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CMOS breathes new life into mainframes
Considered dead-end technology about a decade ago, mainframes were supposed to go the way of the rotary telephone. But mainframes have gotten a new lease on life recently, again becoming a viable platform for new applications.
Processor and operating system enhancements, among other innovations, have led to performance improvements and sharp drops in the price of mainframe solutions. Federal users also have applauded advances in operating system technology that make mainframe functions easier to manage and allow for more frequent upgrades.
Federal users have responded enthusiastically, eager to benefit from mainframes' traditional strengths - such as centralized management and high levels of security, reliability, availability, data integrity and scalability -- without giving up all the benefits of client/server computing.
Mike Hamner, chief of systems software at the Bureau of Reclamation's Denver (Colo.) Administrative Service Center (DASC), said his organization cut its mainframe maintenance costs 90 percent after purchasing mainframes that take advantage of the latest processor technology.
"Overall performance is outstanding," Hamner said. "Batch processing has essentially been cut in half when compared to our recently replaced processor.
Other federal organizations, such as the Agriculture Department's National Information Technology Center (NITC), plan to follow suit in the coming year.
"We anticipate gaining back floor space and saving on air conditioning and electricity, among other environmental costs," said Kathleen Rundle, associate chief information officer at the NITC in Kansas City, Mo. NITC mainframes provide a variety of IT services to the USDA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the General Services Administration.
Less than 10 years ago, many observers prematurely decreed that mainframes were on their way out. High-end Unix servers had become less expensive, easierto-manage and more user-friendly alternatives. Mainframes, it seemed, were destined to run existing legacy applications, while open-systems servers would serve as the platform for new applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites and business intelligence software.
The CMOS Breakthrough
The rebirth of the mainframe can be traced back to the switch from emittercoupled logic (ECL), or bipolar, processors to processors based on Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor technology.
CMOS processors use less power and generate less heat than bipolar processors. Mainframes based on bipolar chips had to be cooled with big and expensive external...