50 Years of IBM Mainframe Milestones

IBM introduces the System/360 as a new generation of electronic computing equipment. It’s named after the degrees in a circle, since it was meant to encompass every need of every user.

IBM computers process more than 19 million Medicare identification cards for the Social Security Administration just one year after the U.S. Congress creates Medicare.

CICS debuts, bringing computer applications out of the machine room and allowing companies to enter, update and retrieve data in the workplace. Today, CICS continues to help millions perform their jobs better.

Several System/360 servers, IMS 360 and IBM software support the Apollo 11 landing. For years to come, IBM computers remain involved in space exploration.

IBM delivers more than 1,300 System/370 computers worldwide.

IBM announces VM virtualization, helping to improve asset management and lay the groundwork for the on demand world. Today, z/VM helps create an agile mainframe where resources can be utilized effectively and quickly, with improved security and 24/7 availability.

IBM introduces the Universal Product Code (UPC), followed by holographic scanner technology. Together, they help revolutionize the retail industry and highlight the mainframe’s critical role in customer transactions and inventory-tracking databases.

IBM announces a 1MB Silicon and Aluminum Metal Oxide Semiconductor (SAMOS) chip that holds 1,048,576 bits of information in a space smaller than a child’s fingernail.

IBM customers deploy DB2 beyond Decision Support Systems (DSS) and core transactional processing-driving reductions in CPU costs and dramatic improvements in concurrency. This development helps establish DB2 on the mainframe as a foundation for future application development.

Some industry pundits predict the rapid growth in personal computers and small servers will render Big Iron obsolete.

IBM introduces 18 new models of the ES/9000 processors, including Model 982—the world’s most powerful, single-image, general-purpose commercial processor. It provides 60 to 70 percent more processing power than the largest model previously shipped.

IBM introduces the System/390, Generation 5 server. The Turbo model smashes the 1,000 MIPS barrier, making it one of the world’s most powerful mainframes.

IBM reports it has nearly doubled the mainframe’s capability to process highly secure Internet transactions, and the IBM zSeries 900 is the first to achieve a record 3,850 transactions per second.

The zSeries 990 is the result of a four-year, more than $1 billion investment in the zSeries platform, involving 1,200 IBM developers. The z990 is the most powerful and scalable IBM mainframe to date, with twice the virtualization capabilities previously offered.

IBM introduces the IBM System z9 mainframe. This represents a three-year, $1.2 billion development effort encompassing 5,000 IBM experts worldwide. The new mainframe system can process 1 billion transactions a day, more than double the performance of its predecessor, run five world-class OSs and process up to 6,000 secure online handshakes per second.

IBM unveils the System z9 Enterprise Class and Business Class machines. Both systems feature the System z Applications Assist Processor (zAAP), Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) and the z9 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) engines.

IBM announces the System z10 server. The System z10 Enterprise Class and the System z10 Business Class mainframes represent more than a $1.5 billion investment, five years of development and a global team of more than 5,000 technical professionals. Both models provide a much higher level of security, control and automation. Meanwhile IBM introduced more than 600 new or updated mainframe applications in the first eight months of 2008, bringing the total to more than 5,000 unique applications.

IBM sells its first System z to a commercial bank in India, emblematic of burgeoning mainframe growth in emerging nations.