Welcome to jedi.informatik.uni-leipzig.de

Many people still associate mainframes with obsolete technology.

Surprisingly, the opposite is true. Mainframes feature many hardware, software, and system integration technologies, that are either not at all, or only in an elementary form, available on other server platforms. On the other hand, we know of no advanced server features which are not available on mainframes.

High end commercial systems have a very unique set of requirements, that cannot really be met using blade systems assembled from low cost commercial components, and their corresponding software (operating systems, subsystems, IDE, etc.).

This applies in particular to features like.

• high reliability
• high availability
• security
• I/O processing power
• transaction processing power

Thus there will always be a separate and unique mainframe product line. As other systems implement existing mainframe features, mainframes will implement new and advanced functions to meet customer requirements.

This has been the trend for the last decades. In many instances, new technologies were first introduced on mainframes, and adopted later, sometimes decades later, on other platforms. I/O control units, virtualization, and the coupling facility are particiular examples.

An overview of leading edge technologies available in mainframes can be found here

This website presents the efforts at the Institute of Computer Science of Leipzig University in introducing interested students to a basic understanding of the hardware, software, middleware, and application architecture of the IBM System z and z/OS products, including state-of-the-art internet technologies.