IBM 3090
| Company type | Product line |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | February 12, 1985 |
| Headquarters | Armonk , United States |
| Products | Mainframe computers |
The IBM 3090 series serves as a premium evolution of the IBM System/370 line and, by extension, the IBM System/360 introduced a quarter-century earlier.
Unveiled on 12 February 1985, the first offerings—Model 200 and Model 400—were marketed as successors to the IBM 3033, without explicitly highlighting compatibility with the 370 architecture. The IBM 3090/200 achieved performance figures of 18 MIPS and 31,000 UNIX Dhrystones. The lineup later broadened to incorporate Models 120E, 150, 150E, 180, 180E, 200E, 300, 300E, 400E, 600E, 600J, and 600S. Its architecture drew heavily on design principles from the IBM 3033 and IBM 308X systems.
Of particular note are the Models 400 and 600, which integrated two Model 200 or Model 300 units into a single system. This configuration allowed operation either as a unified system image or partitioned into two separate systems.
Models and features
| Model | Announcement Date | Processor Configuration |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | February 12, 1985 | Dual central processors |
| 400 | February 12, 1985 | Four-way (composed of two Model 200s) |
| 120E | May 19, 1987 | Single processor |
| 150 | February 11, 1986 | Single processor |
| 150E | January 26, 1987 | Single processor |
| 180 | February 11, 1986 | Single processor |
| 180E | January 26, 1987 | Single processor |
| 200E | January 26, 1987 | Dual central processors |
| 280E | January 26, 1987 | Dual central processors |
| 300 | 1987 | Three-way (triadic) |
| 300E | January 26, 1987 | Three-way (triadic) |
| 400E | January 26, 1987 | Four-way (two Model 200Es) |
| 600E | 1987 | Six-way (two Model 300s) |
| 280E | February15,1988 | Dual processors (dyadic) |
| 500E | February15,1988 | Five-way (combining a200E and a300E) |
| 600S | 1988 | Six-way (two Model300s) |
| 600J | 1989 | Six-way (two Model300s) |
Cooling
During the late ’70s and early ’80s, Amdahl Corporation developed patented methods enabling their mainframes to operate using solely air cooling. In contrast, IBM machines relied on chilled water systems along with necessary infrastructure. Among the eighteen ES/9000 models introduced in1990,the eight largest required water cooling while the remaining ten utilized air cooling exclusively.
Enterprise Systems Architecture/370
On February15,1988, IBM revealed Enterprise Systems Architecture/370 for enhanced ("E") versions of the3090and for the4381 model groups91Eand92E. This architecture introduced an AR mode whereby general registers1 through15 employ access registers to select address spaces. ESA also brought in data spaces—address regions that do not contain executable instructions—extending beyond the typical address spaces defined by System/370 Extended Architecture (S/370-XA).
Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM)
Also announced on February15,1988 was Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) support for3090 enhanced ("E") models. PR/SM allows operators to allocate system resources to virtual machines known as logical partitions (LPARs). Initially restricted to four LPARs on single-processor systems and eight on multiprocessor configurations, subsequent models increased this capacity.
Remote service capabilities
A modem was included as a standard feature for remote service access; IBM recommended using the IBM3864 model2—a4800bps synchronous modem capable of operating in either point-to-point or multipoint configurations.
Vector facility
On October 1, 1985, IBM introduced an optional vector facility for the IBM 3090, incorporating built-in supercomputing functionality into the System/370 mainframe series. This development represented IBM’s foray into delivering high-performance scientific computing capabilities on mainframe platforms. To encourage widespread use, IBM collaborated with academic institutions to support scientific software and assisted in adapting code from Cray systems. In addition to the vector processor, IBM released the Engineering and Scientific Subroutines Library and ensured compatibility with applications originally designed for the now-obsolete 3838 array processor.
Photos
See also
Further reading
- — Chapter 10 (pp. 255–268) covers detailed information on the 3090.