IBM Comes Up with the Fastest Mainframe in the World


Bangalore: IBM, the company famous for its mainframe computers a decade ago, has lately been shifting its focus to software and services, which are found to be profitable than selling mainframe computers. But this week, it introduced a new range of mainframe computers as this section help feed demand for the hardware giant.

The company claimed the new model to be the most powerful and technologically advanced ever and is promoting it as one of the most secure systems. It has overhead power and cabling support, which is the first for a mainframe computer. Designed to help clients securely and quickly, zEnterprise EC12 mainframe server runs at 5.5 GHz powered by the fastest chip in the world. Its processing speed is 25 per cent faster than the previous model.

This 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 percent more Level-2 cache. The system has doubled the L3 and L4 cache over the prior generation. The system can support as many as 120 cores.