Specialty engine
A mainframe processor set aside for one kind of work, such as Linux or certain z/OS workloads, and usually priced lower than a general processor.
Also written specialty processor, zIIP, IFL, zAAP
A mainframe's processors are all the same hardware, but each one is set up for a role. Most run any kind of work and are called general purpose processors. Specialty engines are set up for one kind of work only, and that changes how they are priced.
The best known is the zIIP. z/OS can send certain types of work to it, such as parts of DB2's processing, Java programs and some system functions. Work that runs on a zIIP does not count towards the processor usage that much mainframe software is priced on, so moving eligible work there can lower costs. An older type, the zAAP, was merged into the zIIP.
Other types include the IFL, which runs Linux and z/VM, and the ICF, which runs a coupling facility for a sysplex.
You do not choose a specialty engine when you write a program. z/OS decides which work is eligible. But you will hear about them whenever a site discusses costs, and in reports that show how much work ran on zIIPs.
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- MIPSMillions of instructions per second: the common, rough way of describing how much processing capacity a mainframe has.
- WLMWorkload Manager: the part of z/OS that decides which work gets the processor, memory and disk access first, based on goals the site sets.
- IBM ZIBM's current family of mainframe hardware, and the brand name you will see on most modern mainframe job adverts.
- Linux on IBM ZOrdinary Linux, built for the mainframe's processors, running alongside or instead of z/OS.
- Coupling facilityA special LPAR that holds shared information for all the systems in a sysplex, so they can work on the same data at the same time.
- DB2 for z/OSIBM's relational database on the mainframe, where a great deal of the world's banking and insurance data is stored.