RE: Scalability

["Kurt Goolsbee" <kurt.goolsbee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not sure if the S/390 card is still available.  I think they may have
end of lifed it in favor of emulation software.  There were several BPs that
had a ThinkPad with the 390 card stuck in it.  The Laptop ran linux and made
emulated devices (tape, disk, terminal controllers) to the 390.  The card
which was just a processor and memory would run any of the 390 operating
systems (VM, MVS, VSE, Linux).  Seems like it was in the 10 MIP range.  Of
course from there you can scale all the way up to the 32-way z990 and beyond
with Sysplex.  



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Brandt Sr.
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 3:56 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Scalability

Far be it from me to point out the obvious, but neither Unix nor Linux are
platforms. 
As near as I can tell BOTH will run on an iSeries system starting at around
25-30K while concurrently running OS/400, Windows and CICS with power
reaching deep in to the lowest end of the /390 platform. I've also seen
OS/400 running on a desktop sized system. No wrist-watches, yet, but then
again, I've never witnessed a live iSeries TV ad either. But, I must also
add, I wouldn't drop my wristwatch off a 10 story building and expect it to
be running again in less than an hour (without replacing the whole watch),
and I have done that with an AS/400.

As far as a "Platform", meaning hardware, there is NOTHING that compares, or
is even in the same ball park.


John Brandt 
iStudio400.com 
(903) 523-0708 
Home of iS/ODBC - MSSQL access from iSeries and RPG. 




-----Original Message-----
From: James Rich [mailto:james@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 3:43 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Scalability


On Fri, 4 Feb 2005, Joe Pluta wrote:

> Since I'm the one who said this, Murali, I think it needs some
> explaining.  The iSeries is definitely the most scalable midrange
> platform available (someone can correct me if I'm wrong).  It's
> certainly more scalable than any Unix platform, which is the context in
> which I made the statement.
>
> Also, while the S/390 may be able to handle a larger workload, the
> iSeries can start at a much lower end than the 390 (again, anybody feel
> free to correct me).  If what you want is a box that can work with a
> small business and then scale up to a Fortune 100 company, nothing
> compares to the iSeries.

As you point out, scalability is about more than the biggest size to which 
a machine can grow.  It is also about the smallest size.  In which case 
the iSeries is a big loser.  Consider:  linux runs some of the world's 
largest computers (it has several entries in the top 500 list) down to 
running on a wrist watch (made by IBM no less).  So while GNU is not unix, 
many people consider GNU/Linux to be basically the same.  So it is 
probably accurate to say that unix is far, far more scalable than the 
iSeries.

side note:  afaik the iSeries is not on the top 500 list at all.  So it 
loses on the big end as well.  Even if you leave clusters out, unix still 
stomps all over the iSeries.  It definately beats on the big end and since 
most *nixes also run on PC size computers, at least matches it on the low 
end.

James Rich

It's not the software that's free; it's you.
        - billyskank on Groklaw
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