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Comment by mousetree | Hacker News Reader

> Today, IBM is the only mainframe manufacturer

AFAIK Fujitsu still manufacture mainframes

Oxide could probably be considered a "modern mainframe" if you squint. The architecture is of course much different, but server CPUs from the likes of AMD are gradually catching up with the purpose-built stuff in raw power and I/O capabilities.

Oxide hardware is more comparable to a midrange computer. Though they are apparently planning to add support for having multiple physical racks in a single managed "silo", which enables HA scenarios and gets a bit closer to what mainframes provide.

I think its only IBM people who calls computers midrange ;)

There's an article where their pitch was "It's the new AS/400"

Or, you could just buy a new AS/400 that already does all that.

Yes, like many kinds of comparisons, it really depends on what you mean by the thing. The architecture of Oxide is very different than a mainframe, but the "big computer that's a fully integrated system" vibe is kinda similar.

Also HP NonStop (Tandem).

This is an interesting overview of mainframe vendors and how many customers they might have: https://arcanesciences.com/os2200/app1.html Most of the "dwarves" are now using emulation...

It does, but AFAIK, while it has 1 or 2 mainframe OSes still in maintenance, still getting updated, they run under emulation on x86-64 processors now.

All the mainframe OSes I know of except IBM's run under software emulation nowadays.

Fujitsu is planned to exit selling mainframe in 2030. NEC also still make mainframes and no plan to exit.

Yes, I've worked on Fujitsu ICL clones running VME.

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