W dniu 05.09.2024 o 03:26, Tony Harminc pisze:
On Sun, 1 Sept 2024 at 22:19, Timothy Sipples<[email protected]> wrote:
As previously reported back in 2004, the first customer production use of
zAAP (the System z Application Assist Processor) went live on September 1,
2004. Which was impressively speedy because it occurred more than 3 weeks
before the earliest release of z/OS to support zAAP (z/OS Version 1.6)
became Generally Available — and barely 2 months after zAAP (the hardware
feature) was introduced. IBM discontinued zAAPs several years ago because
their functions were fully incorporated into zIIPs.
Happy 20th Birthday, zAAP!
I think people need to remember that zAAP and zIIP were not any kind of
advance in technology, but rather a triumph of IBM marketing. IBM did a
great job of positioning these two as so-called "specialty" engines, with
the implication that they are somehow better or optimized for running their
respective kinds of workloads.
Of course the hardware is in fact identical to the regular old engines, at
a lower price but with restrictions on what software is allowed to be run.
I've advocated calling them "restricted" or "limited function" engines, but
of course that wouldn't suit IBM's approach.
So yes, Happy Birthday to all kinds of limited function engines!
Yes, it is crippled CP.
However we like it and need it.
BTW: What about variety of MHz speed of Pentium? What about of sale
486SX while it was crippled 486DX?
What about disabled ports in a switch?
Specialty engines is a way to be competitive in areas where the
competition exist. Same as CoD and subcapacity models.
Would it be simpler to sell all CPs at the price of IFL? Of course, but
why we don't ask the same question to Intel?
BTW: IBM is not my enemy. My professional career and incomes are closely
related to mainframes, so it is also my interest the mainframe to be
competitive and successful.
--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
