IBM reveals what it claims is "one of the most sophisticated computer systems ever built"-- the z13, a mainframe the company says is specifically designed for the requirements of the mobile app economy.
Reportedly the culmination of a $1 billion investment, 5 years of development, 500 patents and the collaboration of 60 clients, the z13 processes up to 2.5 billion persistent, protected and audited transactions, with embedded analytics providing faster "on the fly" insight on said transactions. Powering all is "the world's fastest microprocessor," one twice as fast as "the most common" server processor, as well as 300% more memory, 100% more bandwidth and "vector processing analytics."
Furthermore IBM says the z13 is ideal for private or hybrid clouds, as it runs up to 8000 virtual servers (or 50 virtual servers per core) with full Linux an dOpenStack support.
It also features real-time encryption on all transactions, with cryptographic encryption technologies enabling further security for mobile-initiated transactions and means to capture 100% fraud prevention.
“Every time a consumer makes a purchase or hits refresh on a smart phone, it can create a cascade of events on the back end of the computing environment," Big Blue says. "Only the IBM mainframe can put the power of the world's most secure datacenters in the palm of your hand."
Also launched with the z13 is a preview version of z/OS, IBM's mainframe operating system able to further process in-memory analytics and provide mobile transaction analysis.
