Mainframes as a lifestyle choice(wozniak.ca) |
Mainframes as a lifestyle choice(wozniak.ca) |
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-bordercross...
I was also thinking about going the mainframe route, also because general impression is that the mainframe developer earns big bucks. However, when I started exploring the job offers I was surprised that salaries were not that high at all.
So why is that impression still around, and do mainframe developers really earn significantly more money than a full stack enterprise web developer?
I've heard similar stories all over from companies on Mainframe/AS400 platforms. It's totally anecdotal, but at this point it's pretty in character from IBM these days.
Me too. Sounds fun. Plus, I liked the 3278 a lot.
I worked as a CPU logic designer on several mainframes of different architectures before moving to Sili Valley. The "look what I just invented" arrogance I encountered astounded me. When I said something like: "You know, Seymour Cray invented that around 1959, right?" the cognitive dissonance was more than they could handle -- I was usually ignored. So, no, they aren't re-implementing, they are genuinely re-creating history and being proud of themselves for it.
These are completely disconnected from commodity hardware. They are descendents of System/360, with a completely custom architecture and "mainframe processors" which only run specific types of code (Java, XML, DB2).
Or that's what I gather from wikipedia anyway.
In the old days you had various modules you connected with dedicated CPUs for certain tasks, you'd pay more for them. These days they have a bunch of CPUs and the amount of money you pay IBM determines what those CPUs can do.
There's no physical difference between the Linux CPU, the DB2 CPU and the Java CPU, they're all the same as the main CPUs. IBM just charge you more for general purpose CPUs.
http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Eternal_Mainframe.h...
Plug: I wrote the above.
"Building Go for Linux on z System"
> The HostBridge JavaScript Engine (HB.js) is server-side JavaScript for CICS® applications and IBM z Systems™ data assets
> HB.js runs inside CICS and supports:
> CICS terminal-oriented (visual) transactions (Orchestrate CICS terminal-oriented transaction micro flows as single services)
> BMS, non-BMS, 3270, and CA application types
> COMMAREA (non-visual) programs (Orchestrate and aggregate transactions, programs (e.g., COMMAREA), and data into single composite services)
> DB2®, VSAM™, DL/I, Datacom®, and other data assets
> Connectivity via HTTP, LINK/EXCI, Enhanced WebSphere MQ Extended Multi-Region Operation (MRO)
https://www.hostbridge.com/index.php/products/javascript-web...
It may be worth re-reading the article.
Still, mainframes...
I know/do banking with staff in China, around 300 mainframe engineers, with average tenure around 5 years, which is miles ahead of India. If you'd like pointers for mainframe in China, drop me a mail.
Last time I did it, Dell took several weeks to deliver the new machine.
To be fair, Atari and Commodore computers already had that.
And the marvelous 1403 printer would often be driven by a 1401.
And it's not that IBM deliver an entire server like in your case. For most practical applications, it's merely the case of adding CPUs to the pool of CPUs available to the PowerVM hypervisor. If you need to provision additional memory or IO, that needs to be accounted in as well.
That hypervisor is weird on it's own. It's part firmware part software.
If you have big box serving your users who solely rely on CPU cycles then yes, it's a sweet deal. And consider yourself very lucky if you have users who will immediately see better performance if you throw more CPU cycles at them.
That was in the early 90's and a lot could have changed since then.