Predecessor IBM 308X | Successor IBM ES/9000 | |
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Manufacturer International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Product family Models 120E, 150, 150E, 180, 180E, 200, 200E, 300, 300E, 400, 400E, 600E, 600J, 600S Website Official website IBM Archives | ||
The IBM 3090 family was a high-end successor, after the IBM System/370, to the sequence begun a quarter of a century before by the IBM System/360.
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Although the Feb. 12, 1985 initial announcement of the family's first 2 members, the Model 200 and Model 400, lacked explicit mention of both the name System/370 and the term backward compatibility, the aforementioned pair and the subsequently announced Models 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 complex, and could run in either single-system image mode or partitioned into 2 systems.
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 8 largest of the 18 models of the ES/9000 systems introduced in 1990 were water-cooled; the other ten were air-cooled.
Remote service capabilities
A modem for "remote service capabilities" was standard; IBM recommended their IBM 3864 model 2.
Vector facility
In October 1985, IBM introduced 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 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 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.