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>"In the case of something like a x86 cluster you need something you can chuck. That is not necessarily true in with a mainframe."

What is meant by "chuck" here? To throw? If so what is the thing thats needs to be chucked exactly in the case of x86 vs mainframe? Thanks.

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not a typo; when you design for the typical x86 cluster it's a cluster - you expect components to die and you can throw away whole machines (i.e. expect failure). mainframes on the other hand keep chugging along no matter what.

the usual comparison is a cluster of cheap nodes vs a mainframe

Likely a typo. Probably meant chunk as in batch processing.

Maybe not. Mainframes have hot-swappable motherboards.

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