Posted on 01/31/2011 9:46:56 AM PST by djf
Fastest processor in the world.
A million bucks a pop!!
Some are calling it a Datacenter-in-a-box.
I’ll take 2!
Better have some serious floor support.
The last generation of mainframes (the z10, which I currently work on) come in at almost 500Kilograms.
Over a ton!
Plus I think they are still powered with a tri-phase power supply.
;-)
I’ve played with quite a few of the larger IBM servers. Used to really piss off the data center managers with the power and loading requirements.
They tried to suck me in to the mainframe world but after one effort to patch the OS I decided it was too much fun. This was for one of the global banks so the stakes were high.
One box that can replace thousands of distributed servers.
Runs the standard mainframe 370 instruction set as well as the x86 instruction set.
Looks like IBM is bailing on the whole RISC concept...
ping
I started selling Burrough's Confusers in the mid 60s and my first processor contained 4K of magnetic memory, was as big as my den, cost about half a million and really did have "bugs".
A lot of the bigger processors that followed, sold in the tens of millions, generated enough heat to replace furnaces, required water cooling systems, so yeah, I'm older than the Borax 20 mule team, which is three years older than plain dirt.
Great time to make a living selling computer system and watch the market work its magic.
Every two years, Bell's prediction came true, "Twice as nice and half the price".
If automobiles changed with the same price/performance ratio as computers did, you could buy a Mercedes for $2.
This part is just the processor.
The real data, the business assets, actually sit on a SAN somewhere, which may or may not be duplexed or RAIDed.
Well, I tip my hat to you Borax. While I remember Noah coming down the ramp of the Ark with a Malamute puppy under each arm, I can't touch you twenty mule team folks.
jeepers, I’m a rookie!
Didn’t even see my first Univac 1108 until 1972!
Ah, yes, but if one of the servers in my cluster go down - or even a JVM - the load is simply transferred to the remaining nodes. What do you do why this million dollar chip fries? Or the power supply to it fails?
I’ll take many less powerful servers over a monster machine that takes my whole system down with it. They should code name this processor “The Titanic.”
1) It’s about time they gave up on it and
2) When the installed base cost billions to create and is still working just fine, in the long run, the installed base wins.
Regards
I’m old enough that I designed a few large raised floor data centers (Mechanical / Electrical) that had water-cooled CPUs. You’ve got some years on me with that, though.
IBM’s announced SOD (statement of direction) is a return to the water-cooled processor concept.
The machines simply generate too much heat.
And air conditioning is expensive!!!
500 kg is about half a ton. I could move it in my pickup truck.
That would make it a portable computer.
You should email your concerns to IBM.
Hurry!
Last time I talked to an IBM rep he said these machines were selling like hotcakes! (and that was about an hour and a half ago}
That was real change wasn´t it?
I started with B300, all the way up to B6700... At school (Eng) we had a IBM/3 and card classifiers and all...
IBM370... Laser printer in Brazilian Senate had special aquarium type room just for it...
Haha.
Just saying, that’s all.
Supercomputers are fun - and a great way to advance technology.
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