mainframe

[rookie1010]

Hello

I came acrosss this job listing which stated that the person whould be good at mainframe

what is that?

[Amd2800]

a mainframe is a Server that is run in a network

[raross]

Originally posted by rookie1010
Hello

I came acrosss this job listing which stated that the person whould be good at mainframe

what is that?

A mainframe is a very large and expensive computer capable of supporting hundreds, or even thousands, of users simultaneously. In the hierarchy that starts with a simple microprocessor (in watches, for example) at the bottom and moves to supercomputers at the top, mainframes are just below supercomputers. In some ways, mainframes are more powerful than supercomputers because they support more simultaneous programs. But supercomputers can execute a single program faster than a mainframe. The distinction between small mainframes and minicomputers is vague, depending really on how the manufacturer wants to market its machines.

Mainframe jobs are very important and very high paying. They are actually starting to make 4 year degree programs that is just about mainframes. All the old people who used to handle mainframes are now retiring, and there is becoming a shortage of people who can handle these machines.

[rookie1010]

thanks for the reply

what OS's do mainframes generally use?
what processors do they use?

do mainframe jobs usually involve networking?

[Tyler1989]

Itanium for the processors I'm guessing.

[raross]

Originally posted by Tyler1989
Itanium for the processors I'm guessing.

nope mainframes are seperate then any PC server, obviously. Most mainframes are made by Sun or IBM or other companies like these.

[rookie1010]

so mainframes use IBM powerpc or sun(sparc?) processors

[raross]

no, the mainframes hardware is not consumer level. Go search IBM for mainframes for instance. I think the cheapest mainframe would go for 20-40k at minimal. They mostly go for around 2 million etc. They are made up of parallel processors, the hardware is most likly unqiue for each machine.

You are thinking of consumer level PC processors. Thats the reason these jobs are so scarce, because the people who used to work on these mainframes are retiring and now they dont have any skilled people. They are basically two different universes, totally different.

[rookie1010]

thanks for the reply

so to get trained on mainframes, one has to go for specialist courses.

isn't there any programs which emulate mainframes,

or can you not telnet to work on mainframe

[raross]

Originally posted by rookie1010
thanks for the reply

so to get trained on mainframes, one has to go for specialist courses.

isn't there any programs which emulate mainframes,

or can you not telnet to work on mainframe

I dont know of any specialist courses or anything for mainframes. But I do know they are looking for very skilled and talented people to repair,upgrade, maintain these huge machines. I believe to get into this field though, you will need at minimal a 4 year degree. The people who run these mainframes today are mostly 40+ years experienced ppl, that will be very hard to replace. Courses defintly will not cut it. I wouldnt be surprised to see a few masters programs pop up in the near future to deal with mainframes.

However I dont think there is any emulation software, but I could be wrong. Search google, working on (software wise) mainframes is very easy. Its simular to working with unix. They need people to maintain these mainframes, repair, upgrade etc. For instance say a company that has hundreds of TB of data on a mainframe that costed them around 4 million. They are not going to want to buy a whole new system. Some of these mainframes are very very old, and are kept running by the scientists who first invented them.