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Just watched the intro video for the water-cooled EC12. I know nothing about mainframes other than what I've learned reading this thread and scanning IBM's web

Just watched the intro video for the water-cooled EC12. I know nothing about mainframes other than what I've learned reading this thread and scanning IBM's website, but man that thing looks wicked. I really like the "RAIM" stuff that's apparently new. It seems like a similar idea not only to RAID, but also to this "lockstep execution" thing I just read about. I suppose the idea is that you can configure all or certain memory slots to be slaves such that all reads and writes are identical, or does this RAIM stuff also have RAIM with parity for reconstruction plus storage size increase? Also, is the ability to install this thing on a normal (non-raised floor) pretty new, or has that been an optional feature of larger mainframes for a while? Finally, the guy in the video mentioned some Java stuff. Do these things typically see lots of Java use or are they mostly programmed closer to the metal?

TallGuyShort 14y ago
They used to be commonly programmed very close to the metal. The assembly languages for the System 360 and 370 machines (40 - 50 years ago) were well suited to processing records of data. These days, I believe using these as hypervisors to hundreds of Linux VMs is more common. IBM has their own Java implementation, but I don't know what it's adoption is like in the mainframe industry.
- Nerdfest 14y ago
  hey actually sell special processors that run Java for 'Free'. Most people don't know that IBM charges you for 'MIPS'. They actually charge you for using your computer. They have some other specialized processors as well ... all are very expensive.
  - spitfire 14y ago
    I remember looking it up a while ago, for a processor to "run" Linux cost $28K at the time. Not at all sure how many VM's you cuould support there.
    - noselasd 14y ago
      The previous generation could run up to 50000 VMs, I'd wager the new system announced here could handle a lot more.
      - Nerdfest 14y ago
        They will only 'run' that number if they're not actually doing anything.
    - zmonkeyz 14y ago
      It makes for a cheap way to run Oracle since they charge per core.
zmonkeyz 14y ago
Yes Java runs on the mainframe and runs quite well. CICS can run JVMs which can provide web services using Axis2 as well languages like PHP, Groovy, Javascript (via Rhino) or Java for CICS apps. Websphere runs on the mainframe but it's a bit different than what you find in the distributed world. The JVM that would normally run an application on x86 is broken into two parts the controller and the servants. The controller will work in conjunction with workload manager to deliver incoming work to a number (you configure) of servants which then process it. With this new mainframe it looks like it will have support in hardware and software for JVM's that can self reconfigure on the fly depending on what work needs to be done and what the current load is. I would like to read more on that.

TallGuyShort 14y ago

They used to be commonly programmed very close to the metal. The assembly languages for the System 360 and 370 machines (40 - 50 years ago) were well suited to processing records of data. These days, I believe using these as hypervisors to hundreds of Linux VMs is more common. IBM has their own Java implementation, but I don't know what it's adoption is like in the mainframe industry.

Nerdfest 14y ago
hey actually sell special processors that run Java for 'Free'. Most people don't know that IBM charges you for 'MIPS'. They actually charge you for using your computer. They have some other specialized processors as well ... all are very expensive.
- spitfire 14y ago
  I remember looking it up a while ago, for a processor to "run" Linux cost $28K at the time. Not at all sure how many VM's you cuould support there.
  - noselasd 14y ago
    The previous generation could run up to 50000 VMs, I'd wager the new system announced here could handle a lot more.
    - Nerdfest 14y ago
      They will only 'run' that number if they're not actually doing anything.
  - zmonkeyz 14y ago
    It makes for a cheap way to run Oracle since they charge per core.

zmonkeyz 14y ago

Yes Java runs on the mainframe and runs quite well. CICS can run JVMs which can provide web services using Axis2 as well languages like PHP, Groovy, Javascript (via Rhino) or Java for CICS apps. Websphere runs on the mainframe but it's a bit different than what you find in the distributed world. The JVM that would normally run an application on x86 is broken into two parts the controller and the servants. The controller will work in conjunction with workload manager to deliver incoming work to a number (you configure) of servants which then process it. With this new mainframe it looks like it will have support in hardware and software for JVM's that can self reconfigure on the fly depending on what work needs to be done and what the current load is. I would like to read more on that.