IBM, the B-52 of computing, has launched a mainframe cruise missile at the
rapidly-growing market for Unix and Windows NT servers.

  Its new S/390 Multiprise 2000 is aimed at medium-sized businesses -- and
new customers in emerging markets like China, India, or Eastern Europe -- who
can be persuaded to desire the good old blue virtues like reliability in a
low-priced all-in-one package.

  At the same time, IBM announced that it has jacked up the power of its
CMOS processors, reportedly doubling the performance of its previous S/390
SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing) units in the largest 10-processor
configuration.

  IBM has also given the upper-end upgrade a name that is twice as long: IBM
S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server -- Generation 3 (hereafter Gen-3).

  The Multiprise and Gen-3 use the same basic CMOS technology. The
Multiprise is, however, capped at five processors. It also comes with a
luncheon special of system and application software, maintenance, internal
disk drive option, and support services aimed at a reduced-fuss startup and
low prices.

  Both new product lines will be available for general purchase at the
beginning of October. 

THE RINGMASTER'S WHIP

  In contrast, the Gen-3 scales up to 10 processors in each SMP unit. More
important, it features IBM's Parallel Sysplex tiered clustering system,
which uses the SMP units as nodes, scaling to giant compute factories with up
to 320 processors.

  The Sysplex is not your ordinary string-and-tin-can cluster. It operates
under the whip of a distinctive ringmaster that allows direct, concurrent
read/write access to shared data from all the processing nodes in the
configuration.

  A workload manager provides dynamic workload balancing based on
customer-determined business objectives.

  As an IBM white paper puts it, "The Parallel Sysplex approach eliminates
bottlenecks, ensuring a consistent response to users since work is
distributed across the configuration and all the servers can get to all the
data."

  The ringmaster of the Gen-3 and earlier CMOS machines in the S/390 product
line is a Sysplex timer.

  Until now, large-scale clusters required that the entire herd of SMP nodes
be in the same room or very nearby. The Sysplex timers had to be close to one
another because interconnection was limited to a few meters of copper cable.

  This limit has been extended to three kilometers through the use of
optical cables. This provides more flexibility for customers who use their
Gen-3 nodes in a distributed mode around a large installation or corporate
campus.

  IBM argues that clustering is sufficient to meet the high-capacity needs
of the most demanding customer. 

NETWORKED, OF COURSE

  Indeed, IBM is placing growing emphasis on the use of mainframe systems in
a networked setting. New cryptographic hardware and other features are
described as qualifying the S/390 products as ideal servers for intranet and
Internet applications.

  IBM is also seeking customers who drank the client-server medicine but
found that it tasted sour and, even worse, cost more over the long run. In
Bluespeak, this is "reintegration." The networked philosophy is retained, but
an S/390 becomes the "integration technology" (i.e., new server).

GEN-4 IN 1997: EQUALING BIPOLAR

  IBM prefers to give the impression that the Gen 3 version of the S/390
family is the final word in mainframe-style computing. It isn't that simple.

  CMOS technology provides advantages that IBM repeats again and again:
lower cost, lower operating expenses (due to air-cooling and a much smaller
footprint) and higher reliability.

  (The advantages of less-fragile CMOS chips are enhanced by the distributed
architecture of the S/390, especially in the Sysplex mode, which reduces the
risk of a full-system crash if one component goes bad.)

  Nevertheless, modern CMOS technology (IBM currently works at device
separations of 0.5 micron, which is competitive but not super-advanced) is
not yet quite as powerful, on a per-processor basis, as the latest versions
of the bipolar technology that was the foundation of mainframes for so many
years.

  IBM hopes to attain the goal of equaling -- or surpassing -- bipolar
single-processor performance with a promised Gen-4 product, expected in
1997.

  Meanwhile, IBM has stopped development of bipolar technology. (Enough
bipolar components will still be produced to support customers wishing
upgrades.)

MAINFRAME WARS CONTINUE

  This opens a window for Japanese vendors who have, for many years, competed
successfully in the plug-compatible market.

  They are offering new parallel products as well as mainframes based on
bipolar technology. Hitachi has in fact developed a new chip that combines
both technologies.

  For the next year or two, at least, Hitachi and the other plug-compatible
competitor, Amdahl/Fujitsu, should continue to do quite well, responding to
customers who want lots of power but fear (or disdain) IBM's clustering.

  Very high profit margins have traditionally been one of the strongest
allures of the mainframe strategy. The switch to CMOS and market competition
from client-server and other solutions (including IBM's own RS/6000 SP
distributed memory machines) have forced IBM to lower prices.

  Thus, although the total volume measured in MIPS is unprecedently high,
IBM's mainframe revenues have been halved since 1990.

  Japanese vendors are joining the lower-price parade. 

RUNNING FASTER TO KEEP UP

  Thus, IBM must run faster and faster to avoid further reductions in
revenue.

  This is not just a question of hardware sales. The mainframe franchise is
really the MVS franchise -- the proprietary operating system that IBM has
nurtured for decades. This led in turn to a sturdy, very profitable market
for IBM software running on MVS.

  In order to keep up with the times, IBM  has renamed MVS as OS/390. It has
provided for linkages with Unix and Windows NT. It reports proudly that
independent software vendors (ISVs) will have ported 1500 applications to
the S/390 by the end of 1996 -- with 200 of them provided by ISVs that have
been Unix specialists. 

  IBM has already paddled through one patch of rapids that could have wrecked
the whole enterprise. It has made sweeping technological changes in the
foundation of its mainframe business while convincing its customers (or
enough of them) that, in a spiritual sense, that are stilling getting the
same familiar old products.

  Nevertheless, IBM's corporate health could decline seriously if the MVS
franchise deserted the old blue flag. The Gen-3 upgrades and a number of
simultaneous announcements of new products in mass storage and other fields
are intended to shore up the loyalty of its MVS customers.

  At the same time, IBM is deploying the Multiprise junior mainframe in
attempt to broaden the franchise among customers with less money and shorter
patience with the costly complexity of traditional mainframes.

  This amounts to a basically defensive strategy. Although it involves a good
deal of technological creativity, it is not as glamorous as the forms of
parallelism that have turned their backs resolutely upon the mainframe
tradition. 

  Yet, in American football as in some other sports, a very aggressive
defense can take the ball away from the opposing team and score goals --
sometimes enough to win the game.

  IBM hopes to do the same. Unlike games like football, however, the rules
of today's market in commercial computing are not fixed. They change every
day. IBM, like its competitors, will not find it easy to keep up.

  Additional information about the S/390 can be obtained from IBM's S/390 Web
site http://www.s390.ibm.com

----------------------------

Norris Parker Smith is a journalist who specializes in
HPC and high bandwidth communications. Reader comments are welcome.