NASA Shuts Down Last Mainframe, Signals End of an Era
NASA announced that it has abandoned its last mainframe, an IBM Z9 system.
The mainframe was located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The massive, 6-year-old 2094-s54 model has 54 main processors and 512 GB of memory. According to Wikipedia, S54 mainframes cost "millions of dollars" when new. NASA CIO Linda Cureton wrote in a blog post that the shutdown of the Z9 ends the "mainframe era" at NASA. She noted that mainframes still have their place in computing where it does not matter if "end-user interfaces are clunky and somewhat inflexible," when there is a need for a system that delivers "extremely reliable, secure transaction oriented business applications."
According to Cureton, NASA kept the Z9 operational for older applications that are now being phased out. NASA apparently has not developed mainframe application in some time, which made the mainframe a rather costly proposition. Cureton also noted that NASA an save some money by shutting down some software licenses that are tied to the system, which runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL4).
NASA's first IBM mainframe, a 360/91 Model, shipped to NASA in 1967.
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I bet that can still play Crysis.
can I have it
Wow, that thing must be LOADED with space porn!
At least by shutting it down they now have a little more room in their budget for other projects and upgrades to other systems they have.
I wonder what kind of tasks they gave this powerful machine..
Also makes me wonder what kind of machines the government uses to crack encrypted data.
NASA could start renting out the mainframe!
Another option is to sell it, before it becomes slower than a hand cellphone!
She forgot to mention performance. The z/196 at 5.2 GHz is considerably more powerful than even a Bulldozer. OK, so is my vintage 8088 if I jack it up to 7.16 MHz.
can't read the word mainframe without thinking about reboot...
Considering the fact that NASA receives less funding than US Air Force's air conditioning costs, why am I not surprised they're forced to slash budgets?
And now it's only worth thousands of dollars.
Please tell me they're not going to personal computers for their IS needs. Mission critical applications should not be run on a PC or MAC.
I'd love to have one or two of those mainframes for folding!
Considering the fact that NASA receives less funding than US Air Force's air conditioning costs, why am I not surprised they're forced to slash budgets?
Because the business of killing people has always been more profitable than any business dedicated to the bettering of mankind. That's why the defense industry laughs all the way to the bank, while the rest have to tighten their belts.
one thing I don't realise is why these organizations don't bet more on distributed computing.
it would be much better and way more cheaper. I mean all these organizations have thousands of pc's around. either for more complex tasks or for very simple tasks like word processing etc. these pc's have a huge processing power that is wasted. with distributed computing they could take advantage of it and save billions of dollars on everything while getting the very same results.
They just re-brandet it "the cloud" and the terminal era continues under that name but this time with phones and tablets... =P
bet the RIAA and MPAA made them shut it down with all the copies of 2001 a space odyssey being pirated off of it
Why not shutdown NASA altogether? Who needs space, when all the good shit is happening on Wall Street?
Next news: "NASA buying 5436644545 iPad 3 for computational intensive tasks", then "NASA uses iPhone 5 to launch a spaceship for Pluto".
Because the business of killing people has always been more profitable than any business dedicated to the bettering of mankind. That's why the defense industry laughs all the way to the bank, while the rest have to tighten their belts.
When your country gets taken over by another one because you had nothing to defend yourself with, that space program you're so proud of is going to look pretty useless.
I think it is a stretch to describe the primary purpose of NASA as "for the betterment of mankind." Teflon, Tang and velcro are all nice inventions, but hardly worth the budget that NASA has had to invent them if as you claim, NASA's purpose is to better mankind. NASA, itself, has done very little beyond generating jingoistic pride when it comes to having any sort of significant impact on human lives.
NASA has done some very interesting and amazing things, and there is absolutely a place for it in our national budget, but don't kid yourself about bettering mankind. It's not doing that. At least it hasn't yet.
imagine getting a BSOD in Space
When your country gets taken over by another one because you had nothing to defend yourself with, that space program you're so proud of is going to look pretty useless.
I think it is a stretch to describe the primary purpose of NASA as "for the betterment of mankind." Teflon, Tang and velcro are all nice inventions, but hardly worth the budget that NASA has had to invent them if as you claim, NASA's purpose is to better mankind. NASA, itself, has done very little beyond generating jingoistic pride when it comes to having any sort of significant impact on human lives.NASA has done some very interesting and amazing things, and there is absolutely a place for it in our national budget, but don't kid yourself about bettering mankind. It's not doing that. At least it hasn't yet.
http://space.about.com/od/toolsequ [...] inoffs.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ [...] 79377.html
http://curiosity.discovery.com/top [...] ntions.htm
...
Those useless bastards, think of how many more guns could've been made with their part of the budget!
Skynet: "Foiled again!"
So kinggremlin believes it is better to give up and start nuking everyone rather than to try to push our engineering and science professions to their limits. NASA is much more than just space as well. Their research in aerodynamics and airplane propulsion were and are essential to the advancement of air transportation.
http://space.about.com/od/toolsequ [...] inoffs.htmhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/ [...] 79377.htmlhttp://curiosity.discovery.com/top [...] ntions.htm...Those useless bastards, think of how many more guns could've been made with their part of the budget!
I concur, if we weren't wasting all this money on liberal, hippie, socialist, communist, Marxist , Stalinism, anti-God, troop hating space program we could be going around invading more countries!
I'm looking at you Kyrgyzstan! For too long they have ummm.... hidden under the worlds radar and are likely doing something we do not agree with!
God bless America and no place else.
NASA has done some very interesting and amazing things, and there is absolutely a place for it in our national budget, but don't kid yourself about bettering mankind. It's not doing that. At least it hasn't yet.
That has got to be one of the most ignorant comments I have ever read. Anywhere. Congratulations kingrim - you won the asshat of the month award.
NASA has done some very interesting and amazing things, and there is absolutely a place for it in our national budget, but don't kid yourself about bettering mankind. It's not doing that. At least it hasn't yet.
That has got to be one of the most ignorant comments I've ever read. Anywhere.
So what are they going to use instead, huh? iPads?
Before anyone else goes off on another "spending on space exploration is a zillion times more productive than defense spending" maybe you should consider that the rockets that took us to the moon were directly descended from the V-2. Also, consider that military research has brought about huge advances in aviation, the development of radar, sonar, and the list goes on. I'm all for space exploration, but it's pretty short-sighted to think that cutting defense to pay for it is a good idea.
Please tell me they're not going to personal computers for their IS needs. Mission critical applications should not be run on a PC or MAC.
You got one thing right and two things wrong here, son. A Mac (only the first letter is capitalized) is a Personal Computer, Ad-Campaign-Boy. What you meant was, "on Windows or Mac OS", of course. In which case, you're half right. Your other error would be in thinking that there are secret ultra-powerful computers to which NASA might have access to that most consumers don't. Or that NASA projects are somehow more complex or math-intensive than, say, high-end CGI work. Keep reading up around the site, New Guy.
NASA has been running Windows since 3.1, pal. This doesn't make them crappy scientists and researchers: their blatant disregard for science itself makes them crappy scientists and researchers.
The thing about running NASA stuff in space with PC's has already been done: Lots of, well just about everything on the International Space Station runs on WinXP =D
imagine getting a BSOD in Space
ROFL. Cheers mad tech!