>Looking for a comparison between all the z/Boxen with regard to: >1. Sub-capacity licensing availability / support,
Supported on all the systems you named (as long as you meet the other requirements). It's worth noting that z800 and z890 have fractional engine configurations available to "fine tune" capacity a little more precisely than their bigger cousins. >2. "Turbo" vs "non-Turbo": What it means, where/when it applies, etc. "Turbo" just means a faster engine, and I think it only applies to the z900 out of the models you listed. The z900 got a mid-life engine boost before the z990 came out. The turbo models start with a 2 in the three digit code. For example, a 2064-105 is a non-turbo model (with 5 main processors). A 2064-211 is a turbo model (with 11 main processors). Here's how the model numbers look: z900: 2064-1xx z900 Turbo: 2064-2xx z800: 2066-xxx z990: 2084-xxx z890: 2086-xxx z9-109: 2094-xxx The xxx reflects the capacity for each system (for main processors). >3. "Capacity models": meaning, applicability. Hmmm... Not sure (other than above). Any more context where you heard/saw the term? More information... 4. MSUs (main processor capacity rating) decline 10% for the same transactional capacity with each new generation system. For example, a hypothetical z900 rated at 100 MSUs of capacity would have the same performance as a z990 rated at 90 MSUs. (In practice the numbers don't line up this neatly due "lumpy" capacity increments and variations in real workload, but the underlying math is correct.) Most z/OS software is charged according to the MSU rating. This 10% curve is called the "technology dividend." Here's how the mainframe generations look (using 100 as a hypothetical base): z900/z900 Turbo/z800: "100" z990/z890: "90" z9-109: "81" Said another way, the newer your mainframe the more processing you can do for the same software budget. (Or the same processing you can do for a smaller software budget.) 5. There are more (and faster) specialty engines as the systems get newer. Here's what's available by model grouping: z900/z900 Turbo/z800: IFLs and ICFs z990/z890: IFLs, ICFs, and zAAPs z9-109: IFLs, ICFs, zAAPs, and zIIPs Cryptographic processing also gets better and faster the newer the model. The specialty engines can offload work from main engines, allowing either more main processor efficiencies (and lower costs) or the addition of more work to the mainframe (for the same costs), or some combination of both. And these last few points are the important bits because they imply something very real about mainframe economics: add more work to your mainframe and your per-transaction processing costs go down (and often quite dramatically). Take work off and your per-transaction processing costs go up. It's like owning a truck: it costs very, very little to send the truck on another trip. You still have to buy the truck, insure it, keep a back office to support it, etc. Which leads me to some final words about the mainframe cost paradox. How can you make mainframes cheaper? Grow them. - - - - - Timothy F. Sipples Consulting Enterprise Software Architect, z9/zSeries IBM Japan, Ltd. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
