for its high-end ACOS-4 series. IBM also develops custom processors in-house, such as

4692-529: The back-office engines behind the world's financial markets and much of global commerce". As of 2010 , while mainframe technology represented less than 3% of IBM's revenues, it "continue[d] to play an outsized role in Big Blue's results". IBM has continued to launch new generations of mainframes: the IBM z13 in 2015, the z14 in 2017, the z15 in 2019, and the z16 in 2022, the latter featuring among other things an "integrated on-chip AI accelerator" and

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4784-409: The company had no plans to invest the estimated US$ 1 billion (or more) to create an IBM-compatible 64-bit system. Amdahl also failed in its effort to introduce its ObjectStar software (initially known as Huron) during this period and the product later became the object of a successful management buyout. ObjectStar was subsequently acquired by the integration software vendor TIBCO in 2005. z/OS 1.5

4876-503: The complex business of mainframes and their highly valuable peripherals, constrained the company's hardware business when market forces shifted to x86-based processors. This had been foreseen, leading to an increasing emphasis on software and consulting services. By the early 1990s, Amdahl was suffering losses of several hundred million dollars per quarter as a result of declining mainframe sales. Management decided to lay off 900 employees in 1992, 1,100 in early 1993, and another 1,800 (out of

4968-596: The departure of General Electric and RCA, it was referred to as IBM and the BUNCH . IBM's dominance grew out of their 700/7000 series and, later, the development of the 360 series mainframes. The latter architecture has continued to evolve into their current zSeries mainframes which, along with the then Burroughs and Sperry (now Unisys ) MCP -based and OS1100 mainframes, are among the few mainframe architectures still extant that can trace their roots to this early period. While IBM's zSeries can still run 24-bit System/360 code,

5060-582: The different technologies and architectures for supercomputers and mainframes has led to a so-called gameframe . RCA Spectra 70 The RCA Spectra 70 is a line of electronic data processing (EDP) equipment that was manufactured by the Radio Corporation of America ’s computer division beginning in April 1965. The Spectra 70 line included several CPU models, various configurations of core memory, mass-storage devices, terminal equipment, and

5152-570: The early 1990s, many supercomputers were based on a mainframe architecture with supercomputing extensions. An example of such a system is the HITAC S-3800 , which was instruction-set compatible with IBM System/370 mainframes, and could run the Hitachi VOS3 operating system (a fork of IBM MVS ). The S-3800 therefore can be seen as being both simultaneously a supercomputer and also an IBM-compatible mainframe. In 2007, an amalgamation of

5244-748: The first academic, general-purpose timesharing system that supported software development, CTSS , was released at MIT on an IBM 709 , later 7090 and 7094. Typewriter and Teletype devices were common control consoles for system operators through the early 1970s, although ultimately supplanted by keyboard / display devices. By the early 1970s, many mainframes acquired interactive user terminals operating as timesharing computers, supporting hundreds of users simultaneously along with batch processing. Users gained access through keyboard/typewriter terminals and later character-mode text terminal CRT displays with integral keyboards, or finally from personal computers equipped with terminal emulation software. By

5336-572: The first time. IBM received the vast majority of mainframe revenue. During the 1980s, minicomputer -based systems grew more sophisticated and were able to displace the lower end of the mainframes. These computers, sometimes called departmental computers , were typified by the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX series. In 1991, AT&T Corporation briefly owned NCR. During the same period, companies found that servers based on microcomputer designs could be deployed at

5428-568: The full range architecture. Memory capacities for the 70/25 ranged from a minimum of 16,384 bytes to a maximum of 65,536 bytes. The memory cycle time was 1.5 microseconds to access one 8-bit byte. This model weighed 1,200 pounds (540 kg). The RCA Model 70/35 was the fifth in the series of Spectra computers that was announced in September 1965 (first delivery in 1966). It was a medium-scale computer combining third-generation technology (including integrated circuits) and speed in an efficient low-cost data system. The Spectra 70/35 handled

5520-471: The large-scale multiprocessor market in the mid-1980s with the 5860, 5870 (attached processor) and 5880 (full multiprocessor) models. In the 580 systems, the chips were mounted in an 11-by-11 array on multi-layer boards called Multi-Chip Carriers (MCCs) that were positioned in high-airflow for cooling. The MCCs were mounted horizontally in a large rectangular frame. The MCCs slid into a complex physical connection system. The processor "side panels" interconnected

5612-758: The late 1950s, mainframe designs have included subsidiary hardware (called channels or peripheral processors ) which manage the I/O devices, leaving the CPU free to deal only with high-speed memory. It is common in mainframe shops to deal with massive databases and files. Gigabyte to terabyte -size record files are not unusual. Compared to a typical PC, mainframes commonly have hundreds to thousands of times as much data storage online, and can access it reasonably quickly. Other server families also offload I/O processing and emphasize throughput computing. Mainframe return on investment (ROI), like any other computing platform,

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5704-480: The late 1970s, Amdahl began an effort to develop a next-generation systems architecture under the 580 project. Both the Amdahl engineering teams and Fujitsu strongly suggested developing a multi-processor architecture. Gene Amdahl was against this and wanted to develop a faster single processor. Things came to a head in 1979, and Amdahl left the company in August to start Trilogy Systems . With Gene Amdahl's departure, and increasing influence from Fujitsu , Amdahl entered

5796-730: The latest Hitachi AP10000 models are made by IBM. Unisys manufactures ClearPath Libra mainframes, based on earlier Burroughs MCP products and ClearPath Dorado mainframes based on Sperry Univac OS 1100 product lines. Hewlett Packard Enterprise sells its unique NonStop systems, which it acquired with Tandem Computers and which some analysts classify as mainframes. Groupe Bull 's GCOS , Stratus OpenVOS , Fujitsu (formerly Siemens) BS2000 , and Fujitsu- ICL VME mainframes are still available in Europe, and Fujitsu (formerly Amdahl) GS21 mainframes globally. NEC with ACOS and Hitachi with AP10000- VOS3 still maintain mainframe businesses in

5888-438: The lower half of a page frame in memory. The system allows a maximum of 512 pages. Virtual memory is divided into segments of 64 pages indicated by bits 1-5 of a virtual address. Although the instruction set architecture defines up to 32 segments, only eight are used in the 70/46. Incrementation of addresses wraps around on a segment boundary. With 4 KB pages, segments are 256 KB in length, and total virtual memory size

5980-555: The mainframe market began to change in the later 1980s, Amdahl was increasingly diversified, becoming a major supplier of UNIX and open systems software and servers , data storage subsystems, data communications products, application development software , and a variety of educational and consulting services. From 1965, Gene Amdahl had been working at IBM on the IBM Advanced Computer Systems project (ACS), which intended to introduce what would be

6072-477: The mainframe. IBM's quarterly and annual reports in the 2000s usually reported increasing mainframe revenues and capacity shipments. However, IBM's mainframe hardware business has not been immune to the recent overall downturn in the server hardware market or to model cycle effects. For example, in the 4th quarter of 2009, IBM's System z hardware revenues decreased by 27% year over year. But MIPS (millions of instructions per second) shipments increased 4% per year over

6164-472: The mid-1990s, when CMOS mainframe designs replaced the older bipolar technology. IBM claimed that its newer mainframes reduced data center energy costs for power and cooling, and reduced physical space requirements compared to server farms . Modern mainframes can run multiple different instances of operating systems at the same time. This technique of virtual machines allows applications to run as if they were on physically distinct computers. In this role,

6256-433: The most secure, with vulnerabilities in the low single digits, as compared to thousands for Windows , UNIX , and Linux . Software upgrades usually require setting up the operating system or portions thereof, and are non disruptive only when using virtualizing facilities such as IBM z/OS and Parallel Sysplex , or Unisys XPCL, which support workload sharing so that one system can take over another's application while it

6348-521: The need for IBM's peripheral equipment. Its LPARs hosted not only IBM operating systems but 64-bit Intel Itanium Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, and potentially other operating systems. Platform Solutions started shipping its machines in the first quarter of 2007. This action precipitated a lawsuit from IBM, citing patent infringement and PSI's failure to negotiate a z/Architecture license, and IBM refused to license its operating systems and software on PSI's machines. Platform Solutions countered that by " tying "

6440-431: The new Telum microprocessor . A supercomputer is a computer at the leading edge of data processing capability, with respect to calculation speed. Supercomputers are used for scientific and engineering problems ( high-performance computing ) which crunch numbers and data, while mainframes focus on transaction processing. The differences are: Mainframes and supercomputers cannot always be clearly distinguished; up until

6532-433: The past two years. Alsop had himself photographed in 2000, symbolically eating his own words ("death to the mainframe"). In 2012, NASA powered down its last mainframe, an IBM System z9. However, IBM's successor to the z9, the z10 , led a New York Times reporter to state four years earlier that "mainframe technology—hardware, software and services—remains a large and lucrative business for I.B.M., and mainframes are still

6624-464: The plans, and as this essentially ended the ACS effort, Amdahl suggested they shut down the lab. They did so, and Amdahl left the company shortly thereafter in early 1970, telling them of his plans to introduce compatible machines. Meeting with several other former ACS engineers, a new concept emerged. Instead of attempting to make the fastest computer using the most tightly packed circuit boards possible with current technology, they would instead design

6716-632: The primary reasons for their longevity, since they are typically used in applications where downtime would be costly or catastrophic. The term reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) is a defining characteristic of mainframe computers. Proper planning and implementation are required to realize these features. In addition, mainframes are more secure than other computer types: the NIST vulnerabilities database, US-CERT , rates traditional mainframes such as IBM Z (previously called z Systems, System z, and zSeries), Unisys Dorado, and Unisys Libra as among

6808-448: The processor's "C-Unit"). Each column had two large "Tarzan" fans (a "pusher" and a "puller") to move the considerable amount of air needed to cool the chips. Each system included a Data General Nova 1200 programmed to support the CRT console and to accept the same channel command operations as the IBM 3066 on the 370/165 and 370/168 . At the time, the 370 lacked virtual memory , which

6900-593: The real-memory batch-oriented OS/70 operating system, while the RCA 3 and 7 ran VMOS. Some English Electric System 4 mainframes were rebadged Spectra 70 machines; others were English Electric -designed clones of the RCA Spectra 70 clones of the IBM System/360 range. The RCA Model 70/15 (1965) was a discrete small-scale processor that could still support a variety of applications . Memory limitations and relatively low processing speed made its use as

6992-605: The sale of its software to the sale of its hardware, IBM was in violation of its prior anti-trust agreement with the U.S. Justice Dept. In July 2008, IBM acquired PSI, and both companies dropped their lawsuits against each other. PSI's machines are no longer available. Fujitsu continues to sell its "GlobalServer" (GS21) mainframe models in the Japanese domestic market. The GS21 machines are essentially ESA/390 (31-bit) instruction set processors largely based on Amdahl-designed technologies but are only compatible with Fujitsu's domestic market operating systems: OSIV/MSP-EX and OSIV/XSP. MSP

7084-462: The same price. It also occupied one-third as much floor space, and as it lacked the water cooling system, it was much easier to install and maintain. The first 470V/6 machine, serial number 00001, was delivered to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in June 1975. It was installed and commissioned in five days, compared to the two or three weeks required for similar IBM machines. The second was delivered to

7176-617: The size and throughput of databases. Batch processing, such as billing, became even more important (and larger) with the growth of e-business, and mainframes are particularly adept at large-scale batch computing. Another factor currently increasing mainframe use is the development of the Linux operating system, which arrived on IBM mainframe systems in 1999. Linux allows users to take advantage of open source software combined with mainframe hardware RAS . Rapid expansion and development in emerging markets , particularly People's Republic of China ,

7268-450: The system, providing clock propagation delays that maintained race-free synchronous operation at relatively high clock frequencies (15–18  ns base clock cycles). This processor box was cooled by high-speed fans generating horizontal airflow across the MCCs. Along the way, Amdahl came to believe that its best bet at competing with IBM head-to-head was to "bulk up", in particular, executing

7360-582: The two systems. Competition in the mainframe market was fierce, and in 1971 the company sold the computer division and the Spectra 70 line to Sperry Rand , taking a huge write down in the process. Five models of the Spectra 70 CPU were announced around 1965, ranging from a small system (70/15) to the large-scale (70/55). Some of the main features were: The full instruction set comprised 144 instructions, including optional floating-point . All machines supported decimal and binary fixed-point arithmetic . Floating-point instructions were not available on

7452-485: The world's fastest computer. During a shake-up of the project in early 1968, Amdahl suggested the company to abandon the ACS-1 concept and instead use the techniques and circuit designs to build a System/360 compatible design. In a "shoot out" between the two concepts that spring, Amdahl's concept won. Many of the managers of the ACS left, and Amdahl was placed in charge of developing the new concept. That July, IBM sent out

7544-683: Was 1.44 microseconds to access two bytes (one half word) of information. This model weighed 1,900–2,700 pounds (860–1,220 kg). The RCA Model 70/46 (1967) is a modified version of the 70/45 with an added capability for virtual memory . Advertisements for this computer as a timesharing machine referred to it as the Octoputer . Programs can run in either 70/45 mode—without virtual memory—or in 70/46 mode with virtual memory enabled. Virtual addresses are 24 bits in length. Pages can be specified to be either 2048 or 4096 bytes in length, depending on program requirements, however 2048-byte pages occupy

7636-403: Was a medium-scale processor of relatively good performance for its time. A floating-point processor was available as an option and the 70/45 was considered suitable for commercial, scientific, communications, and real-time applications. With a communications multiplexer, the 70/45 could accommodate up to 256 communication lines for interactive use as well as batch processing . Thus, the 70/45

7728-410: Was a rough consensus among industry analysts that the mainframe was a dying market as mainframe platforms were increasingly replaced by personal computer networks. InfoWorld ' s Stewart Alsop infamously predicted that the last mainframe would be unplugged in 1996; in 1993, he cited Cheryl Currid, a computer industry analyst as saying that the last mainframe "will stop working on December 31, 1999",

7820-573: Was another Eastern Bloc manufacturer, producing the ODRA , R-32 and R-34 mainframes. Shrinking demand and tough competition started a shakeout in the market in the early 1970s—RCA sold out to UNIVAC and GE sold its business to Honeywell; between 1986 and 1990 Honeywell was bought out by Bull ; UNIVAC became a division of Sperry , which later merged with Burroughs to form Unisys Corporation in 1986. In 1984 estimated sales of desktop computers ($ 11.6 billion) exceeded mainframe computers ($ 11.4 billion) for

7912-550: Was approved by the boards of both companies, and detailed plans were in place to implement the merger, when Fujitsu , an important partner and major shareholder of Amdahl at the time, objected to the deal which forced it to collapse. STC later tried to develop its own mainframe computer, the failure of which contributed to it filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1984. Around that same time, Amdahl agreed to allow Fujitsu to acquire just under half of Amdahl, leading to its ultimate acquisition of all of Amdahl's shares some years later. In

8004-417: Was criticized in the computer press. In 1972, IBM announced a new series of 370 systems that would include this feature, which they referred to as "dynamic address translation". Amdahl modified their design to match, becoming the 470V/6 , for "virtual". The machine began to take form in 1974 after several manufacturing issues were resolved. The machine was about twice as fast as the contemporary 370/168 at about

8096-403: Was ideal as the core of a multi-system installation. The 70/45 was one of the first computer systems to use monolithic integrated circuits in its construction. This level of integration was to become the defining characteristic of third-generation computers . Memory capacity for the 70/45 ranged from a minimum of 16,384 bytes (16 KB) to 262,144 bytes (256 KB). The memory cycle time

8188-404: Was interested in doing so as long as Amdahl would provide the routing software to them first. Amdahl concluded they would take the software and not deliver the chips. After talking to National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments with no result, they finally signed with Advanced Memory Systems . The company found it extremely difficult to arrange funding for development. Much of this was due to

8280-537: Was originally named TSOS ( Time Sharing Operating System ), but was renamed to expand the market for the system beyond time-sharing. TSOS was the first mainframe, demand paged , virtual memory operating system on the market. The Spectra series was later supplemented by the RCA Series (RCA 2, 3, 6, 7— later renamed the 70/2, 70/3, 70/6, and 70/7, which competed against the IBM System/370 . The RCA 2 and 6 ran

8372-1066: Was similar to the IBM System/360 Model 20 . Two memory configurations for the 70/15 were available: either 4,096 bytes or 8,192 bytes of core memory. The memory cycle time for a 70/15 was 2 microseconds per byte of information. The 70/15 was often used as a satellite processor for larger systems or used as an intelligent terminal for remote job entry. Typical applications of a satellite processor would include card-to-tape conversion , card/tape-to-printer report generation, tape-to- card punching , input pre-processing and verification, or tab-shop tasks like file sorting , merge , and data selection. Software for this model did not include an operating system —the RCA 70/15 Programming System consisted of an "Assembly System, Loader Routines, Input-Output Control , Test Routines, Utility Routines , Communication Control, System Maintenance Routines, Report Program Generator , and Sort/Merge." Sort/Merge required

8464-582: Was used by the Oklahoma State-Wide Computer Science System, starting in 1966, to connect remote RCA 301 computers in eight cities to host Vocational-Technical Education in computer science, which was the first state-sponsored program set up exclusively to train data processing personnel. The students were learning the fundamentals of programming and system operation with "hands-on" experience. This model weighed 1,500 pounds (680 kg). The RCA Model 70/45 (1966)

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