Is the IBM AS 400 a mainframe? or was it the name of their server OS? I thought it was the name of their mainframe system. Also, can anyone give me a breif explanation of what it was used for i.e. it's strengths and why it has fallen out of flavor ??
#1. "RE: AS 400" In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0) Thu Oct-07-04 01:59 AM by Ttech
The AS/400 line is considered to be midrange, not mainframe. They come in various models ranging from systems that are meant to be rack mounted to small units that resemble a tower PC.
AS/400s are widely used today, running many different applications. As far as I know, every Wal-Mart store is running on an AS/400. You can attach a LOT of storage devices, disk, tape, optical, via SCSI. This means that you can run a large database. An AS/400 can also function as a web or mail server.
Far from falling out of favor(not flavor), it just depends on what your needs and budget are. An AS/400 is not a home use machine unless your profession is writing software for it.
Minicomputers were always proprietary. Both hardware & software.
IBM DEC Texas Instruments HP Unisys & many others.
What they offered was multiuser multitasking & the knowlege that things would work. And work correctly. And work together. But you had to play by their rules. And you paid for that.
What Unix did was to bring about (more) openness.
Sun Apollo Altos & many others.
Eventually all the mini's dabbled (or more) in Unix.
#4. "RE: AS 400" In response to therube (Reply # 3) Thu Oct-07-04 04:26 PM by _Chewy_
>Minicomputers were always proprietary. >Both hardware & software.
TheRube,
Don't take this the wrong way, but how does your comment relate to my question? According to the explanation given by Ttech, the AS400 is not a "minicomputer".
The AS/400 is an IBM minicomputer for small business and departmental users, released in 1988 and still in production under the name iSeries. The AS/400 is an object oriented system with an integrated database that was designed to implement E.F.Codd's relational database model in the operating system and hardware . All software necessary to run this computer is included and integrated.
The iSeries/AS400 is the follow-on to the System/38 database machine initially released in 1985. AS/400 (known as Silverlake) was released in 1989, and the product line was refreshed and named iSeries in 2000."
"IBM mainframe From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An IBM mainframe is an International Business Machines (IBM)-made mainframe computer, i.e., a traditionally "large" high-performance computer (in terms of price tag, physical size, transaction processing and I/O performance), although usually not as expensive and highly performing as a supercomputer.
In the early years (1950-1965) IBM made many models of mainframes, most of which were incompatible with each other. It had two main lines of models: one for commercial or data processing use, and another one for engineering and scientific use. The two lines were largely incompatible. This all changed with the introduction of the System/360 (S/360) in April of 1964. The System/360 was a single series of compatible models, for both commercial and scientific use. The System/360 later evolved into the System/370, the System/390, and most recently the zSeries."
