======================================= IBM System/390: The Linux Dream Machine ======================================= Running 41,400 Linux virtual machine O/S on a single IBM S/390 mainframe: [...] This gets better: nobody ever said you could only run one VM Linux system at a time. In fact, you can run multiples of Linux just as you run multiples of CMS. Just imagine one physical computer with several thousand copies of Linux running on it simultaneously, and each of these supporting multiple user connections. Fantasy? I have heard from one system administrator, David Boyes at Dimension Enterprises, who decided to push the envelope on this. His test system finally ran out of resources at 41,400 Linux images. That's not a typo--there were forty-one thousand copies of Linux running on one logical partition of one mainframe, under VM. [...] Adam Thornton of Flathead Software fired up a 390 emulator called "Hercules" (originally designed to emulate 370-series mainframes on Intel hardware) underneath Linux underneath VM. Then he ran another Linux boot underneath that. The hack value of this is just, well, way cool. http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/1532/1