Global CIO: IBM's Blazing New Mainframe Wins Raves From Citigroup

"If we can reduce the number of copies of data that have to be made, then that means a lot less CPU cycles needed to push all of that around, and a lot less need to back up multiple instances of data. If we can attack that, some we'll find some substantial gains there in disk storage, in network storage, etc.

"We're also optimistic that we can get some very real improvements in time-to-delivery with this machine because usually with large systems the manual integration has been heavy for us, but now IBM takes over some of that microcode work for us, and that takes something off my plate . That can improve our cost dynamics by more automation and by IBM managing the integration of all those heterogeneous parts."

Greater reliability, accelerated business processes, more innovation oriented toward customers, better data quality, improved risk management, less manual integration and maintenance, less overhead, improved business continuity, and greater support for disaster recovery: all of those factors were cited by Kennedy as reasons for his belief that the z196 is going to be true game-changer for Citigroup and its efforts to drive more customer value through technology and process innovation.

"This machine opens up all kinds of opportunities we can explore: governance models around System Z and other systems, where we can automatically push that governance out to AIX blades or x86 blades—there's lots of value in that.

"And we've looked very closely at how the z916 can tie into the cloud-computing model: if the machine can be configured in such a way that we can react to demand more quickly than before, if we can provision guests more quickly than we could before, if we can provision instance of an operating system faster than ever—all those things you want from the cloud—if we can get all those things to work, and they all prove to be cost-effective and reliable, then this could be a very viable piece of technology going forward."

And here's what IBM is saying about its new chips—and I hope that anyone who thinks IBM is turning away from hardware technology will take a very close look at these investments and achievements, because they sure seem to reflect a long-term and intense focus on hardware:

"The new microprocessor operates at clock speeds of up 5.2 gigahertz (GHz). The chip and the new mainframe it powers are the result of an investment of more than $1.5 billion by IBM . The world's fastest chip was designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, NY, and was manufactured in IBM's advanced semiconductor factory in East Fishkill, NY. The z196 chip contains 1.4 billion transistors. Ninety-six of the chips are strung together in each mainframe to handle more than 50 billion instructions per second. That's roughly 17,000 times more instructions than the first mainframe that IBM shipped out in 1970."

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