[SunRescue] RE: mainframes in our midst...

[Ken Hansen]

Jon,

Don't spend too much time poking fun at the mainframe fellow - DB2 is not an old-fashioned DB by any stretch of the imagination, VM/ESA is a very good, solid operating environment, that enabled multiple OSs to run on one processor complex (in the mainframe world, CPU maps to a box the size of a commercial refrigerator) at the same time (and PR/SM allows you to run multiple machine code levels ont he same machine, allowing you to try out new microcode for the CPU without needing a "test" machine, all you need is a test "partition"), and CICS, is well, quite efficient.

I've worked with all of these products, and find them amazing. The mainframe can do things that are simply absurd on the departmental server level, and the overhaed involved in working in a mainframe environment is equally absurd for a departmental server. Each has it's place.

The Ford F-150 pickup is a great truck, and a dozen or so can do much of the work that one of those big site-built dump trucks do in quarries and mines, but there is not much point in comparing the two, except for humor (how many F-150's will fit in the dumper? How many tires from the site-built will fit in the F-150 bed?).

The E10K is a mainframe, running a near-mainframe level OS, IMHO. I am not slamming Solaris by any stretch, it is on course to reach mainframe-quality soon.

BTW - is Sun Mainframe-free yet? ;^)

Ken 

-----Original Message-----
From: rescue-request at sunhelp.org [mailto:rescue-request at sunhelp.org]
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 9:50 AM
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: rescue digest, Vol 1 #1181 - 15 msgs

<snip>

Message: 11
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 08:48:01 -0400
From: Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com>
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: [SunRescue] MIPS?
Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org

Hi guys!

I'm stuck sharing a pod with some mainframe dude at my
current client site. Anyway, I asked him what he did for
a living (because I should know his function if I'm 
sitting next to him for the next few weeks.) After he
admitted he works on DB2, CICS, and VM/ESA for a living
I offered my sympathies. He nearly flew off the handle
explaining if they treated the mainframes the same way
they treated the 'minis I worked on' they'd be umpteen
zillion times as fast, etc, etc and how all his 
software was out of date... how it was a shame that 
one of my tiny E450s walked all over his Amdahl and
IBM box... etc, etc.

I need some comparison numbers for this dude for when
I poke him in the ribs again later today-- actually if
someone knows where I can find it or has the info-- the
number of 'MIPS' a "loaded" 6800 or 4800 produces.

It's not like mainframe guys can speak SPECint00 when
it comes to benchmarks... and RISC MIPS != Mainframe
MIPS, but.... who knows.

Thanks!

-Jon