TWY, >If S/390 SW was priced like NT SW, the S/390 would be HANDS DOWN the cheapest and cheapest to run and FAR more manageable and reliable.
I don't know about that anymore. Last I looked, 16 way S390s were in the millions of dollars, guessing about 4, with an appropriate amount of memory, channels, etc. If you remember the new IBM record setting tpm-c system we were kicking around this week, for 14 million, less than one fifth of that is for the server hardware (about $2.4 million). The rest, or about $12 million, went for storage hardware, client hardware, server and client software, and connectivity (hubs, etc.).
The cost per CPU in the mainframe is 4,000,000 / 16 = $250,000.
In the Xeon cluster: 2,400,000 / 128 = $18,750.
You can't tell me that the S390 processors are THAT much more powerful than the Xeons!?!
Of course, when I say cost per CPU, I'm simplifying and declaring all the hardware in the server as "CPU." That includes server memory, SCSI RAID adapters, etc. Just a way of trying to do an apples to apples comparison and keep it simple.
The pricing for the IBM/128 way Xeon machine comes from:
tpc.org
Click on Executive Summary. Also check out the very nice block diagram!
Tony |
