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With processors, where there is typically only one unit to several dozen DASD devices, the ‘spare’ unit approach was not practical so IBM did not need to provide three years warranty to exclude competition. Instead it just made its processors less able to be ‘cannibalized’ by including many processors and items such as memory and channels on a single board that cannot be dismantled (although taken to extremes as with the zSeries, this has hurt IBM itself as noted in previous articles).
As a result the third party maintainer disappeared, leaving IBM able to increase maintenance charges almost at will. And surprise surprise, the IBM mainframe processor maintenance cost did increase in this era. Over the years the maintenance price of a processor has varied in line with market influences and processor design. For example, in the era of the ECL processor a third party maintainer …