IBM Corp yesterday duly launched its new CMOS mainframe processors that it reckons will satisfy 90% of the existing System/390 base – unfortunately the other 10% are the real big spenders and are spending big with Hitachi Ltd for the Skyline. In case you’d managed to learn to think of IBM mainframes as 9672s, IBM has decided on names this time around – the bigger machine, with an engine estimated at about 43 MIPS, is the System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server Generation 3, and the System/390 Multiprise 2000 line, with an engine rated at some 36 MIPS. Only the larger machine is Sysplexable, in which configuration, up to 32 separate systems can be clustered to create what IBM describes as the most powerful commercial machine available – alt hough that is only the case when everything is going bang at the same time, and very few big mainframe applications are adequately parallelized for that. The S/390 Multiprise 2000 Server – the 2000 is because it is claimed to be Millennium-ready – optionally offers Internal Disk, where one of the processors in the complex – the Systems Assist Processor – does duty as a disk controller managing IBM’s Ultrastar 2XP 9.1Gb disks: up to 288Gb of disk capacity is of fered in 3380 or 3390 formats, and processor memory is used as a read cache. You can also have all the system software pre-loaded if you opt for the Internal Disk. IBM also offers the first CMOS Cryptographic Co-processor Feature built on the current S/390 Integrated Cryptographic Feature and includes new exportable data encryption, Public Key, Digital Signature and hashing algorithms – but is presumably forbidden to sell it outside the US. An Internal Battery Feature provides an uninterruptible power source. The new line comes in 13 different models. It goes from one to five processors – the sixth processor is the Systems Assist Processor – per board. The S/390 Multiprise 2000 breaks the 2Gb central storage barrier and in PR/SM logical partitioning mode, models with greater than 2Gb installed storage can configure some or all of it as central storage, but each partition is limited to 2Gb. There is a three-level cache – 32Kb on-chip, 128Kb on the substrate for each processor and a 1Gb Shared High Speed Buffer across all processors. The uniprocessor, dual and three-way models ship at the end of the month, the four- and five-way models in December. There are 13 models to make up the S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server Generation 3 , which offers field-installable upgrade paths from existing 9672 and 9674 models, and comes with up to 10 processors, 8Gb of memory and 256 channels. Customers who migrate from ES/9000 or comparable non-IBM systems can see up to 97% savings in ener gy costs, up to 65% in service and maintenance costs, and more than 91% in floor space requirements, IBM reckons. The machines also offer the cryptographic processor and internal battery, and greater than 2Gb central storage. All models are available at the end of the month. IBM doesn’t give mainframe prices any more. There are also new models of the Ramac Array storage, including Ramac 3, Ramac Virtual Array Model 2, Ramac Scalable Array and Ramac Electronic Array, mostly from IBM’s new alliance with Storage Technology Corp.
