Open Mainframe Storage

NEC D-Series for Open Mainframes

PSI System64 Open Mainframe servers offer an innovative I/O "virtualization" technology which allows storage of mainframe ECKD data on lower cost, high performance FBA storage arrays. When used in connection with NEC Enterprise Modular Storage Arrays, PSI customers can benefit from a considerably lower cost storage platform which offers a great deal more flexibility than traditional mainframe storage. Compared to high-cost mainframe storage solutions such as an IBM Shark, PSI provides a lower cost with comparable reliability and performance. Customers finally have a choice of mainframe storage solutions to match the business and technical requirements as well as the value of the underlying data sets supported by the solution.

Unlike "end of channel" solutions that have been offered in the past to leverage FBA storage, PSI's virtual I/O is not limited by channel bandwidth constraints or low end server "appliance" reliability issues. System64 makes I/O access to z/OS at system bus speeds. Within the System64 server, System Assist Processors and Channel Sub-systems are designed to operate asynchronously with z/OS partitions to execute, service and manage I/O requests. This eliminates I/O processing loads on the general purpose CPU's dedicated to application workloads. PSI's I/O subsystems support traditional mainframe I/O protocols such as ESCON, FICON and other proprietary mainframe channel types while simultaneously supporting SAN and NAS I/O channel protocols such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI. System64's design provides mainframe compatibility and the flexibility to incorporate FBA devices in your mainframe datacenter strategy. The below diagram provides a visual overview of this unique architecture.


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