mainframe computer
Corporate computing giant
A mainframe computer is a large, powerful computer designed to process vast amounts of data and support many simultaneous users.
Mainframes dominated business and government computing from the 1960s through the 1980s, housed in dedicated rooms with climate control.
Though largely supplanted by smaller systems, mainframes still run critical operations at banks, airlines, and government agencies: The payroll system runs on an old mainframe.
Facility housing networked computers
- serverOne who attends tables
- COBOLElderly business-oriented programming language
- batch processingRunning queued jobs automatically
- capacity planningEstimating future resource requirements
systems analyst · client-server · terminal · timesharing · resource allocation
Processing rate over time
- scalabilityCapacity for growth
- MIPSProcessor speed measure
- teraflopsComputational speed unit
- parallel processingSimultaneous computational operations
batch processing · high-performance · workload · capacity · response time · benchmark
Continuous operational period
- fault-tolerantContinues despite component failures
- redundantExceeding what's needed
- resilientAble to recover quickly
- robustStrong and durable
dependable · disaster recovery · non-stop · hot-swap · failover · error correction · self-healing · uninterrupted
Creating simulated computing environments
- multiprocessingConcurrent execution across CPUs
- channelPassage for transmission
- hypervisorVirtual machine management layer
datacenter
Facility housing networked computers
- serverOne who attends tables
- COBOLElderly business-oriented programming language
- batch processingRunning queued jobs automatically
capacity planning · systems analyst · client-server · terminal · timesharing · resource allocation
throughput
Processing rate over time
- scalabilityCapacity for growth
- MIPSProcessor speed measure
- teraflopsComputational speed unit
parallel processing · batch processing · high-performance · workload · capacity · response time · benchmark
uptime
Continuous operational period
- fault-tolerantContinues despite component failures
- redundantExceeding what's needed
- resilientAble to recover quickly
robust · dependable · disaster recovery · non-stop · hot-swap · failover · error correction · self-healing · uninterrupted · mission-critical
virtualization
Creating simulated computing environments
- multiprocessingConcurrent execution across CPUs
- channelPassage for transmission
- hypervisorVirtual machine management layer
- computerscomputers, desktop, desktops, laptop, laptops
- midcentury technologytransistor radio, color TV, rotary phone, tape recorder, record player
mainframe computerpersonal computer
Individual-use computing machine
desktop computer · microcomputer · laptop · notebook computer · smartphone
mainframe computercloud computing
Internet-delivered digital infrastructure
mainframe computerpersonal computer
Individual-use computing machine
mobile device · home computer · consumer electronics · smartphone · wearable computer
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