{"video_id":"ximv-PwAKnc","title":"What are Mainframes?","channel":"Techquickie","show":"Techquickie","published_at":"2017-05-06T14:58:16Z","duration_s":397,"segments":[{"start_s":0.32,"end_s":8.96,"text":"What comes to mind when you hear the words big iron? Heavy construction,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.839,"end_s":12.48,"text":"extreme laundry, my nickname in high","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":8.96,"end_s":14.639,"text":"school. Well, it turns out that big iron","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":12.48,"end_s":21.439,"text":"is none of those things and usually refers to mainframe computers, massive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":18.48,"end_s":25.84,"text":"machines that typically live inside of large cabinets. Okay, then Lionus. So,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":24.24,"end_s":31.92,"text":"you're talking about a supercomput, right? Actually, no. Mainframes are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":29.599,"end_s":37.2,"text":"defined a little differently. In our episode on supercomputers, which you can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":33.92,"end_s":39.92,"text":"check out here, we discussed how they","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":37.2,"end_s":46.079,"text":"are great at number crunching to complete extremely complex tasks like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":43.44,"end_s":52.8,"text":"weather forecasting, medical research, and crypt analysis. But with mainframes,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":49.76,"end_s":54.399,"text":"the focus is more on throughput and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.8,"end_s":58.0,"text":"reliability. So what exactly does that mean? Well,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":56.8,"end_s":64.799,"text":"compared to something like a supercomputer, mainframes have a lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":61.12,"end_s":66.96,"text":"more inputs and outputs or IO because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":64.799,"end_s":73.119,"text":"they're often deployed in situations where they aren't working on one massive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":70.0,"end_s":76.88,"text":"complex problem, but rather they have to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":73.119,"end_s":80.159,"text":"process tons of smaller, simpler","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":76.88,"end_s":81.92,"text":"transactions extremely quickly. In fact,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":80.159,"end_s":89.28,"text":"even though there is a popular misconception that mainframes are relics","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":85.119,"end_s":92.24,"text":"of a bygone computing era, to process","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":89.28,"end_s":98.799,"text":"the up to millions of card swipes and account transfers that occurred daily,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":95.28,"end_s":102.159,"text":"96 out of the world's top 100 banks and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":98.799,"end_s":104.64,"text":"23 out of the top 25 US retailers","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":102.159,"end_s":109.119,"text":"currently run mainframes from IBM, who has been the dominant player in the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":106.0,"end_s":111.84,"text":"industry for a very long time. Building","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":109.119,"end_s":116.159,"text":"one though isn't just a matter of installing a whack ton of Xeons in a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":114.159,"end_s":122.799,"text":"box, plugging in lots of Ethernet cables, and calling it a day. Mainframes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":119.439,"end_s":125.439,"text":"use special CPUs, many of which are much","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":122.799,"end_s":131.599,"text":"larger physically than even big desktop chips like 2011 socket CPUs from Intel,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":128.64,"end_s":138.879,"text":"as well as additional processors called system assistance processors or SAPs","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":135.44,"end_s":141.44,"text":"that do almost nothing but move data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.879,"end_s":147.04,"text":"around as quickly as possible, like glorified traffic controllers rather","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.319,"end_s":153.599,"text":"than general purpose number crunchers. And that's not all. On a modern","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":149.44,"end_s":157.44,"text":"mainframe like the topend IBM Z13, each","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":153.599,"end_s":158.959,"text":"individual IO card of which there can be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":157.44,"end_s":166.64,"text":"160 has its own processing cores up to two","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":162.959,"end_s":169.599,"text":"per channel on the dual channel cards.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.64,"end_s":178.08,"text":"Meaning you could have over 600 processor cores just for IO. And that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":173.68,"end_s":180.16,"text":"not even counting the SAPS. Whoa. Part","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":178.08,"end_s":185.84,"text":"of the reason that modern mainframes are designed to support this much IO is to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":183.04,"end_s":190.8,"text":"ensure that they stay reliable. So many of the subsystems inside a mainframe,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":188.159,"end_s":196.879,"text":"like a modern airliner, would have redundancies built in. This means they","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.76,"end_s":199.84,"text":"can be deployed in situations where zero","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":196.879,"end_s":205.04,"text":"downtime is acceptable, such as the aforementioned credit card companies and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":202.56,"end_s":212.159,"text":"retailers, as well as airline ticketing systems. In fact, a common mainframe","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.92,"end_s":214.879,"text":"operating system, IBM's proprietary ZTPF","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":212.159,"end_s":219.76,"text":"was originally developed as transaction processing software for airlines. If you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":217.84,"end_s":223.76,"text":"want to see it in action, pay close attention next time you board a flight,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":221.68,"end_s":228.08,"text":"and you might just get a glimpse of the computer screen they're using to check","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":225.44,"end_s":232.879,"text":"you in. An old school interface with green text indicates that it's probably","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":230.4,"end_s":238.72,"text":"a terminal connected to a mainframe. just don't look uh too closely at it. So","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":236.319,"end_s":244.0,"text":"this high level of redundancy means that it's common for mainframes to be built","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":240.959,"end_s":246.159,"text":"in such a way where an administrator can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":244.0,"end_s":251.28,"text":"slide out one of the drawers that houses components and simply start swapping","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":248.48,"end_s":255.599,"text":"them out. Whatever that drawer was working on is automatically transferred","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.76,"end_s":260.4,"text":"over to the rest of the mainframe, making it easy to make necessary","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":257.68,"end_s":264.8,"text":"hardware changes without any downtime. which is a good thing, too, because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":262.16,"end_s":270.56,"text":"high-end mainframes can run tons of virtual servers at once, up to 8,000 in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":267.919,"end_s":275.84,"text":"the case of the Z13. Meaning that taking down the mainframe could result in a lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.4,"end_s":278.88,"text":"of transaction errors on Black Friday.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":275.84,"end_s":280.88,"text":"But before you start thinking, gee, I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":278.88,"end_s":286.479,"text":"should get myself a mainframe cuz I want to run Overwatch on like some kind of 50","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":283.759,"end_s":292.08,"text":"monitor setup, mainframes and their operating systems aren't just absurdly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.6,"end_s":297.68,"text":"expensive. A single mainframe can cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":294.24,"end_s":300.8,"text":"of dollars. They also aren't designed to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.68,"end_s":302.4,"text":"run games or for high-end floating point","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":300.8,"end_s":308.0,"text":"performance, which is important for rendering graphics. But even so, main","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":306.0,"end_s":313.68,"text":"frames are still in the background powering lots of things you do every","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":310.88,"end_s":317.28,"text":"day, which is pretty cool. That is, unless you've sworn off air travel and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":315.759,"end_s":322.16,"text":"you don't want Mastercard to know about all the weird stuff you buy on Amazon.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":319.919,"end_s":327.52,"text":"Speaking of uh having your online activities tracked, Tunnel BearVPN lets","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.36,"end_s":332.4,"text":"you anonymize yourself on the internet and browse the internet and use online","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":329.68,"end_s":337.28,"text":"services as though you are some anonymous guy in some other country.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":335.199,"end_s":342.8,"text":"They have easy to use apps for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac. They also have a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":339.12,"end_s":345.44,"text":"Chrome extension, and it's super easy to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":342.8,"end_s":350.08,"text":"use. You just press a button and boom, tunnel bear's on. Your connection gets","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":347.36,"end_s":354.88,"text":"encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption and your public IP address gets switched","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.56,"end_s":359.44,"text":"so you show up as though you are in a different country. Tunnel Bear makes it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":357.36,"end_s":364.56,"text":"easy by bypassing all the annoying details that typically come with using a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":361.12,"end_s":366.24,"text":"VPN. No DNS, no uh router configuration,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":364.56,"end_s":371.28,"text":"no port configurations, none of that nonsense. And they've got a top rated","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":368.4,"end_s":376.479,"text":"privacy policy and do not log user activity. So try it out for free with no","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":374.4,"end_s":381.44,"text":"credit card required at our link in the video description. And also by using our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":378.72,"end_s":386.12,"text":"link, you can save 10% when you sign up for a year of unlimited. So that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":383.12,"end_s":386.12,"text":"tunnelbear.com/lininus.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":386.319,"end_s":391.199,"text":"So thanks for watching, guys. Like, dislike, check out our other channels,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.6,"end_s":394.72,"text":"comment with video suggestions, and subscribe. Don't forget to subscribe.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":393.6,"end_s":397.759,"text":"That's the most important part. That's why I said it at the end.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"What comes to mind when you hear the words big iron? Heavy construction, extreme laundry, my nickname in high school. Well, it turns out that big iron is none of those things and usually refers to mainframe computers, massive machines that typically live inside of large cabinets. Okay, then Lionus. So, you're talking about a supercomput, right? Actually, no. Mainframes are defined a little differently. In our episode on supercomputers, which you can check out here, we discussed how they are great at number crunching to complete extremely complex tasks like weather forecasting, medical research, and crypt analysis. But with mainframes, the focus is more on throughput and reliability. So what exactly does that mean? Well, compared to something like a supercomputer, mainframes have a lot more inputs and outputs or IO because they're often deployed in situations where they aren't working on one massive complex problem, but rather they have to process tons of smaller, simpler transactions extremely quickly. In fact, even though there is a popular misconception that mainframes are relics of a bygone computing era, to process the up to millions of card swipes and account transfers that occurred daily, 96 out of the world's top 100 banks and 23 out of the top 25 US retailers currently run mainframes from IBM, who has been the dominant player in the industry for a very long time. Building one though isn't just a matter of installing a whack ton of Xeons in a box, plugging in lots of Ethernet cables, and calling it a day. Mainframes use special CPUs, many of which are much larger physically than even big desktop chips like 2011 socket CPUs from Intel, as well as additional processors called system assistance processors or SAPs that do almost nothing but move data around as quickly as possible, like glorified traffic controllers rather than general purpose number crunchers. And that's not all. On a modern mainframe like the topend IBM Z13, each individual IO card of which there can be 160 has its own processing cores up to two per channel on the dual channel cards. Meaning you could have over 600 processor cores just for IO. And that's not even counting the SAPS. Whoa. Part of the reason that modern mainframes are designed to support this much IO is to ensure that they stay reliable. So many of the subsystems inside a mainframe, like a modern airliner, would have redundancies built in. This means they can be deployed in situations where zero downtime is acceptable, such as the aforementioned credit card companies and retailers, as well as airline ticketing systems. In fact, a common mainframe operating system, IBM's proprietary ZTPF was originally developed as transaction processing software for airlines. If you want to see it in action, pay close attention next time you board a flight, and you might just get a glimpse of the computer screen they're using to check you in. An old school interface with green text indicates that it's probably a terminal connected to a mainframe. just don't look uh too closely at it. So this high level of redundancy means that it's common for mainframes to be built in such a way where an administrator can slide out one of the drawers that houses components and simply start swapping them out. Whatever that drawer was working on is automatically transferred over to the rest of the mainframe, making it easy to make necessary hardware changes without any downtime. which is a good thing, too, because high-end mainframes can run tons of virtual servers at once, up to 8,000 in the case of the Z13. Meaning that taking down the mainframe could result in a lot of transaction errors on Black Friday. But before you start thinking, gee, I should get myself a mainframe cuz I want to run Overwatch on like some kind of 50 monitor setup, mainframes and their operating systems aren't just absurdly expensive. A single mainframe can cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. They also aren't designed to run games or for high-end floating point performance, which is important for rendering graphics. But even so, main frames are still in the background powering lots of things you do every day, which is pretty cool. That is, unless you've sworn off air travel and you don't want Mastercard to know about all the weird stuff you buy on Amazon. Speaking of uh having your online activities tracked, Tunnel BearVPN lets you anonymize yourself on the internet and browse the internet and use online services as though you are some anonymous guy in some other country. They have easy to use apps for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac. They also have a Chrome extension, and it's super easy to use. You just press a button and boom, tunnel bear's on. Your connection gets encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption and your public IP address gets switched so you show up as though you are in a different country. Tunnel Bear makes it easy by bypassing all the annoying details that typically come with using a VPN. No DNS, no uh router configuration, no port configurations, none of that nonsense. And they've got a top rated privacy policy and do not log user activity. So try it out for free with no credit card required at our link in the video description. And also by using our link, you can save 10% when you sign up for a year of unlimited. So that's tunnelbear.com/lininus. So thanks for watching, guys. Like, dislike, check out our other channels, comment with video suggestions, and subscribe. Don't forget to subscribe. That's the most important part. That's why I said it at the end."}