Mainframe computer
Mainframes (also called "big iron")[1] are powerful computers used for large information processing jobs. They are mainly used by government institutions and large companies for tasks such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing. They are distinct from supercomputers.
The term originally referred to the large cabinets that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers.[2][3] Later the term was used to distinguish very big computers from less powerful ones ("minicomputers" or "personal computers").
They are also different from supercomputers: Mainframes are for trasacition processing. Supercomputers are measured in floating point operations per seconds (FLOPS). In other words: Mainframes are for data processing, supercompuuters are for calculations.
Featurs
[change | change source]COmpared to stanard computers, mainframe have a few differences:
- They are made to run almost almost all the time. This also means that very often, hardware can be added or removed while the computer keeps running
- They often have a component more than once, so that if one fails, one of the others can take over
- Very often, they are targeted at tasks doing a lot of input/output; this may be handled by specilaized subsystems
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "IBM preps big iron fiesta". The Register. July 20, 2005.
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, on -line edition, mainframe, n
- ↑ Ebbers, Mike; O’Brien, W.; Ogden, B. (2006). "Introduction to the New Mainframe: z/OS Basics" (PDF). IBM International Technical Support Organization. Archived from the original (pdf) on 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
