18 Oct
2011
18 Oct
'11
1:44 p.m.
On 10/18/2011 04:15 PM, Rich Alderson wrote:
Hey Rich...If you're suggesting z/Series machines are based on POWER
processors, please provide some references. Everything I've ever seen
about them (including rooting around inside the z890 in the next room)
says they're completely self-contained with their own CPU implementation
family. Lots of people have suggested that modern IBM mainframes are
somehow built around RS/6000 chipsets with different microcode, but have
never been able to back up those claims.
(not trying to be argumentative, and would happily stand corrected,
but I keep hearing people make this statement and then fall silent when
asked to prove it)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA
When people
wanted to port the IBM OS family to x86 they wrote Hercules to
emulate the hardware. The OS doesn't make sense on anything but System/360,
370, 390, Z, etc. It was easier to port the hardware than the software.
When IBM wanted to port the IBM OS family to POWER, they did the same thing.
(Z, in your list above.)