The U.S. Justice Department is looking into allegations that IBM has abused its dominant position in the market for mainframe computers, the data-crunching heavy lifters of the computing world that IBM introduced in the 1960s that are now used to process some of the most sensitive data in banking, government and health care.
The accusations stem from claims by IBM rivals that they have been illegally frozen out of the mainframe market because of IBM’s refusal to allow its mainframe operating software to run on non-IBM computers. IBM does not have many rivals anymore that make mainframe computers, but some smaller companies are trying to develop technologies that would allow the software to run on cheaper hardware.
