of dollars for the 2094-S54. (These prices are for new installations. Generally there are lower prices when upgrading from the immediate predecessor model, more like many software products and quite unlike most other hardware products.) For comparison, when new, the zSeries z890 had a starting price about twice that of the System z9 BC. Successor machine In February 2008, the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class was announced (and later in 2008 the z10 Business Class (BC) was announced). The z10 features quad-core technology, for up to 64 processors. The z10 has a number of power-saving, space-saving and throughput improvements compared to the z9. References External links IBM.com: IBM Z mainframes homepage IBM.com: Latest mainframe models IBM.com: Hardware Management Console Operations Guide - Version 2.9.0 IBM.com: System z9 109 System Overview IBM Redbooks for System z z9 Products introduced in 2005 64-bit computers