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IBM System z Alive

IBM System z
KindMachine
Introduced2000
StatusAlive
ManufacturerIBM
ClassMainframe
Platformz/Architecture
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

The System/360's living descendant — 36 years of binary compatibility in the z/Architecture, still clearing the world's credit-card transactions.

Created by IBM
Hosted z/VM z/OS

IBM rebranded its S/390 line as System z in 2000 — 64-bit z/Architecture, still binary-compatible with 1964 System/360 code. The zSeries, System z9/z10, zEnterprise, and LinuxONE lines followed.

Mainframes never died — they just stopped being photographed. The line still clears ~70% of global financial transactions by value and runs on hardware whose architecture is six decades old.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Z