I ♥ Big Blue and Big Iron

IBM Goes Big on New Mainframe with Fastest Chip, Flash Memory

Excerpt:

This system, announced Tuesday, includes a new 5.5-GHz, six-core processor, versus the 5.2-GHz, quad-core processor that shipped with the zEnterprise 196, announced two years ago last month. This may be the world's fastest commercial processor, say analysts. Despite this, it is not as big a jump in sheer clock rate as some of the earlier leaps in mainframe CPU speed. Regardless, IBM says this system has 25% more performance per core and some workloads will see performance gains by as much as 45%.

Comments:

• IBM's official announcement
• Image source = Flicker in above article.
• Most people never see them ... they are in some vault-like area protected with man-traps and security
• We had IBM stock way way back when we worked at IBM ... then sold it for a downpayment on a home we bought in Pittsburgh.
• Recently bought IBM again ... it's expensive (not Apple expensive ... but expensive). A great company!

60% uptime!

Secret Service Computers Only Work at 60 Percent Capacity; Agency Uses 1980s Mainframe

Excerpt:

A classified review of the United States Secret Service's computer technology found that the agency's computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

"We have here a premiere law enforcement organization in our country which is responsible for the security of the president and the vice president and other officials of our government, and they have to have better IT than they have," said Lieberman, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Sources tell ABC News that the Secret Service was so plagued by computer problems that the agency invited the National Security Agency to formally review its information technology systems. The Secret Service's databases are outdated and users are at times unable to conduct searches from one system to another.

Lieberman says he's had "concern for a while" about the Secret Service computers. A 60 percent, fully operational average is far worse than "industry and government standards that are around 98 percent generally," Lieberman said.

Comment: We (unnamed bank) have like 99.98% uptime. Observation from some experience here. If you have systems, they have to be updated every several years. The conversion from very old (and obsolete systems) to current systems is very expensive. To bring it down to the personal level: I used to have files on 5.25" floppies, then 3.5" floppies, etc. Imagine skipping all the intermediate upgrade steps and then finding yourself with critical files on a 5.25" floppy! Back in the early 80's I helped a ministry get set up with a TRS Model 16 running Xenix. It was state of the art for small businesses. The ministry kept that system to the point of obsolescence. The director contacted me and asked for help upgrading to Windows. They ended up doing a completely manual conversion of printing off inventory records from the old system and manually keying them into the new system. I know of some businesses that have databases on Microsoft Access 95! Guess what ... it is no longer supported.

Picture above is a Tandy 6000 HD. My friend's computer was basically this machine but it had 2 8" floppies and an external hard drive.