zHyperLink : The Need For Speed

In one of the groundbreaking events at the start of this year, IBM issued a Statement of Direction on January 10th, 2017; for zHyperLink - the first new mainframe input/output (I/O) channel link technology since FICON. It defines zHyperLink as a new short-distance mainframe attach link designed for lower latency than High Performance FICON (zHPF). These links are point-to-point connections between the CEC and the storage system and are limited to 150 meter distances.

It’s a mix of collaboration between DB2 on z/OS, IBM System z processors and DS8880 storage; to deliver extremely low latency I/O access for DB2 workloads. It is expected to enhance system resilience and provide industry leading I/O latency for transaction processing.

As of now, zHyperLink is expected to complement FICON technology to accelerate those heavy workload I/O requests in DB2 transaction processing. Similar to many previous I/O Accelerating technologies such as zHyperWrite, FICON Express16s, HyperPAV, Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI), Power8 Hot Chips, and many more; zHyperLink will also be used parallel with the FICON cables in the Mainframe Data Centers.

Last two fiscal years have seen massive growth in cloud, analytics, mobile and social/secure (CAMSS) workloads, that are demanding transactions with same SLA commitments and enterprise-class Quality of Service; as expected by most of System z clients. ZHyperLink will definitely come as a big relief for all those organizations; once this gets released in the market.