Slashdot Mirror
IBM Mainframe Running World's Fastest Commercial Processor
dcblogs writes "IBM's new mainframe includes a 5.5-GHz processor, which may be the world's fastest commercial processor, say analysts. This new system, the zEnterprise EC12, can also support more than 6-TB of flash memory to help speed data processing. The latest chip has six cores, up from four in the prior generation two years ago. But Jeff Frey, the CTO of the System Z platform, says they aren't trading off single-thread performance in the mainframe with the additional cores. There are still many customers who have applications that execute processes serially, such as batch applications, he said. This latest chip was produced at 32 nanometers, versus 45 nanometers in the earlier system. This smaller size allows more cache on the chip, in this case 33% more Level-2 cache. The system has doubled the L3 and L4 cache over the prior generation."
So, you're comparing a ridiculous configuration of a nitrogen-cooled, over-clocked processor that will maybe run long enough to get a screen shot of it running, to a commercial processor that is designed to run at that speed non-stop for years and years? Yeah, that makes sense.
You have a point, but you missed it. At least talk in terms of modern workloads. These machines are running over 1,500 MIPS. Your talk of systems running 25-30 MIPS is silly. If your 114 is running at 25 MIPS it is broken. Really, really broken.
No single processor desktop CPU can handle that. Even dual processors. Hercules is no where near the performance of a modern Z series mainframe.
Can you build a server complex with more MIPS for less money? Absolutely. The question becomes what is the cost and risk of migrating that legacy application.
Well, no. Right tool for the right job and all. You can buy the world's most expensive Olympic racing bicycle, but it won't haul an Airbus fuselage to its factory. There are many problems that cannot be solved with infinite amounts of money wrongly applied.