Submitted by IBM just announced
a new line of z9 mainframes and new version of their operating systems. This time the focus is on security. There is an interesting
news article from Reuters: Analyst Bob Djurdjevic of Phoenix-based Annex Research said key selling points of the z9 mainframe are not that it is faster and cheaper — something it has been becoming for decades — but rather the mix of hardware and software that give customers control over machines.
Will this beast run Quake?
Well, it will run Linux : http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/library/specsheets/gm… So I guess you could run quake in several Linux images hosted on the zseries at the same time.
I don’t know about the graphics capabilities though, maybe it would have to be text mode quake ( http://webpages.mr.net/bobz/ttyquake/ )
Graphics capabilities are definitely there; you can run X-Windows and KDE perfectly well. There is much more than just a CLI interface.
Textmode Quake?
Thank you thank you thank you so much for that link
You don’t need graphics hardware to run X (i.e. you can run X apps from a SunFire V210 even when it doesn’t have a graphics card), just a remote X server. Running Quake over a remote server would pretty useless.
…but I’m confused, what’s the specific CPU that’s used in the z9? I read somewhere it was a 1.7 GHz CISC processor…I thought mainframes used RISC processors only…
Anyway, anyone know if it’s a family of the PowerPC? Or some custom chip designed specifically for the z9 alone? Will you be able to install, say, Slack/390 on it? Just curious…
http://www.slack390.org/
…but I’m confused, what’s the specific CPU that’s used in the z9? I read somewhere it was a 1.7 GHz CISC processor…I thought mainframes used RISC processors only…
Are you confusing mainframes and supercomputers? The two are quite different, and historically most mainframes have been emphatically CISC.
The instruction set on the Unisys Clearpath IX mainframes I play with for a living is quite extensive.
The z series uses POWER5 chips.
> The z series uses POWER5 chips.
Absolutely not true, Z/Series has its own CPU.
Of course, what else would you use a z80 for?
>> The z series uses POWER5 chips.
>
>Absolutely not true, Z/Series has its own CPU.
I second that, looked it up on the site. It is the pSeries and the iSeries that share the same hardware (and POWER5-cpu).
In future the pseries iseries and also zseries will all run on power6 : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/08/07/ibms_power5_to_hit_3ghz/
Nice article, tnx!
Actually the original Intel x86 microchips were designed based on mainframe technology with all the pros and cons. Todays Pentiums try to eliminate the legacy cons and try to graft on some of the pros of RISC architecture…
I tried installing Linux on my company’s mainframe (a two year old z900) and every distro I’ve tried (ThinkBlue, Marist, Debian, RedHat, SuSE) booted normally in LPAR mode, but failed to get the network up to finish the installation.
Slack390 was the only distro that recognized the CISCO router attached to the machine, but the CLAW driver still wouldn’t see the network.
Oh well…