Mainframes are servers that are designed to process up to 1 trillion web
transactions per day with the highest levels and security and reliability.
Mainframes are high-performance computers with a lot of memory and data
processors.
A mainframe computer is critical to commercial databases, transaction servers and
applications that require high resiliency, security and agility.
In a recent IBM report, 45 of the top 50 banks, 4 of the top 5 airlines, 7 of the top 10
global retailers and 67 of the Fortune 100 companies leverage the mainframe as
their core platform.
A study from the IBM Institute of Business Value (IBV) showed that mainframes
handle almost 70% of the world’s production IT workload and 70% of executives
surveyed believe that mainframe-based applications are central to their business
strategy.
Today’s mainframes are smaller than early “Big Iron” machines and are about the
size of a large refrigerator.
Early mainframes like the S/360 had a single processor or central processing unit
(CPU), while today’s mainframes have a central processor complex (CPC) consisting
of specialty processors designed for specific purposes.
The modern mainframe contains network, crypto, storage and compression cards
with their own processors and memory.
It also houses system assist processors (SAP) that speed up data transfer between
the operating system and the I/O (input/output devices) and processors for running
Linux™, Java™ and other workloads.
This setup allows the mainframe to deliver peak utilization continuously while
handling high throughput volumes.
The large number of processors in mainframe technology support businesses across
industries (for example, government agencies, utility companies, financial
institutions, healthcare organizations) that rely on large-scale transaction
processing to handle massive data workloads, high-volume financial transactions
and more.
Today’s mainframe solutions are also designed to support cloud computing, data
management, big data and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum
computing, with extensions and integration layers that integrate with core systems.
The longstanding value associated with mainframes centers on reliability,
availability and serviceability (RAS).
A mainframe acts as a server for storing and processing data at high speeds and
can carry out millions of instructions simultaneously. In
contrast, supercomputers are much faster, capable of executing billions of floating-
point operations in one second. Supercomputers can perform massive calculation-
intensive work for weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling,
physical simulations and more.
Summary
Mainframes are large sized computers, modern mainframes are about the size of a
large fridge with high-performance, a lot of memory and data processors. They are
important for things like commercial databases, transaction servers and
applications that require high resiliency, security and speed. They are used a lot for
things like banks and in other fields. Early mainframes have CPUs while modern
mainframes use central processor complex also known as CPC which are specialty
processors designed for specific purposes. The large number of processors in
mainframe technology support businesses across industries (for example,
government agencies, utility companies, financial institutions, healthcare
organizations) that rely on large-scale transaction processing to handle massive
data workloads, high-volume financial transactions and more. The longstanding
value associated with mainframes centers on reliability, availability and
serviceability (RAS).
What Is a Mainframe? | IBM
