
What Do IBM Mainframe Computers Look Like Today? - Caveman_Coder
https://www.nanalyze.com/2017/10/ibm-mainframe-computers-today/?utm_content=social-ni4f3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=SocialPilot
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shakna
The hell did I just read?

> This thing runs so hot that they need a fcuking radiator to cool it down:

> IBM’s mainframe in production today can encrypt data 18X faster than x86
> platforms at just 5% of the cost. Then there’s the topic of blockchain,
> something we’d really like to get some investment exposure to while avoiding
> the complete and utter isht show that is today’s ICO space.

Ah, there we go, in the last paragraph:

> If you pay more than $4.95 a trade, you're paying too much. Ally Invest is
> one of the lowest-fee brokers around so you spend less money on transaction
> fees and more on stocks. With more than 30 trades a quarter it drops even
> lower to $3.95 a trade. Open an account and begin trading today.

So, this is some strange mix of decent information, someone who drops
swearwords to look hip but can't spell them, and a "come trade with us"
sponsored article. It felt like a badly written SEO article from the early
2000s.

It certainly didn't feel like something written by someone with an in-depth
understanding of IBM's current offerings and what they are capable of.

~~~
baddox
The site’s down, so I don’t know the context, but is your point of quoting the
radiator sentence that pretty much all desktops and laptops need radiators to
cool them down?

~~~
shakna
My point was the way they were trying to hype it up, even feeling the need to
swear, which tends to be reserved for the truly shocking. Compared to some
better writing like:

> IBM's mainframes integrate water-cooling, as air-cooled systems don't tend
> to be sufficient.

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nkw
This reads like an Enron financial statement. I wouldn't at all be surprised
if this is the unintelligible gobbledygook that IBM actually uses to sell
their stuff. Between stuff like this and "Watson curing cancer", I continue to
be amazed IBM still exists, but the IBM name and reputation will likely allow
them to float along for quite a bit longer. Just a few weeks ago I was
speaking with a relative about their employer -- a large Fortune top 10
company -- buying into some IBM Watson b.s. because their CTO was an "IBM
guy". It is really amazing.

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jclulow
This is incredibly shallow analysis, if it's even anything beyond poorly
regurgitated sales decks. What does that "points of entry" chart even _mean_?

~~~
yellowapple
I think it has to do with network connections - that is, you need 1000 x86
servers (or whatever) to match the capabilities of a z-series mainframe, which
means 1000 times the number of potential points where an attacker can enter
your network and thus 1000 times the number of things you have to monitor for
break-in attempts.

Or something like that. It really should've been explained better.

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adamtulinius
These performance figures cited in the article are utterly meaningless: 12
billion transactions a day and 1000 NoSQL databases.

What does that even mean? I'm sure even modest x86 hardware can spin up 1000
MongoDB instances, and perform 12 billion transactions in a day.

~~~
megy
Later it does talk about credit card transations. I am not sure why they are
so complicated, but there you go.

~~~
needusername
> I am not sure why they are so complicated

Uh, the business rules alone. Want to compute scheme fee and interchange on a
cross-domain DCC refund reversal, be my guest. Then add the kludges and hacks
you have in financial services software.

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jlebrech
"if you don't speak nerd", I dislike that kind of speak.

~~~
barryp
"if you don't speak nerd" ... seriously "fcuk" you you mouth-breathing Biff
Tannen wannabe.

~~~
dang
Eesh. Please don't stoop to that level here, even if an article contains an
annoying phrase.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

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andrewwharton
This feels like a weird "Mainframes are making a comeback", submarine
article[1] targeted at people likely to buy stock, especially the "Mainframes
Today" section.

There also seems to be a (legally obligated?) disclaimer at the top that
they're a stock holder, quickly moving on to why you should buy IBM stock,
with enough "build a GUI in visual basic to track their IP address"[2] tech-
speak gobbledygook to confuse/convince the average investor.

That's the only sense I can make of it...

[1]
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU)

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reacharavindh
I’ve worked with them 10 years ago and haven’t touched them since. Do they
still charge the customers for the big iron and then send recurring bills
based on how much they use “their” CPs?

They had labelled general purpose CPUs as CPs while processors woth
specialized microcode that lets them run Linux were called zFLs. All the fancy
security verbiage they advertise are for when you run IBM DB2 or CICS on Z/OS.
Not just running your Linux applications.

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cordite
The writing was engaging, although the “1000 NoSQL databases” was a nail in
the tire. Although I feel the encryption almost for free as part of the
platform is rather cursory in evaluation. I’m not as worried about some
process poking around in dev mem as I am of a general API that was added to
ease cross team barriers, which is later found to be publicly accessible.

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mamcx
The worst of the clickbait?

It still not show how it look today!

I was expecting at least a photo of a mainframe...

~~~
grzm
The article includes an image of the z14, which IBM describes as a mainframe:

[https://www.ibm.com/ms-en/marketplace/z14](https://www.ibm.com/ms-
en/marketplace/z14)

~~~
mamcx
True. The images not load for me and only see the text. I recheck later and it
show...

