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e this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikimedia commons wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia large and powerful computer mainframe redirects here for other uses see mainframe disambiguation a single frame ibm z15 mainframe larger capacity models can have up to four total frames this model has blue accents as compared with the linuxone iii model with orange highlights a pair of ibm mainframes on the left is the ibm z systems z13 on the right is the ibm linuxone rockhopper an ibm system z9 mainframe a mainframe computer informally called a mainframe maxicomputer 1 2 or big iron 3 is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses industry and consumer statistics enterprise resource planning and large scale transaction processing a mainframe computer is large but not as large as a supercomputer and has more processing power than some other classes of computers such as minicomputers workstations and personal computers most large scale computer system architectures were established in the 1960s but they continue to evolve mainframe computers are often used as servers the term mainframe was derived from the large cabinet called a main frame 4 that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers 5 6 7 later the term mainframe was used to distinguish high end commercial computers from less powerful machines 8 design edit this section needs more citations please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed august 2026 learn how and when to remove this message modern mainframe design is characterized less by raw computational speed and more by redundant internal engineering resulting in high reliability and security extensive input output i o facilities with the ability to offload to separate engines strict backward compatibility with older software high hardware and computational utilization rates through virtualization to support massive throughput hot swapping of hardware such as processors and memory the high stability and reliability of mainframes enable these machines to run uninterrupted for very long periods of time with mean time between failures mtbf measured in decades mainframes have high availability one of the primary reasons for their longevity since they are typically used in applications where downtime would be costly or catastrophic high levels of reliability availability and serviceability ras is a defining characteristic of mainframe computers in addition mainframes are more secure than other computer types the nist vulnerabilities database us cert rates traditional mainframes such as ibm z previously called z systems system z and zseries vague unisys dorado and unisys libra as among the most secure with vulnerabilities in the low single digits as compared to thousands for windows unix and linux 9 not specific enough to verify software upgrades usually require setting up the operating system or portions thereof and are non disruptive only when using virtualizing facilities such as ibm z os and parallel sysplex or unisys xpcl which support workload sharing so that one system can take over another s application while it is being refreshed in the late 1950s mainframes had only a rudimentary interactive interface the console and used sets of punched cards paper tape or magnetic tape to transfer data and programs they operated in batch mode to support back office functions such as payroll and customer billing most of which were based on repeated tape based sorting and merging operations followed by line printing to preprinted continuous stationery when interactive user terminals were introduced they were used almost exclusively for applications e g airline booking rather than program development however in 1961 the first 10 academic general purpose timesharing system that supported software development 11 ctss was released at mit on an ibm 709 later 7090 and 7094 12 typewriter and teletype devices were common control consoles for system operators through the early 1970s although ultimately supplanted by keyboard display devices by the early 1970s many mainframes acquired interactive user terminals nb 1 operating as timesharing computers supporting hundreds of users simultaneously along with batch processing users gained access through keyboard typewriter terminals and later character mode text nb 2 terminal cathode ray tube displays with integral keyboards or finally from personal computers equipped with terminal emulation software by the 1980s many mainframes supported general purpose graphic display terminals and terminal emulation but not graphical user interfaces this form of end user computing became obsolete in the 1990s due to the advent of personal computers provided with graphical user interfaces after 2000 modern mainframes partially or entirely phased out classic green screen and color display terminal access for end users in favour of web style user interfaces the infrastructure requirements were drastically reduced during the mid 1990s when cmos mainframe designs replaced the older bipolar technology ibm claimed that its newer mainframes reduced data center energy costs for power and cooling and reduced physical space requirements compared to server farms 13 characteristics edit inside an ibm system z9 mainframe that has an ibm thinkpad integrated into the system as a hardware management console hmc the hmc is used by the operator to control e g the hardware the pr sm configuration a secondary function is to serve as a low performance operator console via a proprietary interface the hmc is not supported as a terminal and remote access to it is limited to http two other thinkpads serve as support elements and backup hmcs modern mainframes can run multiple different instances of operating systems at the same time this technique of virtual machines allows applications to run as if they were on physically distinct computers in this role a single mainframe can replace higher functioning hardware services available to conventional servers while mainframes pioneered this capability virtualization is now available on most families of computer systems though not always to the same degree or level of sophistication 14 mainframes can add or hot swap system capacity without disrupting system function with specificity and granularity to a level of sophistication not usually available with most server solutions citation needed modern mainframes notably the ibm z servers offer two levels of virtualization logical partitions lpars via the pr sm facility and virtual machines via the z vm operating system many mainframe customers run two machines one in their primary data center and one in their backup data center fully active partially active or on standby in case there is a catastrophe affecting the first building test development training and production workload for applications and databases can run on a single machine except for extremely large demands where the capacity of one machine might be limiting such a two mainframe installation can support continuous business service avoiding both planned and unplanned outages in practice many customers use multiple mainframes linked either by parallel sysplex and shared dasd in ibm s case citation needed or with shared geographically dispersed storage provided by emc or hitachi mainframes are designed to handle very high volume input and output i o and emphasize throughput computing since the late 1950s nb 3 mainframe designs have included subsidiary hardware nb 4 called channels or peripheral processors which manage the i o devices leaving the cpu free to deal only with high speed memory it is common in mainframe shops to deal with massive databases and files gigabyte to terabyte size record files are not unusual 15 compared to a typical pc mainframes commonly have hundreds to thousands of times as much data storage online 16 and can access it reasonably quickly other server families also offload i o processing and emphasize throughput computing mainframe return on investment roi like any other computing platform is dependent on its ability to scale support mixed workloads reduce labor costs deliver uninterrupted service for critical business applications and several other risk adjusted cost factors mainframes also have execution integrity characteristics for fault tolerant computing for example z900 z990 system z9 and system z10 servers effectively execute result oriented instructions twice compare results arbitrate between any differences through instruction retry and failure isolation then shift workloads in flight to functioning processors including spares without any impact to operating systems applications or users this hardware level feature also found in hp s nonstop systems is known as lock stepping because both processors take their steps i e instructions together not all applications absolutely need the assured integrity that these systems provide but many do such as financial transaction processing citation needed mainframe audit edit a mainframe audit is a comprehensive inspection of computer processes security and procedures with recommendations for improvement organizations in different industries have different auditing and security requirements some factors affecting the organizations requirements are regulatory requirements and other external factors management objectives and business practices and the organizations performance compared to the industry this information can be obtained by conducting outside research interviewing employees touring the data center and observing activities consultations with technical experts and looking at company manuals and business plans another consideration is the level of mainframe access employees have and if password policies are in place and followed evidence of implementation can be obtained by requesting employee manuals evaluating the software and user histories and by physical observation of the environment 17 physical access is also an area of interest are cables adequately protected from damage and sniffing between the network and the data center this can be achieved by proper routing of the cables encryption and a good network topology physical observation of where the cables are routed and confirmation of the security procedures should be obtained tests of controls should be conducted to determine any additional weaknesses does the mainframe have access to an adequate uninterruptible power supply are physical controls such as power badges for access fire suppression devices and locks in place to protect the data center and the mainframe inside from theft manipulation or damage physical observation is necessary to ensure these requirements an operating system is usually designed with the following considerations there must be controls in place to ensure the software is continually updated is the software configured to do updates or is it done by the system technicians controls should be in place to deter unauthorized manipulation or theft of data proper separation of duties also needs to be verified the company s internal controls need to be tested to determine if they are effective samples of entries into the system should be examined to verify that the controls are effective while unauthorized and suspicious voided transactions need to be investigated 17 there must not be any processes on the system that could needlessly compromise other components procedures and measures need to be in place to minimize the risk of unauthorized access through backdoors in the system such as the program properties table ppt there should be an accurate audit trail that can be followed 18 security audits usually have the following considerations are proper separation of duties implemented and enforced and are technology and procedures in place to make sure there is a continuous and accurate audit trail controls need to be put in place to minimize the risk of unnecessary and unauthorized entry into the system and the protection of passwords computer assisted audit techniques should be used to scan the system continuous monitoring is ideal with human observations conducted to verify procedures such as to verify that protocols like separation of duties are being followed security software such as racf acf2 and top secret need to be constantly evaluated to verify that they are providing the necessary security and if additional protection such as new firewalls is needed 18 these products are the mainframe s main access control mechanism and as such special care should be applied when analyzing verify proper user types are in use and that the sharing of credentials is never accepted current market edit ibm with the ibm z series continues to be a major manufacturer in the mainframe market in 2000 hitachi co developed the zseries z900 with ibm to share expenses and the latest hitachi ap10000 models are made by ibm unisys manufactures clearpath libra mainframes based on earlier burroughs mcp products and clearpath dorado mainframes based on sperry univac os 1100 product lines hewlett packard enterprise sells its unique nonstop systems which it acquired with tandem computers and which some analysts classify as mainframes groupe bull s gcos stratus openvos fujitsu formerly siemens bs2000 and fujitsu icl vme mainframes are still available in europe and fujitsu formerly amdahl gs21 mainframes globally nec with acos and hitachi with ap10000 vos3 19 still maintain mainframe businesses in the japanese market the amount of vendor investment in mainframe development varies with market share fujitsu and hitachi both continue to use custom s 390 compatible processors as well as other cpus including power and xeon for lower end systems bull uses a mixture of itanium and xeon processors nec uses xeon processors for its low end acos 2 line but develops the custom noah 6 processor for its high end acos 4 series ibm also develops custom processors in house such as the telum unisys produces code compatible mainframe systems that range from laptops to cabinet sized mainframes that use homegrown cpus as well as xeon processors furthermore there exists a market for software applications to manage the performance of mainframe implementations in addition to ibm significant market competitors include bmc 20 and precisely 21 former competitors include compuware 22 23 and ca technologies 24 history edit see also history of computing hardware this section needs to be updated please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information july 2026 operator s console for an ibm 701 several manufacturers and their successors produced mainframe computers from the 1950s until the early 21st century with gradually decreasing numbers and a...
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