Posted by Mike on Thursday, October 27, 2011
John McCarthy, a computer scientist who helped design the foundation of today’s Internet-based computing and who is widely credited with coining the term for a frontier of research he helped pioneer, Artificial Intelligence, or A.I., died on Monday at his home in Stanford, Calif. He was 84.
The cause was complications of heart disease, his daughter Sarah McCarthy said.
McCarthy was instrumental in developing the first time-sharing system for mainframe computers.
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Posted by Mike on Sunday, October 16, 2011
High obsolescence is a hallmark of information technology. By industry standards, 18 months, at best, is the longevity of a product or technology. But the IT space’s longest survivor, one that is there from the beginning, is the most unlikeliest of them all, the mainframe.
Its epitaph was written long ago. Universities rusticated mainframe from their curriculum decades back, thinking that skinny personal computers will drive out the bulky box that needs almost a whole room and all the paraphernalia, not to speak of a dedicated team of eternally confounded operators, to run it. But now, the storied PCs are on their way out, but the ‘big iron’ is firmly stay put, though a lot slimmer and trimmer.
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Posted by Trevor Eddolls on Sunday, October 9, 2011
Mainframes are so amazingly powerful and versatile, wouldn’t you like to have one in your pocket? Maybe that’s not possible (yet), but there have been many attempts over the years to shrink down the mainframe to a more manageable size.
I’m not talking about some sci fi shrink ray wielded by some fearsome purple-coloured alien, I’m talking about the use of emulation software to make one lot of hardware successfully interpret instructions designed to be used on completely different hardware – and vice versa. The mainframe programs think they are running on a mainframe and continue quite happily – totally unaware of the work being performed by the emulation software.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Mike on Sunday, October 2, 2011
New workloads account for almost one-third of MIPS growth, and mainframers are as optimistic as ever about the future of Big Iron.
The mainframe has never been more essential. That’s the not-so-surprising upshot of BMC Software Corp.’s sixth annual Worldwide Mainframe Survey, which — like previous years — suggests Big Iron is doing just fine, thank you.
Big mainframe shops are big MIPS consumers. MIPS capacity continues to expand: more than two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said their transaction volumes for existing applications are growing; almost as many (65 percent) cited business growth as an important engine for MIPS expansion. Almost one-third (31 percent) said new workloads are driving MIPS growth.
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Posted by Mike on Monday, September 19, 2011
Brewster Smith specialized in mainframe systems for 35 years in the technology industry, recently converting his employer’s mainframe to servers that use newer programming languages. When Smith completed the project in July, his company laid him off because his skills no longer fit the new system. Read more…
Posted by Mike on Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Mainframe growth expected to accelerate with business growth and increasing transaction volumes
Mobile access and cloud are important considerations for the future of the mainframe. Read more…
Posted by Mike on Thursday, August 25, 2011
Paul Allen, Microsoft’s “Idea Man,” is an aficionado of relic computing devices—the older and more obscure, the better. He collects them, along with rare WWII fighter planes, and shares this passion at his Living Computer Museum in Seattle.
Read more at Gizmodo…
Posted by Mike on Friday, August 12, 2011
A spokesperson from the bank confirms that technical difficulties have occurred across Southern California, citing a “mainframe issue”. Frustration and confusion are just some of the emotions felt by some Bank of America customers. …
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