On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:56:47 -0500 Tony Harminc said: >2009/11/17 Lindy Mayfield <[email protected]>: > >> I also read in z/Journal that the lines between a mainframe computer (the z10 >to be specific) and a super computer are being blurred. ¦When I was at >GuideSHARE Europe two years ago (in Dresden, lovely city) they had a hardware >guy there next to a z10 with the nice green stripe down it, and he told me that >the mainframe is great for transactional processing, as always, but not too >much >suited for WebSphere, Java stuff, etc. ¦That's why they had to add speciality >engines, etc. ¦Well, that's how I remember it. >> >> Just curious what other people think about this sort of stuff. > >The "specialty engine" part is just so much marketing hype. As has >been discussed endlessly here, the current specialty engines are the >very same engines as all the others, but with different legal Ts & Cs >that make it impossible to run "traditional" workloads on them. IBM >marketing tries very hard, without actually saying so, to suggest that >these engines are different hardware that somehow make Java,Websphere, >Linux, DB2, or whatever run faster. It may well be that specialty >engines can save money under some conditions, and there's nothing >wrong with that, but it's annoying to hear so much borderline stuff >about them.
Actually, there is at least 1 technical difference between specialty engines and GP engines. Specialty engines run at full speed, so you may be able run more CPU intensive workload on a z10 IFL than a z10 GP. This doesn't change the rest of Tony's point, but it is a technical difference that can have impact. /ahw > >Of course IBM *could* put truly different engines in if they wanted >to, and there have been rumours for a long time about putting CBE >chips and such into System z boxes, but I don't believe it's happened >yet. > >Tony H. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO >Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
