IBM-Z-zOS VS ocmb-explorer-fw

and other components the x86 platform misses.

https://github.com/IBM/IBM-Z-zOS/blob/main/zOS-Education/Hin...

Here is a good high level slide deck on z/OS 2.5 new features: https://github.com/IBM/IBM-Z-zOS/blob/main/zOS-Education/zOS...

It starts out with the marketing buzzwords but then drills down into the technical nitty-gritty. In terms of what the "AI" stuff actually means, one answer is contained on slide 121 – support for running Tensorflow and ONNX inside a Linux Docker container using zCX (which lets you run z/Linux Docker containers under z/OS). The zCX SIMD support referenced on slide 102 is probably highly relevant to this.

If you have a C compiler then this is a sample C code that invokes the real time APIs: https://github.com/IBM/IBM-Z-zOS/blob/main/SMF-Tools/SMFReal/smfreal.c

Oh boy, that memory bus... I'll get to that in a second. First, yes, IBM creates IP blocks that they then license. Maybe I'm weird, but I view that as software - and I also heartily dislike IP block shops. What makes matters worse is how IBM has an awful track record when it comes to these licenses - they somehow always pick a partner that ensures the tech seeing little to no use. For example, you mentioned their memory bus... guess how they did that: they licensed (or sold?) Centaur to a single party, Microchip, who lists[0] a single memory controller with no price and no apparent interest in actually selling the thing. Also, Synopsys - one of those fabless companies that I love so much, is somehow involved[1]... resulting in memory controller binary blobs. It is pretty awesome really, I don't think IBM could have more surely murdered their tech if they'd tried.

Now I'm pulling for them, I actually own a POWER9 machine. I think it is great that they want to get memory controllers out of the CPU - but they've done it in such a way that leads me to believe that it is an intentional sabotage, which would only happen if they genuinely had no interest in an active hardware role.

[0] https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/PM8596

[1] https://github.com/open-power/ocmb-explorer-fw/blob/6570112a...

> contrary to the README above, the repository contains no source code

It does! It's not in the mainline source tree, but is tagged. The most recent source tree appears to be https://github.com/open-power/ocmb-explorer-fw/tree/ea3fae3c...