Name: SAMANIEGO, JOVIT D.

Date: February, 07 2017

CYS: ECE 5B

World Counter: The Mainframe Computers

How many of people have heard of these type of computers? Weve been hitting only the ups
of technology, chasing the countless trends every year and it seems the human is only attracted to
spotlight. No doubt that in the future, these mainframe computers will be forgotten, invisible but still
be running.

The term mainframe is synonymous to big computer as it refers to frames which holds processor
circuits and main memory, separate from racks or cabinets holding other components. These big
computers became popular after the transistor-based computer (second generation) replaced the
vacuum-tube machines (first generation). To majority of knowledgeable people, mainframe computers
and IBM are inseparable. IBM produced these type of computers, IBM mainframes, since 1952.
Nevertheless, there are other manufacturers of mainframes today like Fujitsu & Hitachi, Unisys and Bull.

Aside from mainframes longevity and extensive computing operation, its capabilities ranges
from various types of application. In banking, finance, health care, insurance, utilities, government, and
a multitude of other public and private enterprises, the mainframe computer continues to be the
foundation of modern business. Thus, just about everyone has used a mainframe computer at one point
or another. If you ever used an automated teller machine (ATM) to interact with your bank account, you
used a mainframe.

Janet L. Sun, from Immediate Past President, SHARE Inc., specifically stressed the key points of
using mainframes today; (1) 96 of the worlds top 100 banks, 23 of the 25 top US retailers, and 9 out of
10 of the worlds largest insurance companies run System z, (2) seventy-one percent of global Fortune
500 companies are System z clients, (3) nine out of the top 10 global life and health insurance providers
process their high-volume transactions on a System z mainframe, (4) mainframes process roughly 30
billion business transactions per day, including most major credit card transactions and stock trades,
money transfers, manufacturing processes, and ERP systems.

Timeless and countless this is a pair of description suited for this type of technology. These
mainframes were once mass produced but the specific number of these working mainframes today is
classified. But Monica Nixon, a director of Corporate Strategy in Vanguard Integrity Professionals,
shared her opinion about this questionable number. She posted, Well, in 2008 there were
roughly 10,000 mainframe "footprints" in the world to hear it told by IBM personnel that stipulate they
keep track of the install base by serial number. This was posted in a website (Quora.com) last August
14, 2015.

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IBM System z9 is a line of IBM mainframe

computers. The first models were available on
September 16, 2005. The System z9 also marks
the end of the previously
used eServer zSeries naming convention. It was
also the last mainframe computer that NASA
ever used

Inside the IBM System z9

The CP-104UL is a 4-port RS-

232 Universal PCI board that
adheres to Low Profile
specifications, which means it
can fit into any type of PC.
CP-104UL
Over 800 Kbps data
throughput for top
performance
921.6 Kbps maximum
baudrate for super fast data
transmission
128-byte FIFO and on-chip
H/W, S/W flow control
Compatible with 3.3/5V PCI
and PCI-X
Drivers provided for Windows CP-104UL (Moxa Solution)
(Vista, 2003, XP, 2000),
WinCE 5.0, Linux, and Unix
15 KV ESD protection on the
board