Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What is a mainframe system?

Mainframe is a High performance Multi User computer system which is the most scalable, available, reliable and secured machine in the world capable of performing some Million Instructions per second (upto 569,632 MIPS) with the following characteristics:
1) Reliable single-thread performance, which is essential for reasonable operations against a database.
2) Maximum I/O connectivity, which means mainframes excel at providing for huge disk farms.
3) Maximum I/O bandwidth, so connections between drives and processors have few choke-points.
4) Reliability--mainframes often allow for "graceful degradation" and service while the system is running.
           Applications of mainframe various from computing the Random number series to census, industry and consumer statistics, ERP and financial transaction processing.

Mainframes is also described in the following sections.

The term ‘MainFrame’ brings to mind a giant room of electronic parts that is a computer, referring to the original CPU cabinet in a computer of the mid-1960’s. Today, Mainframe refers to a class of ultra-reliable large and medium-scale servers designed for carrier-class and enterprise-class systems operations. Mainframes are costly, due to the support of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and dozens of central processors existing within in a single system. Mainframes are highly scalable. Through the addition of clusters, high-speed caches and volumes of memory, they connect to terabyte holding data subsystems.


The first mainframe vendors were GE, Control Data, IBM, NCR, RCA, Burroughs, Honeywell and Univac. Collectively known as “IBM and the Seven Dwarfs”. Through mergers, these vendors shifted within the industry, becoming “IBM and the BUNCH”. Running a version of Unix or Linux, these vendors led by IBM now include Amdahl (Fujitsu), Unisys and Sun among others.

Online training includes the History of Mainframes, Job Control Language (JCL) and thorough tutorials on the components, transactions and functions of the Customer Information Control System (CCIS). Mainframe professionals can find well-paid work in highly respected and breakthrough technology companies throughout the world as Mainframe Systems Programmers and Project Managers.

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