Hardware and software

Mainframe and supercomputers

 Used mainly for bulk data-processing by large organizations e.g. Industry and consumer
statistics, transaction processing
 Mainframes have more processing power than PC’s
 Mainframes evolve because of features like RAS
 Most PC’s and laptops have many cores to give the effect of having many processors, allowing
them to perform parallel processing instead or serial processing
 Serial processing is tasks performed one by one while parallel processing is simultaneous
operations
 A mainframe is a multi-tasking, multi-user computer
 They almost have total reliability with resistance against malware

Characteristics of mainframes and supercomputers

 Longevity – mainframes have great lifespans because they can run continuously for long periods
of time with extensive encryption to provide businesses security
 RAS
Reliability, availability and serviceability
- Reliability: mainframes’ processors are able to check themselves for errors and recover
without harming their operations.
- Availability: mainframes are available at all times for extended periods.
MTBF is the average time between downtimes of a system during its normal operation
- Serviceability: a mainframe can discover why a failure occurred so that hardware and
software can be replaced without great effect on its operations
 Security
- Mainframes are more secure than other types of computer systems. Data security is
protection of data from intentional/accidental destruction, modification or disclosure
- Mainframes store large volumes of data, especially personal data in the banking sector, that
has to be shared by banks with their customers
- Data has to be secure and only viewed by authorized personnel

Layers of security of a mainframe

- User identification and authentication: more systems are using multi-factor authentication,
combo of 2 or more of a pw, physical token, biometric key or time restricted randomized
PIN
- Levels of access: viewing data sets depends on a user’s level of security
- Encryption of transmitted data and data within the system
- Secure operating systems
- Continual system monitoring for unauthorized access attempts.
Performance metrics

 These are measures to determine the quality and speed of data processing. A mainframe’s CPU
speed is measured in Millions of instructions per second(MIPS)
 Supercomputers use different metrics as they mainly deal with scientific calculations. Speeds
are measured in Floating point operations per second(FLOPS)
 Current speeds are in Teraflops.

Volume of I/O and throughput

 It has to be considered when describing computers

 Mainframes have peripheral processors dealing with all I/O ops, leaving the CPU to concentrate
on data processing
 This enables them to deal with huge amounts of data being input, records being accessed, and
subsequently large volumes of output being produced
 A supercomputer has max power and speed whereas mainframes deal with throughput

Fault tolerance

 Computers with fault tolerance can continue to operate even when one of its components fail
 It may operate at a lower level but not completely fail
 Mainframes are fault tolerant in terms of hardware; the system can switch from a processor to
another if it fails during operation, without disrupting data processing

Operating systems

 Most mainframes run multiple OS’s at any given time such as z/OS, z/VM and Linux
 The OS on a mainframe divides tasks into various sub-tasks assigned to different cores
 When each subtask has been processed the results are recombined to produce a meaningful
output, that is parallel processing
 Supercomputers tend to have just one OS, Linux, but they utilize massively parallel processing
with their many cores

Type of processor

 Mainframes evolved from having just one processor (the CPU), but because more and more
processors were included the terms processor and CPU got confused
 One major mainframe manufacturer called them (mainframes) CPU complexes, which contained
many processors
 The number of processor cores found in a mainframe is now measured in the hundreds

Heat maintenance

Heat maintenance/management takes place on mainframes and supercomputers because of the

large number of processors they have

Factors threatening continued existence of mainframes

 Lack of experienced IT professionals who can maintain or program mainframes

  New technological developments, like cloud computing, which is accessible from anywhere,
reducing the need to maintain expensive hardware within an organization
 Time taken to configure a mainframe

Mainframe computer uses

- Mainframes play a vital role in the daily ops of finance companies, healthcare providers,
insurance companies, energy providers and airlines (large businesses)
- They can process huge amounts of data, which is useful in batch processing
- Batches of transactions are processed by the mainframe without user interaction
- Census: enormous amounts of data to process
- Industry statistics: industrial businesses need mainframes to process the vast amount of
data used to identify their major competitors
- Consumer statistics: they produce a large amount of data used by businesses to assess
demand for their products
- Transaction processing: when an online transaction occurs, the database updates in
milliseconds. A mainframe performs hundreds of MIPS while always being available

Supercomputer uses

- Quantum mechanics: the study of the behavior or matter and light which involves an
immense number of highly accurate calculations that only a supercomputer can do
- Weather forecasting: based on the use of very complex computer models with a huge
number of complex calculations that only a supercomputer can do
- Climate research: climate measurements take place over a much longer timescale. The data
collected over several decades shows trends of different variables over time, like forecasting

Advantages of mainframes

 They are reliable with rare downtimes

 They get faster and more powerful each year
 They deal with huge amounts of data that large organizations need to store and process
 They can run different OS’s coping with data from different formats
 They have stronger security than other platforms, with their encryptions and authorization
procedures

Disadvantages of mainframes

 They are expensive to buy and maintain

 They require a lot of space
 They require expensive cooling systems to be ran through them
 Mainframe system software is more costly to buy than using the cloud

Advantages of supercomputers

 They are the fastest data processing computers

 They use massive parallel processing, making them faster and more powerful than mainframes
Disadvantages of supercomputers

 They are the most expensive computers to buy and install

 They can only have one OS
 They are less fault tolerant than mainframes

System software

 This refers to programs that run and control a computer’s hardware and application software
 Examples include compilers, interpreters, linkers, device drivers, operating systems and utilities

Compilers

 Most computer software is in machine code, that is stored in binary (which a computer
understands) within the computer.
 A compiler is a program that processes statements written in high level programming languages
and converts them to machine code that a processor can understand and execute
 It translates an HLP called source code into an exe file called object code
 The compiled program is ran directly without the need for the compiler’s presence
 Compilers may translate the whole program as a unit, but they may need to make more than
one pass through the program to do it
 A compiler produces a list of error messages after translating the program

Interpreters

 An interpreter translates the HLP one statement or line at a time into an intermediate form
which it executes
 An interpreted program can be transferred between computers with different OS’s because it
remains in source code form
 It takes more time than a compiler but it can be distributed regardless of processor or OS of the
computer
 Unlike a compiler, translation occurs with program execution
 The interpreter has to be resident in memory in order for the program to execute
 Only a few lines of the program need to be in memory at any one time so as to save memory

Linkers

 A linker/link editor, is a system program that combines object files or modules that a compiler
created, into one single exe file
 Most programs are written in modular form i.e. A group of programmers write separate
pieces/modules of code, then those modules are combined to form the whole program
 A linker is used to combine different modules of object code into one executable code program
 It could be that a large program is only compiled in small parts because there may not be
enough RAM to run the whole program and the compiler program

Device drivers
 A device driver is a small program that enables the OS and app software to communicate with a
hardware device
 E.g. A printer driver which acts as an interface between the OS (or any running app software)
and the printer
 Other devices needing drivers are sound cards, monitors, mice, SSD’s, network cards, keyboards,
disk drivers and many other hardware items