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IBM Adds zIIP To Mainframe Data Handling

IBM is adding a specialized, high-speed data processor to its z9 mainframes to accelerate data processing loads associated with customer relationship management, ERP, and business intelligence computing tasks. The processor is called the System z9 Integrated Information Processor or zIIP engine and will be geared to work closely with IBM's DB2 database on the mainframe.

"Other companies have de-invested in their chip architectures, taking things out of the system. We've invested in the platform. We just had our biggest quarter for MIPS [millions of instructions per second] shipped ever on this platform," said Jim Stallings, the new general manager of System z, referring to the System z9 mainframe during a teleconference Thursday.

A mainframe user may upgrade by adding the zIIP processor for $125,000. There will be no software charges associated with the data processor, Stallings said.

The zIIP processor comes on the heels of other specialty processors that IBM has been adding to the mainframe, including the zAAP processor made available in 2004 for speeding Java applications. The zIIP specialty processor will be available before the end of the year, but IBM officials would not be more specific.

In effect the mainframe operating system, zOS, recognizes workloads that come up in applications, such as ERP or CRM, that can be handled by specialized processors and routes those tasks to them. No alterations are needed in the software, Stallings said.

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