Speed of mainframes

hiravibk · Active User Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 103 Location: India

Hi All,

Why is mainframes so faster than other systems?
Is it because of its stoarage architecture where in data is stored in files rather than in tables? And how is this kind of storage increses the speed of the machine?

Thank you,
Ravi

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:10 pm Post subject:

What "other systems" do you want to consider here?

hiravibk · Active User Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 103 Location: India

expat · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:14 pm Post subject:

Are we talking about mainframes versus whatever, or data handling techniques ?

hiravibk · Active User Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 103 Location: India

expat,

i would like to know how the data handling technique in mainframes is different from the data handling technique in other databases.

Thank you,
Ravi

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:37 pm Post subject: Reply to: Speed of mainframes

you are trying to compare apples with cars

mainframe relates to hardware
database relates to software

Robert Sample · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:24 pm Post subject:

This is a complex question, complicated by the lack of knowledge the o/p displays in confusing terms that should not be mixed.

On the hardware side, the z10 processor (the latest IBM mainframe) runs at 5 Ghz which is faster than most other processors. However, the hardware cycle time is not the ultimate determination of speed on a system. The hardware and software on a mainframe cooperate in dividing workloads up and handling them in a distributed fashion so I/O is not handled by the same processor doing calculations.

The storage architecture plays a role, but I'm not aware of any system anywhere that uses tables instead of files as its underlying architecture. Every data base system depends upon files to define the tables that are used by applications.

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject:

Mainframe computers often have multiple processors. Not just 2 or 4, but 16 or more. Also, mainframes are much better at access memory, and can processes it in bigger chunks. Finally, most mainframes have highly optimized, focused operating systems.

Having said that, anyhow, what I infer so far, OP wants to compare the "processing speed" of DB2 on MVS and in open systems, probably.