Mainframe










8 definitions retrieved

Dictionary

mainframe \main"frame`\ n. (Computers)

1. A large digital computer serving 100-400 users and
occupying a special air-conditioned room. At any given
point in development of computer technology, the mainframe
will be faster, have large main memeory, and be more
capable than a minicomputer, which will in turn be
faster and more capable than a personal computer. The
typical personal computer in 1999 is faster than a
mainframe was in 1970.

Syn: mainframe computer.
[WordNet 1.5 +PJC]


2. The board holding the CPU and the memory forming the
central part of a computer to which the peripherals are
attached.
[WordNet 1.5]
Dictionary

mainframe
n 1: a large digital computer serving 100-400 users and
occupying a special air-conditioned room [syn: mainframe,
mainframe computer]

2: (computer science) the part of a computer (a microprocessor
chip) that does most of the data processing; "the CPU and the
memory form the central part of a computer to which the
peripherals are attached" [syn: central processing unit,
CPU, C.P.U., central processor, processor,
mainframe]
Dictionary

mainframe

A term originally referring to the cabinet
containing the central processor unit or "main frame" of a
room-filling Stone Age batch machine. After the emergence
of smaller "minicomputer" designs in the early 1970s, the
traditional big iron machines were described as "mainframe
computers" and eventually just as mainframes. The term
carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather
than interactive use, though possibly with an interactive
time-sharing operating system retrofitted onto it; it is
especially used of machines built by IBM, Unisys and the
other great dinosaurs surviving from computing's {Stone
Age}.

It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s
that the mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead
(outside of the tiny market for number crunching
supercomputers (see Cray)), having been swamped by the
recent huge advances in integrated circuit technology and
low-cost personal computing. As of 1993, corporate America is
just beginning to figure this out - the wave of failures,
takeovers, and mergers among traditional mainframe makers have
certainly provided sufficient omens (see dinosaurs mating).

Supporters claim that mainframes still house 90% of the data
major businesses rely on for mission-critical applications,
attributing this to their superior performance, reliability,
scalability, and security compared to microprocessors.

[Jargon File]

(1996-07-22)

Dictionary

mainframe
n.

Term originally referring to the cabinet containing the central
processor unit or `main frame' of a room-filling Stone Age batch
machine. After the emergence of smaller minicomputer designs in the
early 1970s, the traditional big iron machines were described as
`mainframe computers' and eventually just as mainframes. The term
carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather than
interactive use, though possibly with an interactive timesharing
operating system retrofitted onto it; it is especially used of
machines built by IBM, Unisys, and the other great dinosaurs
surviving from computing's Stone Age.

It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s that the
mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead (outside of the
tiny market for number-crunching supercomputers having been swamped
by the recent huge advances in IC technology and low-cost personal
computing. The wave of failures, takeovers, and mergers among
traditional mainframe makers in the early 1990s bore this out. The
biggest mainframer of all, IBM, was compelled to re-invent itself as
a huge systems-consulting house. (See dinosaurs mating and {killer
micro}).

However, in yet another instance of the cycle of reincarnation, the
port of Linux to the IBM S/390 architecture in 1999 -- assisted by
IBM -- produced a resurgence of interest in mainframe computing as a
way of providing huge quantities of easily maintainable, reliable
virtual Linux servers, saving IBM's mainframe division from almost
certain extinction.

Dictionary

mainframe [meinfræm]
Großrechner; Hauptgerät

Dictionary

mainframe

Großrechner m; Mainframe m [comp.]
mainframe

Hauptgerät n
Dictionary

Mainframe
m [comp.]
mainframe

Mainframe related
Dictionary-X


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