On 4/10/08 10:02 AM, "David Boyes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> You cannot run Intel binaries efficiently on System z hardware. You can run >> Windows applications based on the portable subset of .NET (using Mono) or >> applications which you have source code and can recompile for System z >> hardware. There are also suites that allow some ASP applications to run. Pure >> Java should run if you have the right combination of JVM and environment. The >> major Java container applications (WAS, BEA, jboss/tomcat) run well (with a >> bit of tuning).
Our experience with z/VOS indicates that it is possible to run Intel binaries efficiently on System z. However, this efficiency is not possible with emulation. Prime pass code translation with managed code segment invalidation is the only way we have found to achieve performance viability using native binaries. Many performance efficiencies not apparent initially became obvious once we started to reconcile the IBM and Intel principles of operation. >> >> You technically can run Windows in a z/VM virtual machine using a Intel >> emulator like bochs, but the overhead CPU cost is horrendous (75-100 to 1). >> You wouldn¹t want to do it for production work unless you have lots of money >> to burn, but it might be OK for testing stuff. >> We have run Windows® (98/NT) under both BOCHS and QEMU on System z under Cent OS and can attest to the overhead and cost. This nightmare experience is the reason we selected z/VM CMS as the environment for z/VOS. The approach taken by QEMU and BOCHS ensures that neither system will achieve viable performance/resource consumption metrics on System z. In defense of these products, they were never intended to do this. A z/VM runtime environment won't improve guest reliability but if that guest can be run at a fraction of the cost, the value proposition would be compelling. If 25 virtualized images on one box is a good thing, 500 guests on a single footprint would be attractive. There could be a major change in where and how computing resources are consumed. If you think that type of shift could take place (it has already has with intel virtualization systems), the possibility that the source of those cycles may be different is not a stretch. >> If you need dense numbers Windows servers, look at the newest quad and >> octo-core blade servers with lots and lots of RAM running VMWare. They¹re >> about the best available option for the typical Windows application server >> sprawl. You should look at whether some of your Intel Linux apps could be >> moved, though, or pieces of infrastructure like Oracle or DB/2 servers could >> be moved. There are substantial savings to be had in terms of licensing for >> infrastructure pieces. > --. .- .-. -.-- Gary Dennis
