Steve Thompson writes: >Meanwhile, IBM is RUNNING from the low end customers. They aren't out >there marketing to the bottom end companies. Each system that comes out, >the CPUs are how much faster than before?
Myth buster reporting for duty. :-) Let's look, from oldest to most recent system.... Smallest Multiprise 3000 (H30): ~63 MIPS Smallest z800 (0A1): ~40 MIPS Smallest z890 (110): ~26 MIPS Smallest z9 BC (A01): ~26 MIPS Percentage *Reduction* from MP3000 to z9 BC: 58.7% I should also point out that the "press release price" for the hardware has fallen at least with each successive z/Architecture system. From z890 to z9 BC the PR price fell by almost 50%. What else? Well, the DS6000 storage came out (much lower priced storage in very little space). IFLs for your Linux needs fell from $125,000 U.S. price each to $95,000 U.S. price -- and got almost three times faster in the process. You can have up to 6 64-bit IFLs, each faster than anything except the z9 EC IFLs, on a 26 MIPS z9 BC. On a Multiprise 3000 H30 you can only have a single 31-bit IFL clocking in at a whopping ~127 MIPS. Actually, on the z boxes you can get IFL-only models now, so the smallest box is now 0 MIPS. :-) Prior to the IFLs you had less software choice, and you had to spend more money filling your small business's data center with lots of little servers. Now you can collapse them onto an IFL and save tons of money. Ask WebSphere Commerce customers. :-) CBU, COD, etc. provided more economical processing. Memory prices crashed lower. And, on your software bill, z/OS (on a z/Architecture system) introduced subcapacity pricing. IBM dropped the minimum MSUs to 3, so you don't even have to license all 4 MSUs (the hardware capacity on the smallest z890 and z9 BC models). Also means there's a bunch of IBM middleware that's the cheapest to acquire on z/OS of any platform because of the 3 MSU minimum. You now have true tools/utilities competition in the market to lower your costs there. Java workload is offloaded. Crypto got successively better offloaded (from not at all on the MP3000 to AES/SHA on the z9 BC). OSA offloaded more network processing. I/O speeds got much, much faster (and the z9 BC introduced a lower cost 2 port I/O card). Maintenance costs crashed downward. The secondary market got filled with decent 64-bit hardware at rock bottom prices. Some DB2 workload got offloaded on the z9 BC (with zIIP), along with certain other workload (most recently some CA products' workload). z/OS.e came out and, after listening to customers some more, zNALC replaced it so you could even move your, say, UNIX COBOL to, say, CICS and enjoy the lower price. And z/OS itself in most countries either held the line on price even before subcapacity or actually came down. z/VM pricing crashed down. Minimum memory went to a generous 8 GB with the z800, so you can do real work right away -- and with many workloads save MIPS because you can put more stuff in memory. You can get rid of several boxen now that took up valuable space and burned more electricity: 3745/3746s no longer needed; Sysplex Timers no longer needed. Oh, and z/VSE is about to go to subcapacity licensing with 4.1. IBM has done an awful lot for small businesses! What have other companies done? I haven't seen (to pick two examples at random) Microsoft or Oracle do anything like this. Their prices are up. A lot! Your mileage may vary, but let's try to stick to the facts, OK? These are renaissance years for the small, *intelligent* mainframe shop. There are definitely small businesses that have figured this out. A lot of them are in my part of the world (Asia) but certainly not all. >So if you need a multi-CPU >machine for entry level operations, you will get what 240MIPs? And what >will your software charges be? You can get 240 MIPS if you want/need, but you can pay for as few as ~20 MIPS (3 MSUs) thanks to subcapacity licensing. At least with IBM software, the hardware capacity is (very nearly) irrelevant. Although I think it's usually borderline crazy, some shops purchase way more hardware capacity than they need and subcap at ridiculously low levels. (That's why CI-COD exists, in my opinion, but some customers do wacky things. :-)) Let's look at the 2 CPU minimum configurations since you asked: Multiprise 3000: ~209 MIPS z800: ~160 MIPS z890: ~45 MIPS z9 BC: ~51 MIPS Percentage *Reduction* from MP3000 to z9 BC: 75.6% >So let me put this all into perspective. If you do not make systems for >the bottom end, or do not provide a very cost effective and attractive >means to get into this architecture, the number of licenses for software >will drop. Costs for entry will go up rapidly, and the number of shops >running your equipment will diminish. Apparently IBM understands this, so all the above is good news, yes? Where do these rumors start? - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific 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
