27 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
27 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>mainframe</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="main-loop.html" title="main loop"/><link rel="next" href="mainsleaze.html" title="mainsleaze"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">mainframe</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="main-loop.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="mainsleaze.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="mainframe"/><dt xmlns="" id="mainframe"><b>mainframe</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Term originally referring to the cabinet containing the central
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processor unit or ‘main frame’ of a room-filling
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<a href="../S/Stone-Age.html"><i class="glossterm">Stone Age</i></a> batch machine. After the emergence of
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smaller <span class="firstterm">minicomputer</span> designs in the
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early 1970s, the traditional <a href="../B/big-iron.html"><i class="glossterm">big iron</i></a> machines were
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described as ‘mainframe computers’ and eventually just as
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mainframes. The term carries the connotation of a machine designed for
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batch rather than interactive use, though possibly with an interactive
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timesharing operating system retrofitted onto it; it is especially used of
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machines built by IBM, Unisys, and the other great
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<a href="../D/dinosaur.html"><i class="glossterm">dinosaur</i></a>s surviving from computing's
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<a href="../S/Stone-Age.html"><i class="glossterm">Stone Age</i></a>.</p><p>It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s that the
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mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead (outside of the tiny
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market for <a href="../N/number-crunching.html"><i class="glossterm">number-crunching</i></a> supercomputers having
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been swamped by the recent huge advances in IC technology and low-cost
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personal computing. The wave of failures, takeovers, and mergers among
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traditional mainframe makers in the early 1990s bore this out. The biggest
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mainframer of all, IBM, was compelled to re-invent itself as a huge
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systems-consulting house. (See <a href="../D/dinosaurs-mating.html"><i class="glossterm">dinosaurs mating</i></a> and
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<a href="../K/killer-micro.html"><i class="glossterm">killer micro</i></a>).</p><p>However, in yet another instance of the
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<a href="../C/cycle-of-reincarnation.html"><i class="glossterm">cycle of reincarnation</i></a>, the port of Linux to the IBM S/390 architecture
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in 1999 — assisted by IBM — produced a resurgence of interest in mainframe
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computing as a way of providing huge quantities of easily maintainable,
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reliable virtual Linux servers, saving IBM's mainframe division from almost
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certain extinction.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="main-loop.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="mainsleaze.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">main loop </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> mainsleaze</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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