COMPUTER TRAINING COURSE- MAINFRAME

Source:- Freshersworld

What is mainframe computing?

Mainframe computing is the evolving general purpose computing platform incorporating the essential functionality required by its target applications. This technology is used for preparing critical accuracy driven computing applications. These are powerful computers used for bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and transaction processing. The term originally referred to the large cabinets that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers. Later, the term was used to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units.

Most modern mainframe design is not so much defined by single task computational speed resulting in high reliability and security, extensive input-output facilities, strict backward compatibility with older software, and high hardware and computational utilization rates to support massive throughput. These machines often run for long periods of time without interruption, given their inherent high stability and reliability.

Nearly all mainframes have the ability to run (or host) multiple operating systems, and thereby operate as a host of a collective of virtual machines. In this role, a single mainframe can replace higher-functioning hardware services available to conventional servers. While mainframes pioneered this capability, virtualization is now available on most families of computer systems

Mainframes can add to system capacity without disrupting system function, with specificity and granularity to a level of sophistication not usually available with most server solutions.

Why Mainframe Computing?

Mainframe technology is a kind of niche and highly applicable computing for very huge and critical applications which otherwise would be very time consuming.

Mainframes are designed to handle very high volume input and output (I/O) and emphasize throughput computing. It is return on investment (ROI), like any other computing platform, is dependent on its ability to scale, support mixed workloads, reduce labor costs, deliver uninterrupted service for critical businessapplications, and several other risk-adjusted cost factors.Mainframes also have execution integrity characteristics for fault tolerant computing.

All applications which needed assured integrity such as financial transaction processing are wrun through mainframes only.

One of the most striking elements of mainframe computing, is the extent to which the architecture changes to accommodate user requirements.

In addition it also provides maximum I/O Connectivity  and maximum I/O Bandwidth in comparison to other computer systems.

In summary, the essential characteristics of a mainframe are: rapid and continuing evolution, general purpose orientation, hardware implemented solutions, and the criticality of user input to all of these processes.

Scope/Applications of mainframe computing 

• Performing large-scale transaction processing (thousands of transactions persecond)
• Computing census data
• Computing highly accurate applications
• Managing huge volume of data
• Support thousands of users and application programs concurrently accessingnumerous resources
• Managing terabytes of information in databases
• Handling large-bandwidth communication

Eligibility

Any undergraduate can learn main frame computing but it needs a knack for it because it is a rare computing technology.