OSNews

As someone explained on the internet: This cpu is really slow. Two arguments:

The predecessor, the z10 Mainframe cpu, is really slow. A fully configured z10 Mainframe with 64 cpus gives 28.000 MIPS. This equals 437 MIPS / cpu.

This new IBM z196 cpu the article talks about, is 50% faster than the z10 cpu. Which means the new z11 Mainframe gives in total 42.000 MIPS with 64 of these z196 cpus. This means this "new million dollar fastest cpu in the world" z196 cpu, gives ~650 MIPS.

(A) If you emulate an Mainframe on an 8-socket Intel Nehalem-EX server, you get 3.200 MIPS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboHercules#Performance

This equals 400 MIPS / Nehalem-EX. But remember, software emulation is 5-10x times slower. In reality, the Nehalem-EX gives 2000-4000 MIPS. Hence, you need 10 Nehalem-EX cpus to reach 40.000 MIPS, in par with the new z11 Mainframe which gives 42.000 MIPS.

Hence, any modern x86 cpu is 5-10x faster than this z196 cpu. You need 10 Intel Nehalem-EX to match 64 of the IBM z196.

(B) A linux developer that ported Linux to IBM Mainframes said that 1 MIPS equals 4 MHz x86:
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-390@vm.marist.edu/msg18587.html

This means an 2GHz Intel Nehalem-EX with 8 cores, has in total 16 GHz. This equals 4.000 MIPS. Hence you need 10 Nehalem-EX to reach 40.000 MIPS.

We have two independent experts saying that any modern x86 is 5-10x faster than this z196 Mainframe cpu. Which runs 5 GHz and has 376 MB cache (L1 + L2 + L3). And still any old x86 with half the Hz and one tenth of the cache, is much faster than this z196 cpu that costs million dollars.