The IBM 3090 family is a family of
mainframe computers
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
that was a high-end successor to the
IBM System/370
The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a range of IBM mainframe computers announced as the successors to the IBM System/360, System/360 family on June 30, 1970. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migrati ...
series, and thus indirectly the successor to the
IBM System/360
The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applicati ...
launched 25 years earlier.
Announced on 12 February 1985, the press releases did not explicitly mention that the two models, Model 200 and Model 400, were
backwardly compatible with the 370; instead, they were simply positioned as replacements for the
IBM 3033. The IBM 3090/200 version was rated at 18
MIPS and 31,000
UNIX
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
Dhrystones. This was true of the entire line, which expanded with the release of the Model 120E, 150, 150E, 180, 180E, 200, 200E, 300, 300E, 400, 400E, 600E, 600J, and 600S
3090 were described as using "ideas from the ... IBM 3033, extending them ... It also took ... from the ... IBM 308X."
The 400 and 600 were respectively two 200s or 300s coupled together as one system and could run in either single-system image mode or partitioned into two systems.
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Models and features
Cooling
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, patented technology allowed Amdahl mainframes of this era to be completely air-cooled, unlike IBM systems that required chilled water and its supporting infrastructure. The eight largest of the 18 models of the ES/9000 systems introduced in 1990 were water-cooled; the other ten were air-cooled.
Enterprise Systems Architecture/370
On February 15, 1988, IBM announced Enterprise Systems Architecture/370 for 3090 enhanced ("E") models and for 4381 model groups 91E and 92E. In additional to the primary and secondary addressing modes that System/370 Extended Architecture (S/370-XA) supports, ESA has an AR mode in which each use of general register 1-15 as a base register uses an associated access register to select an address space. In addition to the normal address spaces that S/370-XA supports, ESA also allows data spaces, which contain no executable code.
Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM)
On February 15, 1988, IBM announced
Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) for 3090 enhanced ("E") models This feature allows the operator to define and assign resource to a virtual machine known as a logical partition (LPAR). Initially there was a 4-LPAR limit for uniprocessors and an 8-LPAR limit for multiprocessors, but newer machines support more.
Remote service capabilities
A modem for "remote service capabilities" was standard; IBM recommended their IBM 3864 model 2.
Vector facility
On October 1, 1985, IBM announced an optional vector facility for the IBM 3090; such a facility had not been previously available in the System/370 architecture, thus bringing integrated supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
capabilities to the mainframe line. IBM entered into partnerships with several universities to promote the use of the 3090 in scientific applications, and efforts were made to convert code traditionally run on Cray
Cray Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is an American supercomputer manufacturer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It also manufactures systems for data storage and analytics. Several Cray supercomputer systems are listed ...
computers. Along with the vector unit, IBM introduced their Engineering and Scientific Subroutines Library and a facility to run programs written for the discontinued 3838 array processor.
Photos
IBM photo of 3090, facing operator console
View of IBM 3090 600J system "box"
See also
* IBM System/360
The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applicati ...
* IBM System/370
The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a range of IBM mainframe computers announced as the successors to the IBM System/360, System/360 family on June 30, 1970. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migrati ...
Notes
References
Further reading
* Chapter 10 (pp. 255268) describes the 3090.
External links
The IBM 3090
{{Authority control
IBM System/360 mainframe line
32-bit computers