Talk:IBM mainframe

'Unicode figure space' comes out like 'unknown glyph' square
...even though I use Unicode (UTF-8) character encoding in my web browser! How come? If this can't be sorted out, I propose we return to the use of 'ordinary' spaces (&amp;nbsp;s). --Wernher 02:07, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Which 1st, 2nd generation machines are mainframes and ...?
Can't tell from this article. Should the "Smaller machines" listed be included in the IBM midrange computer article? Is a "smaller" 360 (article does mention such), the 360/20 for example, a mainframe? Should the two articles, mainframe and midrange, account for all machines other than personal computers? tooold 07:05, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Oops, get correct edit summary. tooold 07:07, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Early history
This article fails to describe the Manchester contribution —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.78.145.81 (talk) 23:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm assuming that this refers to the Ferranti Atlas rather than to very early Manchester machines. The paging on the 360//67 and S/370 was almost certainly inspired by other US vendors, e.g., GE, rather than directly from Atlas.


 * If the reference was to the B lines of the Manchester Mark 1, then Manchester affected far more than mainframes. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:17, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Fix the lead
Typical Wikiconfusion. How does the 709 trace its ancestry to the 360 series, being as it came out decades before it? Having a dogpile of editors doesn't lead to maximizing goodness of text. --Wtshymanski (talk) 13:15, 5 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The lead doesn't make such a claim. The lead claims that current IBM mainframes derive from the S/360, and the 709 is far from current. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:17, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, no, it doesn't, not in the two years since this change . It's useful to look at the date stamp on comments. --Wtshymanski (talk) 19:07, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Hardware support for OS
"The System/360 was also the first computer in wide use to include dedicated hardware provisions for the use of operating systems." This doesn't sound right to me, even for some values of "in wide use." Comments?Peter Flass (talk) 13:12, 24 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what dedicated hardware provisions means, but certainly the S/360 has no better claim than the earlier Burroughs B5000 and GE 625. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:17, 15 August 2012 (UTC)


 * The article gives supervisor/user mode, and memory protection, as examples of those "dedicated hardware provisions"; neither of those were first introduced in S/360, as you note. The only way the claim would be justified if S/360 were "in wide use" but neither the B5000 nor GE-600 series were "in wide use"; anybody have any statistics on that? Guy Harris (talk) 21:21, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

IBM LinuxONE
To clarify, IBM LinuxONE (Emperor or Rockhopper) is essentaily an IBM Z (formerly, e.g., zSystem) with support for z/OS removed. It supports virualization both through z/VM and through KVM. I don't know how much material on it should be added to the article.

Note that the existing link under See Also is for Linux on Z rather than for LinuxOne. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 19:07, 26 November 2018 (UTC)


 * So is an IBM LinuxONE just a machine where all the processors have Integrated Facility for Linux firmware? Guy Harris (talk) 21:25, 26 November 2018 (UTC)


 * More precisely, it's a machine that has IFL, SAP and spare engines, but no engines configurable for Central Processor (CP), Integrated Coupling Facility (ICF), z Application Assist Processor (ZAAP) or z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP). Since the SAP runs the I/O subsystem, you can't do without it. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 23:20, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Citations for IBSYS/IBJOB
The article has two citations for IBSYS; one has an unhelpful URL and one is for an unrelated operating system. Does anyone know of publicly accessible online copies of the IBM Systems Journal articles on IBSYS/IBJOB? Or should I just cite the reference manuals from bitsavers? --Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 13:50, 14 January 2022 (UTC)


 * The first citation is archived in the Wayback Machine, so I added an archive URL. (At this time, the Wayback Machine is restarting from a "planned power outage", and they seem to be timing out on some requests, so be patient.)  Guy Harris (talk) 23:19, 14 January 2022 (UTC)