>>> On 9/7/2016 at 08:58 AM, John McKown <[email protected]> wrote: > From what I remember, the "specialty" engines are a marketing gimmick. In > particular, the zAAP was created to allow people to run Java on z/OS > without incurring the software costs that they would have if they have if > they had to increase their MSUs on GP engines to do so. This was to sell > WebSphere Application Server (a Tomcat like environment) when IBM was > strongly pushing the "you can run your Java Enterprise software on z/OS > instead of on Intel" idea. That gave rise to the other specialty engines. > IMO, the best specialty engine is the IFL to run zLinux without increasing > your z/OS software costs. Linux on z would have died if it were tied to > normal GPs.
I think you have the order backwards. The IFL was created first when IBM wanted to make running Linux on the mainframe attractive to customers. After that, they came up with the zIIPs and zAAPs to make "new workloads" more attractive on z/OS. Possibly in response to z/OS customers complaining about Linux getting a break on hardware and software costs and not z/OS. And trust me, we in the mainframe Linux community were very much aware that this break in pricing was entirely at the mercy of IBM and their ability to get other ISVs to go along with the scheme. Mark Post ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
