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Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as "big iron") are large, powerful, and expensive computers used mainly by large companies for bulk data processing (such as bank transaction
processing).
The term arose during the early 1970s with the introduction of smaller computers such
as the DEC PDP series, which became known as minicomputers, so users coined
the term "mainframe" to describe larger, earlier types.
Description
Modern mainframe computers' abilities are not so much defined by their CPU speed as by
their massive internal memory, large, high-capacity external storage, fast high-throughput I/O, high-quality internal engineering and resulting proven reliability, and expensive but high-quality
technical support. These machines can and do run successfully for years without interruption, with repairs taking place whilst
they continue to run. Mainframe vendors offer such services as off-site redundancy—if a machine does break down, the vendor
offers the option to run customers' applications on their own machines (often without users even noticing the change) whilst
repairs go on.
Often, mainframes support thousands of simultaneous users who gain access through "dumb" terminals and early mainframes either supported this timesharing mode or operated in batch mode where
users had no direct access to the computing service, it solely providing back
office functions. At this time mainframes were so called because of their very substantial size and requirements for
specialised HVAC and electrical power.
Some mainframes have the ability to run (or "host") multiple operating systems and thereby operate not as a single computer
but as a number of "virtual machines". In this role, a single
mainframe can replace dozens or hundreds of smaller PCs, reducing management and administrative costs while providing greatly
improved scalability and reliability. The reliability is improved because of the hardware redundancy noted above, and the
scalability is achieved because hardware resources can be reallocated among the "virtual machines" as needed. This is much harder
to do with PCs, because adding or removing hardware resources often requires the machine to be taken offline, and the hardware
limitations are much more restrictive. When running as the host for many "virtual machines" a mainframe can provide the raw power
for which they have always been valued, but also the flexibility provided by PC networks.
Currently, IBM mainframes are dominant in the market, with Hitachi, Amdahl, and
Fujitsu also producing machines. Prices start at several hundred thousand
dollars.
History
Several manufacturers produced mainframe computers in the 1960s and 1970s; in the
'glory days' it was "IBM and the
Seven Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, Honeywell,
NCR, RCA, and Univac. The larger of the latter companies were also often referred to as "The bunch" from
their initials (Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC, Honeywell).
Shrinking demand and tough competition however caused a huge shakeout in the market in the early 80s—RCA sold out to
Univac and GE also left; Honeywell was bought out by Bull, Univac merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac, which was later merged with Burroughs to form Unisys Corporation in 1986
(so-called "dinosaurs
mating"). In 1991, AT&T briefly owned NCR.
Companies found that servers based on lower-cost microcomputer designs could be deployed at a fraction of the cost and offer
local users much greater control of their own systems, and "dumb terminals" used for interacting with mainframe systems were
gradually replaced by personal computers. Consequently, demand
plummeted and mainframe installations were restricted mainly to financial institutions with massive data processing requirements.
For a while, there was a consensus among industry analysts that the mainframe was a dying market, as mainframe platforms were
increasingly replaced by personal computer networks.
This trend started to turn around in the late 1990s as corporations found new uses for
their mainframes, since they can offer web server performance similar to that
of hundreds of smaller machines, but with much lower power and administration costs.
Another factor currently increasing mainframe use is the development of the Linux operating system, which is capable of running on many mainframe systems, either directly or,
more commonly, in a virtual machine. This allows mainframes to take advantage of the software and development expertise and
communities from the PC market.
Comparison with supercomputers
The distinction between supercomputers and mainframes is not a hard
and fast one, but generally one can say that supercomputers focus on problems which are limited by calculation speed while
mainframes focus on problems which are limited by Input/Output and reliability. As a consequence:
- Supercomputers typically exploit massive parallelism, often with thousands of processors, while mainframes have a single or a
small number (up to several dozen) of processors.
- Because of the parallelism visible to the programmer, supercomputers are quite complicated to program; in mainframes, the
limited parallelism (if present) is usually hidden from the programmer.
- Supercomputers are optimized for complicated computations that take place largely in memory, while mainframes are optimized
for simple computations involving huge amounts of external data accessed from databases.
- Supercomputers tend to cater to science and the military, while mainframes tend to target business and civilian government
applications.
Other
- 85% of all mainframe programs are written in the COBOL programming language.
- 5% are written in PL/1
- 7% are written in Assembler, C or C++
- 3% are written in Java and other languages
The trend towards older languages is a result of the mainframes running predominantly legacy applications.
- Most Mainframes have the CICS program installed
- In the early 1990s the media and many business and computing analysts predicted the
death of the mainframe. The predictions were disproved as many companies embraced the mainframe as offering an affordable means
to handle their internet business models.
- The quality of service offered by mainframes mean they are
the prefered technology for business critical applications.
External Links
Official IBM Mainframe page
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