In
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
on 07/18/2006
at 03:46 PM, "Kuredjian, Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
said:
>1. zOS has a kernel called the BCP, or Base Control Program.
Now. The term "kernel" in CS carries with it a load of assumptions
that simply don't apply; they aren't even wrong, but totally
meaningless. You might think of the nucleus as being the kernel, but
that would still be horribly misleading. The BCP includes a host of
functions that run in normal address spaces and tasks, roughly
comparable to process and threads in the Unix world.
>In Linux or Windows, it's established that the kernel runs on a
>general purpose CPU( PowerPC, x86, MIPS, etc...); however, I would
>like to know if such a central CPU exists in the mainframe, and if
>that central CPU is of some common architecture like, POWER.
There are many mainframes. The ones that z/OS runs on have
architectures called S/390 and zSeries.
>If not, are there any documents that I can look into that will
>describe the CPU architecture for me?
Wouldn't such documents mean that there *is* a common architecture?
As, in fact, there is, and it is described in the zSeries Principles
of Operation.
>2. ESCON and FICON are data busses used for external storage
>devices, but what does the mainframe use for internal data bus,
>InfiniBand, HyperTransport?
It's not part of the architecture what it uses internally, and
different processor complexes use different busses, none of which are
in your list.
>3. Does the mainframe use common interconnects on the hardware
>level? I'm thinking of PCIe, PCI-X, MCA, or PCI.
The architecture defines interconnects that are not in your list. Some
processor complexes have PCI slots, but that is *not* part of the
architecture.
Please skim[1] PoOps and then come back with the questions it raises.
[1] You probably don't want to read it straight through just yet.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
ISO position; see <http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html>
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
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