
Mini-Mainframe at Home: A 6-CPU Server from 1997 - protomyth
http://www.cpushack.com/2019/01/12/mini-mainframe-at-home-the-story-of-a-6-cpu-server-from-1997/
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qubex
Very interesting, and seriously nostalgia-inducing, but... THIS IS BY NO MEANS
A MAINFRAME. A large server does not equate with a mainframe on any level. If
it contains x86 parts it isn't a mainframe for sure.

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ch_123
> If it contains x86 parts it isn't a mainframe for sure.

Nitpick: mainframes often contain x86 chips supporting various I/O devices,
much in the same way that a modern x86 machine may have an ARM core or two or
ten lying around somewhere.

Even when tweaking the definition to "uses x86 as the main CPU" this would
rule out certain vendors (Unisys being the primary example that comes to mind)
whose mainframes consist of an emulator running on a locked down Linux or
Windows Xeon system.

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twic
IBM mainframes' "support element", which basically means operator console, was
at one point a PC running OS/2 Warp:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140305172128/https://www-304.i...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140305172128/https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg2f2b053a60fd5a852852568dc00605f0d&aid=1)

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dfox
On current IBM mainframes Support Element is ThinkPad running Linux.

Somewhat surprisingly it seems to be completely stock ThinkPad without any
built-in weird interface hardware and the mainframe is connected by bunch of
USB cables.

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protomyth
follow-up [http://www.cpushack.com/2019/01/14/part-2-mini-mainframe-
at-...](http://www.cpushack.com/2019/01/14/part-2-mini-mainframe-at-home-the-
story-of-a-6-cpu-server-from-1997/)

~~~
rbanffy
They continue to insult mainframes by comparing them to large PCs...

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protomyth
Yeah, otherwise I like the article set. It probably doesn't help that IBM's
messaging on what makes them unique is so damn poor. Also, I guess I'm going
to find out how their pSeries strategy works in practice when we get our
iSeries replacement which is going to be a S914.

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fencepost
Hm. Is the site being hosted on said server? It's feeling like it's maybe been
hugged a bit too much.

edit: Aha, something in the hosting setup may be blocking PIA.

