Mainframe Operating System

Hello sir I want to know about the Mainframe Operating System so please provide me suitable information about this system.

[Shaleen]

A Mainframe operating system is a compilation of many programs that process large amounts of data on a Mainframe computer and support a large number of users.

Early Mainframe Operating Systems

The Mainframe history can be divided into three generations of Mainframe:

First generation,
Second generation
Third generation

During the first and second-generation period [1952-1964], major players in the Mainframe industry like General Motors, Burroughs Corporation, General Electric etc developed operating systems.

The operating systems developed during this period were used for scientific and engineering calculations only.

General Motors OS, GM-NAA I/O and General Electric-GECOS were the prominent ones at this time.

IBM was slow in bringing Operating system during this phase.

IBM introduced lower versions for System/360 between 1964 and 1965.

The prominent among those lower end operating systems were BOS/360 (Basic Operating System), TOS /360 (Tape Operating System) and DOS/360 (Disk Operating System).

The features of DOS/360 were much similar to OS/360. DOS/360 got popular, as it was more affordable for mid market customers.

IBM continued to put effort on improvising DOS/360 until 2005.

Other operating systems

In addition to z/OS, four other operating systems dominate mainframe usage: z/VM, z/VSE™, Linux for System z®, and z/TPF.

1. Mainframe operating system: z/OS
Z/OS, a widely used mainframe operating system, is designed to offer a stable, secure, and continuously available environment for applications running on the mainframe.

2. Mainframe operating system: z/VM
As a control program, z/Virtual Machine (z/VM) is a hypervisor because it runs other operating systems in the virtual machines it creates.

3. Mainframe operating system: z/VSE
z/Virtual Storage Extended (z/VSE) is popular with users of smaller mainframe computers. Some of these customers eventually migrate to z/OS when they grow beyond the capabilities of z/VSE.

4. Mainframe operating system: Linux for System z
Several (non-IBM) Linux distributions can be used on a mainframe.
Mainframe operating system: z/TPF

Hello sir, I am Sunil Kumar. I am from Bengaluru. I want you to help me by providing me information regarding the IBM mainframe operating systems and also tell me about its history.

[Shaleen]

A Mainframe operating system is an accumulation of many programs that process large amounts of data on a Mainframe computer and support a large number of users.
A mainframe OS differs from a PC OS in many ways.
A mainframe OS manages input –output operations of multiple users whereas a PC OS manage single user’s I/O operations at a time. Compared to PC OS, a Mainframe OS as a sophisticated product is more powerful and expensive.
A Mainframe OS does various functions.
These include but are not limited to data management, network management, security management, transaction management, systems management, interactive facilities, and programming.
The Mainframe history can be divided into 3 generations of Mainframe: first generation, second generation and third generation. During the first and second-generation period [1952-1964], major players in the Mainframe industry like General Motors, Burroughs Corporation, General Electric etc developed operating systems. The operating systems developed during this period were used for scientific and engineering calculations only

During 1959-60, IBM’s user association ‘SHARE’ came up with an improved version of GM-NAA I/O operating system named ‘SHARE OPERATING SYSTEM’.

IBM introduced a new Mainframe, System/360 in 1964. System 360 represented third generation Mainframe computers in which, all systems used the same peripherals and most of which could run the same programs. Along with System 360, IBM planned to introduce a single batch oriented operating system called OS/360.

IBM in 1995 introduced OS/390, a successor of OS/360. Later, in 2001 IBM made improvements for this OS to include support for 64-bit z series Mainframes.

The history of mainframe operating system was fascinating as seen. From the early GE operating systems to S/360, DOS/360, OS/360,VM Line and their continuing lineage through the current five OS’s z/OS, z/VSE, z/VM, z/TPF and Linux on System z, IBM has shown its commitment to tune the mainframe capabilities for meeting the emerging technological requirements