Mainframe computer

Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as Big Iron) are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such ascensus, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.

The term originally referred to the large cabinets that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers. Later the term was used to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units.

In 2009, the term refers to computers compatible with the IBM System/360line, first introduced in 1965. (IBM System z10 is the latest incarnation.) Otherwise, large systems that are not based on the System/360 but are used for similar tasks are usually referred to as servers. However, "server" and "mainframe" are not synonymous (see client-server).

Some non-System/360-compatible systems derived from or compatible with older (pre-Web) server technology may also be considered mainframes. These include the Burroughs large systems, the UNIVAC 1100/2200 series systems, and the pre-System/360 IBM 700/7000 series. Most large-scale computer system architectures were firmly established in the 1960s and most large computers were based on architecture established during that era up until the advent of Web servers in the 1990s. (Interestingly, the first Web server running anywhere outside Switzerland ran on an IBM mainframe at Stanford University as early as 1990. See History of the World Wide Web for details.)

There were several minicomputer operating systems and architectures that arose in the 1970s and 1980s, but minicomputers are generally not considered mainframes. (UNIX arose as a minicomputer operating system; Unix has scaled up over the years to acquire some mainframe characteristics.)

Many defining characteristics of "mainframe" were established in the 1960s, but those characteristics continue to expand and evolve to the present day.