> >I agree that the speed of CPU is not the problem anymore. But do you > want CPU intensive load? Afaik the CPU in >mainframe, even z10, is > still more expensive than an intel. So if you'd have CPU intensive > loads, would it be still cost >effective to run on z? Do we still need > to stay away from these applications? > > Just talking of the top of my head (meaning no real life comparison > experience, yet..)
Also speculating... Most CPU intensive workloads also tend to be data-intensive in that they tend to draw large amounts of data from various sources and chew on them in various ways. There is a non-zero advantage to close proximity to the "official" source of data, which still tends to live somewhere inside the mainframe, at least in a commercial setting. You can do things within a machine that are not really practical in a distributed setup, which may tip the balance for you. I think Rob is correct that we should no longer avoid CPU intensive workloads, but concentrate on balancing them with I/O intensive workloads so that we optimize for 100% utilization as often as possible. That's the design sweet-spot for s390x anyway, so we might as well play to the strength of the design. I'd also think that dynamic workload management is going to be the distinguishing factor for this platform -- I'm really expecting a revival of eWLM as soon as IBM realizes how important this will become and does the work to integrate z/VM into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
