“The new Linux kernel 2.4 increasingly supports higher-end
machines, such as the IBM S/390 Mainframe, and clusters. 2.4 also
better supports many of the peripherals associated with this class
of machine, like gigabit Ethernet, fast-switching, multi-device
support for RAID and LVM, improved SCSI drivers, and more.”
“IBM, as part of its pledge to greater serve Linux with support,
software, and services has several mainframe class machines
available from the factory with Linux installed. The IBM S/390 has
received the most attention from the Linux community, after it was
announced that David Boyes at Dimension Enterprises had run 41,400
separate instances of Linux simultaneously on one mainframe machine
before it ran out of resources.”
“Mainframes, often thought to be dinosaurs by newer
generations, seem to be making a Jurassic Park comeback. Once
highly proprietary, mainframes are now adopting open standards like
TCP/IP, gigabit Ethernet and Linux.”