Re: mainframe career advice

> I'm not sure mainframes have to be fast depending on what that word means

The word 'mainframe' just refers to the frames used to house the
equipment. Electronic and electrmechanical equipment of many types:
power stations, telephone exchange, radio transmitters, radar, .. were
built into frames and when covers were applied these became cabinets.
When it was small it just required a single frame. When it was large it
was housed in several frames, the central part of which (CPU in the
case of computers) was usually referred to as the main frame.

As is often the case the term was used correctly by some who understood
how the term was derived, and then misused by people who made the wrong
connection (managers usually). A 'mainframe computer' is simply one
that is housed in the most important frame of an installation, the
other frames being peripheral to it.

These days of rack mounts the 'main frame' may hold dozens or hundreds
of blades, or even shelves of clustered PCs, while the peripheral
frames hold racks of firewalls, routers and modems. A 'z Series' may
just be a small box sitting on a desk.

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