Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/

Mainframe emulator goes commercial

Hercules, son of z/OS
By Timothy Prickett Morgan
Posted in Servers, 25th September 2009 05:14 GMT

Free whitepaper – Performance of farms of servers running VMware virtualization software

Roger Bowler - the creator of the open source Hercules mainframe emulator - has put together a
company called TurboHercules [1] to try to commercialize the decade-old program that he created as
a "programmer's plaything."

Rather than go straight at the IBM mainframe base, which many a company has tried to do and
ended up in court, TurboHercules is taking an oblique angle of attack on the mainframe base,
positioning a commercialized version of the Hercules [2] mainframe emulator as a platform for
disaster recovery machine for working mainframes and their software stacks. So, if you are reading
this, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, IBM's New York lawyers, this is not about replacing existing
mainframes, but about giving their software a place to run when the mainframe crashes. (I didn't think
that happened...)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 1 of 6
Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

TurboHercules is co-headquartered in Paris, France, where Bowler moved after he left the United
Kingdom, and in Seattle, Washington, in close proximity to the one big software company that has in
the past taken a shining to anything that gave Big Blue some grief, particularly with mainframes.
(Yes, we mean Microsoft).

The European angle could prove to be important inasmuch as the European Commission's antitrust
authorities are showing a lot more backbone these days than their counterparts in the United States.
EC regulators have held up Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, and importantly for the
mainframe market, they continue to look into [3] IBM's behavior before and after its acquisition [4] of
Platform Solutions in July 2008. Platform had its own mainframe emulator running on Itanium iron and
ended up suing Big Blue and being countersued, with IBM settling the matter by acquiring Platform.

Bill Miller, who is president of TurboHercules, was showing off the commercialized version of
Hercules at Intel Developer Forum this week in San Francisco, a kind of coming out party of sorts,
albeit a quiet one as the company is testing the waters. And perhaps Big Blue's patience as yet
another company tries to squeeze in on its mainframe monopoly. But the company is not so much
interested in antagonizing IBM as it is in finding a niche and making some dough on the substantial
amount of work that Bowler and the current Hercules maintainer, Jay Maynard, have put into the
program.

"Up until now, Hercules has been viewed more like a science project," explains Miller, who adds that
the Hercules project has no clear idea how many of its open source mainframe hardware emulators
are out there running on laptops, desktops, and servers.

The emulator is written in C with a smattering of assembly code where performance is crucial, and
actually allows code, operating systems, and other systems software written for many generations of
IBM mainframe hardware to run atop other servers. It is distributed under the Q Public License,
developed by application development tool maker Trolltech for its Qt tools and since abandoned for
the GNU General Public License. The QPL and GPL don't mix. The Hercules emulator can emulate
the System/360, the System/370, the ESA/390, and the z architectures.

Hercules currently runs on 32-bit x86, 64-bit x64, and Itanium processors, and it can itself be

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 2 of 6
Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

deployed on top of Windows, Linux, Mac OS, or Solaris running on those three hardware options.
Very old IBM mainframe operating systems that are in the public domain - including OS/360,
DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, and TSS/370 - can be legally deployed on top of the Hercules
emulator.

But all the modern mainframe platforms - z/OS, z/VSE, and z/VM - have license restrictions that do
not allow for customers who have versions of the code running on real mainframes to load that
software atop Hercules - except for one provision in the IBM software license agreement, according
to Miller, that allows for mainframe shops to load their software onto another machine in the event
that the box on which it is licensed fails.

This is why TurboHercules is positioning itself as a provider of x64 and Itanium platforms suitable as
emergency backup boxes for modern mainframes. Not as a box for supporting legacy (but not
ancient) mainframe operating systems or new ones, but rather as a poor man's disaster recovery for
a state or local government, for instance, that these days does not have the budget to buy two
System z10 BC mainframes, much less one, but is sitting on older System/390 or zSeries mainframe
iron and nonetheless needs some kind of disaster recovery iron if this old kit kicks the bit bucket.

TurboHercules obviously wants more than this, and like Platform Solutions and Fundamental
Software before it, it can envision a commercial Hercules emulator being used in application testing
and development, as well for demonstrating new mainframe applications. And not only for hard-core
z/OS workloads, but also for the System z implementations of Linux. Which, by the way, run fine atop
Hercules. While CentOS and Debian Linuxes have supported the z implementation of the Linux
kernel, the mainframe variants of Linux from Red Hat and Novell are what nearly all mainframe shops
use, and this code is available for free even if the installation and technical support for it is not.

Another possible use is to have TurboHercules boxes used to train newbie mainframers, rather than
real mainframes, which cost millions to tens of millions of dollars. This would be particularly useful in
China and India, where most of the new mainframe pros are being created as the old-time experts in
North America and Europe retire.

Soon after incorporating in France, TurboHercules approached the top brass at IBM France and said
that they were interested in "sitting down and figuring out where TurboHercules can operate,"
according to Miller. IBM has yet to respond to this inquiry. "We actually want to do this in the right
way. We're not trying to go the PSI or T3 route, and maybe this is a little naïve on our part. We would
like to find a license agreement under fair terms," Miller explains.

Of course, no one thinks for a minute that whatever Hercules emulators there are running out there in
the world on x86, x64, and Itanium iron is out there running MVS 3.8 with its awesome 16 MB
memory address space. There is very little doubt in anyone's mind that at least some of the Hercules
emulators out there are running real and modern mainframe stacks, and they can do so because
even with the heavy midrange penalty, an x64 server can deliver the performance of a midrange
mainframe. We're talking something on the order of dozens to hundreds of MIPS, and to IBM, that's
something on the order of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars over a many-year span for
hardware, software, and services.

TurboHercules is very clear that it wants no piece of any kind of business involving the illicit use of
IBM operating systems. "We are not trying to condone that market," says Miller, and perhaps the
better word there is behavior, since market implies money. "There's no point in bringing down the
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 3 of 6
Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

wrath of IBM, and there's nothing to sell if it isn't done legally."

The first customer to put TurboHercules through the paces is an unnamed state government that had
a $200,000 budget to implement disaster recovery for an aging System/390 mainframe. The state
cannot afford to upgrade to a modern z10 box, much less get two of them for disaster recovery. It just
wants to keep the System/390 running, which is long since paid for, pay its monthly software
licensing and maintenance fees to Big Blue, and have an emergency box on which to load up its
applications in the event that the System/390 fails.

So as a proof of concept - and for $50,000 - TurboHercules has set up a two-socket ProLiant box
from Hewlett-Packard using the new "Nehalem EP" Xeon 5500 processors, running Windows and
Hercules. About half of that dough went into the services required to set up the configuration and
make sure the HP box was rightsized for the job. Over time, as TurboHercules gains experience, it
will take less time to do the setup and its profits should rise at the same time as the overall cost
comes down.

That's the theory anyway. It's unclear what portion of the TurboHercules system sale will be
dedicated to lawyers, thereby eating up those tidy profits.

At IDF, the company demonstrated an HP Xeon 5500 box running Hercules atop Windows and
supporting MVS 3.8 as well as HP Itanium box running SUSE Linux and then Hercules on top, with
the z/Linux versions of SUSE Linux atop that. Miller said he had talks with server makers Dell and
Stratus about supporting Hercules as well. ®

Links
1. http://www.turbohercules.com/
2. http://www.hercules-390.org/
3. http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/01/20/ibm_eu_probe/
4. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02/ibm_buys_psi/

Related stories
Stayin' alive: Ten years of Linux on the mainframe (29 June 2010)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/29/ibm_mainframe_linux/
Neon to take mainframe complaints to Europe (24 June 2010)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/neon_eu_complaint_pending/
Neon updates zPrime mainframe accelerator (15 June 2010)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/15/neon_zprime_update/
IBM: Mainframe emulator part of a conspiracy (26 March 2010)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/26/ibm_turbohercules_response/
Korean bank dumps Unix boxen for mainframes (5 January 2010)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/05/ibm_bc_card_mainframe/
IBM punts Linux-only mainframes (11 December 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/11/ibm_linux_only_mainframe/
zPrime cost-cutting mainframeware gets traction (9 November 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/09/neon_zprime_update/
Jobs go at Novell (4 November 2009)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/11/04/novell_job_cuts/
Much ado about IBM's mainframe monopoly (20 October 2009)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 4 of 6
Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/10/20/ibm_mainframe_i_monopoly/
IBM: Power7 to rollout throughout 2010 (16 October 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/16/ibm_power7_z11_rollout/
Europe greases US probe of IBM mainframe biz (10 October 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/10/ec_aiding_us_ibm_antitrust_probe/
US DoJ investigates IBM mainframe biz (8 October 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/08/ibm_doj_probe/
Intel: tweak Nehalem's nobs to hit high notes (7 October 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/07/intel_san_fran_nehalem_savings_chat/
Ballmer says Big Blue hands in too few pies (29 September 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/29/ballmer_nyt_interview_ibm_shrinkage/
IBM punts fixed-cost BlackBerry support plan (25 September 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/ibm_fixedcost_blackberry_support_plan/
Mainframe shops gush over big iron (17 September 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/17/idc_ca_mainframe_surveys/
Black hole swallows EMEA server revenues (16 September 2009)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/09/16/idc_emea_servers_q2_2009/
IDC outs the worst quarter in server history (2 September 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/02/idc_q2_2009_server_nums/
IBM halves mainframe Linux engine prices (17 August 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/17/ibm_mainframe_linux_cuts/
IBM flings FUD at Neon zPrimers (30 July 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/30/ibm_zprime_response/
IBM, Novell to slash Linux prices for mainframes (27 July 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/27/novell_linux_mainframe_deal/
Will Big Blue mainframes run Windows? (23 March 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/mantissa_windows_on_mainframes/
T3 girds loins for IBM legal fight (30 January 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/30/t3_prepares_for_trials/
IBM defies hardware woes with record 2008 (21 January 2009)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/21/ibm_q4_2008_numbers/
IBM faces EU monopoly probe (20 January 2009)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/01/20/ibm_eu_probe/
IBM's Transitive buy presents interesting server options (25 November 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/25/ibm_transitive_options/
IBM authorizes OpenSolaris on mainframes (24 November 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/24/ibm_authorizes_mainframe_opensolaris/
IBM defers New Coke financing (22 October 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/22/z10_mainframe_wheeling_dealing/
IBM chills mainframe New Coke (21 October 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/21/new_ibm_entry_mainframe/
Company without a name unveils mainframe Solaris (17 October 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/17/solaris_on_mainframe/
IBM rids world of mainframe up-start PSI, inherits Itanium server biz (2 July 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02/ibm_buys_psi/
EU may be lubricating IBM anti-trust probe (22 April 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/22/eu_investigates_ibm_psi_spat/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 5 of 6
Mainframe emulator goes commercial [printer-friendly] • The Register 10-09-05 8:53 PM

PSI takes a bigger swing at IBM's mainframe biz (27 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/27/psi_system6/

© Copyright 1998–2010

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/print.html Page 6 of 6