It was initially introduced to relieve the general mainframe central processors (CPs) of specific Db2 processing loads, but currently is used to offload other z/OS workloads as described below.
The idea originated with previous special purpose processors, the zAAP, which offloads Java processing, and the IFL, which runs Linux and z/VM but not other IBM operating systems such as z/OS, DOS/VSE and TPF.
In August, 2007, Shadow, a mainframe middleware product, now owned by Rocket Software,[1] introduced the first zIIP eligible integration for environments other than DB2, expanding the benefit of specialty engines to include Adabas, CICS, IMS, IDMS and VSAM.
[6] For example; the CA NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP product can run both its main task and packet analyzer subtask on a zIIP.
Rocket Software claims that their Shadow server will allow 99% of the integration processing, such as SQL to non-relational data queries and Web services/SOA workloads, to be zIIP eligible and run outside of the General Purpose Processor.
Commercial software developers, subject to certain qualification rules, may obtain technical details from IBM on how to take advantage of zIIP under a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
This minimizes the MIPS consumption on general processors (GCPs) and reduces the total cost of ownership.