IBM today announced the IBM z17, the next generation of the company’s iconic mainframe, fully engineered with AI capabilities across hardware, software, and systems operations. Powered by the new IBM Telum II processor, IBM z17 expands the system’s capabilities beyond transactional AI capabilities to enable new workloads.
↫ IBM z17 press release
Alongside this brand new behemoth of a computer, IBM also announced z/OS 3.2, the next version of its mainframe operating system, which brings with it even more “AI” buzzwords and features. z/OS 3.2 is slated for release later in 2025. It it is highly unlikely any one of us will ever get to interact with any of this hardware or software.
I do. And it’s magnificent.
Avatar checks out.
I work with people who write code for this system. Whenever there are issues, it is never with the hardware or OS. Always something in the code we wrote.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/07/the-ibm-mainframe-how-it-runs-and-why-it-survives/
Assuming IBM wants to increase sales of mainframes, I think they should release an official emulator.
Maybe make the official emulator for Apple ARM Macs only.
IBM should provide official way to let people run z/OS 3.2 on their own computers, I’m sure this would lead to increased sales.
Computer nerds can learn COBOL, JCL and CICS at home
ISVs have access to zPDT, which is a Linux-based IBM Z systems emulator. You can install z/OS, z/VM, zLinux, etc., on it and do development work. If you’re just curious and interested in developing mainframe skills generally, I’d recommend the IBM Z Xplore program, which gives students free access to a z/OS instance for learning purposes.
eliyahu,
I did sign up for IBM Z Xplore to see what it was about, but it looks like courseware. In fact they want you to download microsoft vs code in the first lesson and there’s no way to jump around courses, you’re forced to do them linearly. It’s fine for what it is, but unless I’m missing something it doesn’t really satisfy the need of someone who wants just wants to test things and play around. I agree with tom9876543, it’d be awfully nice to have an emulator we could use locally. I get why IBM doesn’t provide this, they don’t want us to have that level of control, but I think it’s fair to say that many of us want that.
There’s another program where students are given full control of a z/VM account, but I think that’s only for university-enrolled folks. Many of us within the company have lobbied to allow for easier access to a system for interested parties. Stay tuned.
tom9876543,
Why? I get you want it to be compatible with your computer of choice, but saying it should be ARM Mac only is such a random anti-feature.
How would any of that lead to increased sales? These are not particularly cheap systems, and the decision makers are most definitively not random hobbyist. So IBM would be wasting resources targeting the wrong crowd.
BTW, There are a bunch of open source classic IBM CISC big iron emulators, most notably Hercules. Which allow you to run several mainframe OS environments:
https://bradricorigg.medium.com/run-your-own-mainframe-using-hercules-mainframe-emulator-and-mvs-3-8j-tk4-55fa7c982553
I believe the open source emulators like Hercules aren’t officially endorsed by IBM.
While Hercules is open source, if my understanding is correct, you basically have to pirate z/OS to run it on the VM.
Does IBM offer mainframe via cloud computing? In theory it should be possible for IBM to run the mainframe and customers rent time slices / CPU / RAM / storage etc via web site. It would be very easy to put 3270 emulator on a cloud web site
Cloud computing where people can buy “small” amounts of mainframe server may be the best way for IBM to increase mainframe usage.
The answer is yes, IBM does offer virtual z/OS cloud sessions for development, testing, and real application runs. It would be great if someone with “leet skilz” could try this out and report back:
https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vsi_is_connecting_zos