big iron

big iron

slang A very fast and powerful mainframe computer. A basic computer won't work—we need the big iron for this project.
See also: big, iron
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

big iron

n. a large, mainframe computer. (see also iron.) We’ll have to run this job on the big iron over at the university.
See also: big, iron
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • big C
  • big-C
  • the big C
  • big-H
  • big H
  • Big D
  • big-D
  • make big
  • make it big
  • Big Blue
References in periodicals archive
Heinie, Nighthawk and Wilson big irons run $3,000 to $5,000.
Big iron: building the longslide .45 auto
Security Monitoring and Incident Response: Big Iron Solutions security monitoring will validate that security controls are functioning effectively in addition to detecting suspicious behaviour and invalid configuration changes in real time.
Big Iron Solutions, Iron-Secure Managed Security & PCI Compliance for Mainframes
Fiona Wilcock, a nutrition consultant and author of The Big Iron Count Report, said: "Many parents don't really understand why iron is important or know which foods supply it.
Too few toddlers are getting enough iron; BREAKING HEALTH NEWS
The Big Iron Shoot Out is an annual informal gathering of people who enjoy snowmobiling in the deep snow of British Columbia.
Avalanche kills three at Canadian sports event
Regardless of market, both graphics processors and high-end IBM "big iron" demonstrate that conventional programming models must adapt to meet the needs of both low-power and highly-scalable hardware.
It's not easy being green: conventional programming models must adapt to meet the needs of both low-power and highly-scalable hardware
Interestingly, a poll of the audience at my ISOTech session revealed a dead-even split between those who would like to melt down the big iron and those who would rather put a shine on it and have it continue.
Mainframes: keep them or dump them?
"I liked it when all the fireworks came through and then the big iron monster started to blow up with fire," he said.
Sparkling!
BIG IRON WORLD Old Crow Medicine Show (Nettwerk, 2006)
Big Iron World
"One of my childhood memories was when we had to put big iron pillars inside the building to make it bombproof during the war and watching the lads climb on top of the air raid shelter which was just outside.
Home where the force was always with us
"Researchers with the Defense Department have a large backlog of requirements for the high-end, computational 'big iron' systems," he notes.
Air Force claims fastest computer in defense
"Sun and Oracle have seen increasing demand for our respective Sun Firex64 servers and database products and while the industry has traditionally thought of our longstanding relationship as only the marriage of big iron with leading database technology, the reality is we're continuing to increase our joint presence in the growing x64 server market," said Stephen Borcich, vice-president, Partner Marketing, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Oracle and sun target resellers with validated infrastructure solutions
In the majority of cases, the capabilities of "big iron" in-circuit testers are not needed.
The $250 million mistake
to H-Bomb big iron and steel centers around Leningrad"; "From Tripoli, 2 hrs.
Fifty years ago
"Big disk drive guys can't continue to move big iron unless they have a server consolidation strategy going on in the customer environment," he notes.
NAS/Tape Backup Strategies Cope With New Data Cornucopia
I performed my semi-scientific back-yard test for rust pre ventative miracle oils: I got a bunch of big iron nails degreased 'em handily, then put Clenzoil on some and left some raw and nekkid as a control group.
Clenzoil