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IBM Application System/400
IBM AS/400e model 730
Also known asAS/400, AS400
ManufacturerIBM
TypeMidrange computer
Release date1988
Discontinued2000
Operating systemOS/400
PredecessorIBM System/38,
IBM System/36
SuccessorIBM iSeries
RelatedIBM RS/6000

The IBM AS/400 was a midrange computer platform from IBM, sometimes referred to generically by the umbrella term AS/400 or "AS400". The platform was first introduced as the AS/400 (Application System/400) in June 1988, with the operating system being called OS/400. In 2000, IBM introduced the eServer iSeries (with the 400 sometimes added[1]).

Summary

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IBM AS/400 9406-720

The predecessor to AS/400, IBM System/38, was first made available in August 1979 and was marketed as a minicomputer for general business and departmental use. It was sold alongside other product lines, each with a different architecture (System/3, System/32, System/34, System/36).

Realizing the importance of compatibility with the thousands of programs written in legacy code, IBM launched the AS/400 midrange computer line in 1988. AS stands for "Application System." Great effort was made during development of the AS/400 to enable programs written for the System/34 and System/36 to be moved to the AS/400. Programs on the System/38 were directly compatible with the new AS/400 (after they were 're-encapsulated' by the operating system).

In 2000, in accordance with IBM's eServer initiative, the AS/400 series was rebranded as the eServer iSeries.

The AS/400 operating system was originally named OS/400 (following the pattern begun with OS/360 and followed with OS/2). The operating system has undergone name changes along with the rebranding of IBM's server lineup. The operating system was rebranded as i5/OS to correspond with the introduction of POWER5 processors and the rebranding of the hardware to eServer iSeries. Ultimately, the operating system was replaced by IBM i's 6.1 release.

The operating system is object-based. Features include a RDBMS (DB2/400), a menu-driven interface, support for multiple users, block-oriented terminal support (IBM 5250), and printers. IBM i has built-in security, and support for communications, and web-based applications which can be executed inside the optional IBM WebSphere Application Server or as PHP/MySQL applications inside a native port of the Apache web server.[2]

Unlike the "everything is a file" feature of Unix and its derivatives, on IBM i everything is an object (with built-in persistence and garbage collection). IBM i offers Unix-like file directories using the Integrated File System.[3] Java compatibility is implemented through a native port of the Java virtual machine.

Like IBM's mainframe operating systems, IBM i uses EBCDIC as the inherent encoding.[4]

OS/400 Version 4, Release 4 (V4R4) introduced LPARs (logical partitions) allowing multiple virtual systems to run on a single hardware footprint.

History

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The AS/400 was the continuation of the System/38 database machine architecture (announced by IBM in October 1978 and delivered in August 1979). The AS/400 removed capability-based addressing.[5] The AS/400 added source compatibility with the System/36 combining the two primary computers manufactured by the IBM Rochester plant. The System/36 was IBM's most successful mini-computer but the architecture had reached its limit.

The first AS/400 systems (known by the development code names Silverlake, named for Silver Lake in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, where development of the system took place, and Olympic) were delivered in 1988 under the tag line "Best of Both Worlds" and the product line has been refreshed continually since then. Guy Dehond from Inventive Designers was one of the beta-testers of Silverlake. The programmers who worked on OS/400, the operating system of the AS/400, did not have a UNIX background. Dr Frank Soltis, the chief architect, says that this is the main difference between this and any other operating system.

The AS/400 was one of the first general-purpose computer systems to attain a C2 security rating from the NSA (Gould UTX/C2, a UNIX-based system was branded in 1986[6]), and in 1995 was extended to employ a 64-bit processor and operating system.

The 1995 change-over from IMPI, with 48-bit addresses, to PowerAS, with 64-bit addresses, required that all programs be 'observable', i.e. that the debugging information had not been stripped out of the compiled code. This caused problems for those who had bought third-party products that had no source and no observability. In 2008, the replacement of IBM System i with IBM i on Power Systems caused similar problems.[7]

Although announced in 1988, the AS/400 remains IBM's most recent major architectural shift that was developed wholly internally. Since the arrival of Lou Gerstner in 1993, IBM has viewed such colossal internal developments as too risky. Instead, IBM now prefers to make key product strides through acquisition (e.g., the takeovers of Lotus Software and Rational Software) and to support the development of open standards, particularly Linux. After the departure of CEO John Akers in 1993, when IBM looked likely to be split up, Bill Gates commented that the only part of IBM that Microsoft would be interested in was the AS/400 division. (At the time, many of Microsoft's business and financial systems ran on the AS/400 platform, something that ceased to be the case around 1999, with the introduction of Windows 2000.[8][9][10])

In 2000, IBM renamed the AS/400 to iSeries, as part of its e-Server branding initiative. At that time, it adopted more PC server-like features, such as PS/2 keyboards and mice and VGA video output, mostly coming from IBM PS/2 and Intel server line (called eServer xSeries), replacing proprietary technologies. In 2001, it switched to the POWER4 processor from the PowerAS processors used by previous generations.

Distributed file and relational database services

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In 1986, System/38 announced support for Distributed Data Management Architecture (DDM). This enabled programs to create, manage, and access record-oriented files on remote System/36, System/38, and IBM mainframe systems running CICS. This support was extended into the AS/400 and its follow-ons. It was enhanced to support additional services that had been defined by DDM and to support AS/400-specific extensions, as allowed by DDM.

In 1990, the AS/400 announced support for Distributed Relational Database Architecture, which is based on DDM.

Features

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The IBM System i platform extended the System/38 architecture of an object-based system with an integrated DB2 relational database. Equally important are the virtual machine and single-level storage concepts which established the platform as an advanced business computer.

Instruction set

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One feature that has contributed to the longevity of the IBM System i platform is its high-level instruction set (called TIMI for "Technology Independent Machine Interface" by IBM), which allows application programs to take advantage of advances in hardware and software without recompilation. TIMI is a virtual instruction set independent of the underlying machine instruction set of the CPU. User-mode programs contain both TIMI instructions and the machine instructions of the CPU, thus ensuring hardware independence. This is conceptually somewhat similar to the virtual machine architecture of programming environments such as Smalltalk, Java and .NET. The key difference[citation needed] is that it is embedded so deeply into the AS/400's design as to make applications effectively binary-compatible across different processor families.

Unlike some other virtual-machine architectures in which the virtual instructions are interpreted at run time, TIMI instructions are never interpreted. They constitute an intermediate compile time step and are translated into the processor's instruction set as the final compilation step. The TIMI instructions are stored within the final program object, in addition to the executable machine instructions. This is how application objects compiled on one processor family (e.g., the original CISC AS/400 48-bit processors) could be moved to a new processor (e.g., PowerPC 64-bit) without re-compilation. An application saved from the older 48-bit platform can simply be restored onto the new 64-bit platform where the operating system discards the old machine instructions and re-translates the TIMI instructions into 64-bit instructions for the new processor.

The system's instruction set defines all pointers as 128-bit. This was the original design feature of the System/38 (S/38) in the mid 1970s planning for future use of faster processors, memory and an expanded address space. When at a point in the future 128-bit general purpose processors would appear, IBM i will already be fully 128-bit enabled. The original AS/400 CISC models used the same 48-bit address space as the S/38. The address space was expanded in 1995 when ith the RISC PowerPC RS64 64-bit CPU processor replaced the 48-bit CISC processor.

For 64-bit PowerPC processors, the virtual address resides in the rightmost 64 bits of a pointer while it was 48 bits in the S/38 and CISC AS/400. The 64-bit address space references main memory and disk as a single address set which is the single-level storage concept.

Software

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The IBM System i includes an extensive library-based operating system, IBM i, and is also capable of supporting multiple instances of AIX, Linux, Lotus Domino, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. While IBM i, AIX, Linux and Lotus Domino are supported on the POWER processors, Windows is supported with either single-processor internal blade servers (IXS) or externally linked multiple-processor servers (IXA and iSCSI). iSCSI also provides support for attachment of IBM Bladecenters. Windows, Linux, and VMware ESX(VI3) are supported on iSCSI attached servers.

LPAR (Logical PARtitioning), a feature introduced from IBM's mainframe computers, facilitates running multiple operating systems simultaneously on one IBM System i unit. A system configured with LPAR can run various operating systems on separate partitions while ensuring that one OS cannot run over the memory or resources of another. Each LPAR is given a portion of system resources (memory, hard disk space, and CPU time) via a system of weights that determines where unused resources are allocated at any given time. The operating systems supported (and commonly used) under the LPAR scheme are IBM i, AIX, and Linux.

Other features include an integrated DB2 database management system, a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, non-programmable terminals (IBM 5250) and printers, security, communications, client–server and web-based applications. Much of the software necessary to run the IBM System i is included and integrated into the base operating system.

The IBM System i also supports common client–server systems such as ODBC and JDBC for accessing its database from client software such as Java, Microsoft .NET languages and others.

Programming

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Programming languages available for the AS/400 include RPG, assembly language, C, C++, Pascal, Java, EGL, Perl, Smalltalk, COBOL, SQL, BASIC, Node.js, PHP, PL/I, Python and REXX. Several CASE tools are available: CA Plex (formerly AllFusion Plex) , Synon, IBM Rational Business Developer Extension, Accelerator, LANSA, Uniface and GeneXus.

The ILE (Integrated Language Environment) programming environment allows programs from ILE compatible languages (C, C++, COBOL, RPG, Fortran, and CL), to be bound into the same executable and call procedures written in any of the other ILE languages.

Commands in the Control Language (CL) are promptable using the keyboard F4 function key, and most provide cursor-sensitive help to make specifying command parameters simpler. All command names and parameter keywords are based upon uniform standardized and mostly 3-letter abbreviations for verbs and subjects, making for easy rendering and interpretation by the application developer, as opposed to other operating systems with often cryptic or inconsistent command names for related functions or command parameter switches. For instance, the parameter keyword to apply a text description to any object to be created or changed is spelled the same way for all such commands.

Examples:

  • CRTUSRPRF, DSPUSRPRF, CHGUSRPRF, DLTUSRPRF - create, display, change, and delete user profile
  • CRTLIB, DSPLIB, CHGLIB, DLTLIB - Create, display, change and delete a library
  • ADDLIBLE, RMVLIBLE, CHGLIBL - Add or remove library list entry or change library list
  • WRKACTJOB - Work with Active Jobs
  • WRKSYSSTS - Work with System Status
  • STRSST, STRPASTHR, STRSBS - Start System Service Tools, start pass through (remote login), start subsystem
  • VRYCFG - Vary configuration, bring interfaces up or down
  • PWRDWNSYS - Power Down System
  • WRKSPLF - Work with spooled files

For traditional business programming languages such as RPG, COBOL, and C, the IBM System i provides an interface to the integrated database that allows these languages to treat database tables much like other platforms treat ISAM or VSAM files.

Support for 5250 display operations is provided via display files, an interface between workstations, keyboards and displays, and interactive applications, as opposed to batch processing with little or no user interaction. ASCII terminals and PC workstations are equally and well supported, also via internet or LAN network access supplemented by either IBM or non-IBM communication software, for example TELNET or TELNET 5250.

IBM systems may also come with programming and development software like Programming Development Manager.

Supported operating system versions

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Version[11] Release date[12] End of Program
Support[13]
Documentation
Support[14]
Old version, no longer maintained: V1 1988-08-26 1993-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V2R1 1991-05-24 1994-06-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V2R1M1 1992-03-06 1994-06-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V2R2 1992-12-18 1995-06-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V2R3 1993-12-17 1996-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V3R1 1995-06-21 1998-10-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V3R2 1996-06-04 2000-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V3R6 1995-12-22 1998-10-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V3R7 1996-11-08 1999-06-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V4R1 1997-08-29 2000-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V4R2 1998-02-27 2000-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V4R3 1998-09-11 2001-01-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V4R4 1999-05-21 2001-05-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V4R5 2000-07-28 2002-12-31
Old version, no longer maintained: V5R1 2001-05-25 2005-09-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V5R2 2002-08-30 2007-04-30
Old version, no longer maintained: V5R3 2004-06-03 2009-04-30 V5R3 Documentation
Old version, no longer maintained: V5R4 2007-04-20 2013-09-30 V5R4 Documentation

Hardware

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The AS/400 was originally based on a custom IBM CISC CPU which had an instruction set architecture, known as Internal MicroProgrammed Interface (IMPI), similar to that of the IBM System/370.[15] It was later migrated to a POWER-based RISC CPU family eventually known as RS64.[16]

Close look to AS/400 9402-D02 model
AS/400 9402-400 model with expansion module and terminal
AS/400e 9406-630
AS/400 9401-150 (also known as "Advanced Entry")

CPU in AS/400, iSeries, i5, Power Systems

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The System i5 used POWER CPUs, which were developed and manufactured by IBM.

CPU Year Clock Speed Server-Models Exterior
Type: 9401 9402 9404 9406
IMPI[note 1] 1988 > 22Mhz [note 2] Current stable version: AS/400 P01, P02 Biege cases
P03; 10S C04, C06

D02, D04, D06

E02, E04, E06

F02, F04, F06

100, 2xx, 3xx[18]

20S, 40S

B10, B20

C10, C20, C25

D10, D20, D25

E10, E20, E25

F10, F20, F25

135, 140, 30S

B30, B35, B40, B45, B50, B60, B70[18]

D35, D45, D50, D60, D70, D80

E35, E45, E50, E60, E70, E80, E90, E95

F35, F45, F50, F60, F70, F80, F90, F95, F97

50S, 53S

1991 200 and 236

400 and 436

300, 310, 320 Black cases
Cobra (A10) 1995 55 or 75 MHz 4xx 510, 520 Unknown
Muskie (A25/A30) 1996 125 or 154 MHz 530
Apache (RS64) (A35) 1997 125 MHz Current stable version: AS/400e 150 620, 630, 640 Black cases with blue accent
Unknown (PowerPC AS?)[19] 1997 Unknown SB1, S10, S20, S30, S40[20] Black cases with red accent
NorthStar (RS64 II) 1998 200, 255 or 262 MHz 170, 250, 650[21] 720, 730, 740
Pulsar (RS64 III) 1999 450 MHz Future release: iSeries;
System i
270, 820 Black cases with yellow accent
IStar (RS64 III upgraded) 2000 400, 500, 540 or 600 MHz SB2, SB3[22] 820 830, 840[23]
SStar (RS64 IV) 2000 540, 600 or 750 MHz 270 800, 810, 820 830, 840
POWER4 2001 1.1 or 1.3 GHz 890 ??
POWER4+ 2003 1.9 GHz 825 870
POWER5 2004 1.5 or 1.9 GHz i5-520 i5-550 i5-570, i5-595 Black cases with blue accent
POWER5+ 2005 1.5 GHz (2005)
1.9 GHz(2005)
2.2 GHz
2.3 GHz
i5-520, i5-515, i5-525
i5-550 i5-570
POWER6 2007 3.5 GHz
4.2 GHz
4.7 GHz
BladeCenter JS12, JS22
M15 M25 i5-570 (MMA)

M50

POWER6+ since 2009 3.6 GHz
3.8 GHz
4.0 GHz
4.2 GHz
4.4 GHz
5.0 GHz
BladeCenter JS12, JS22, JS23, JS43
Power 520, 550, 560, 570, 575, 595
Power;

Power Systems

Black cases with green accent
POWER7 2010 3.3 GHz
3.6 GHz
3.7 GHz
4.2 GHz
BladeCenter PS700, PS701, PS702
PureSystems compute nodes p260, p460, p24L
PowerLinux 7R1, 7R2
Power 710, 720, 730, 740, 750, 755, 760, 770, 780, 795
POWER7+ 2012 3.7 GHz
4.2 GHz
4.4 GHz
BladeCenter PS703, PS704
PureSystems compute nodes p260, p460, p24L
PowerLinux 7R1, 7R2
Power 710, 720, 730, 740, 750, 755, 760, 770, 780, 795
POWER8 2014 2.5 GHz to 5.0 GHz Power S812L, S814, S822, S822L, S824, S824L, S812LC, S821LC, S822LC
Power E850, E870, E880
POWER9 2017 4 GHz Power AC922, L922, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, E950, E980
  1. ^ There were at least two generations of IMPI processors, the second was released in 1991.[17]
  2. ^ "The processor clock cycle is 45ns worst case."[17]

Models of AS/400, iSeries, i5 systems

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Model Year CPU Group Base - CPW
B10, B20, B30, B35, B40, B45, B50, B60, B70 1988, 1989 P10, P20 2,9 - 20
C04, C06, C10, C20, C25 1990 P10 3,1 - 6,1
D02, D04, D06, D10, D20, D25, D35, D45, D50, D60, D70, D80 1991 P10, P20, P30 3,8 - 56,6
E02, E04, E06, E10, E20, E25, E35, E45, E50, E60, E70, E80, E90, E95 1992 P10, P20, P30, P40 4,5 - 116,6
F02, F04, F06, F10, F20, F25, F35, F45, F50, F60, F70, F80, F90, F95, F97 1993 P05, P10, P20, P30, P40 5,5 - 177,4
P01, P02, P03 1993-1995 P05 7,3 - 16,8
150 1996 P05 10,9 - 35,0
S10, S20, S30, S40 1997 P05, P10, P20, P30, P40, P50 45,4 - 4550
SB1, SB2, SB3 1997, 2000 P30, P40 1794 - 16500
10S, 100, 135, 140 1993-1995 P05, P10, P20 17,1 - 65,6
170 1998 P05, P10, P20 30 - 1090
200, 20S, 236 1994 P05, P10 7,3 - 17,1
250 2000 P05 50 - 75
270 2000 P05, P10, P20 50 - 2350
300, 30S, 310 1994 P10, P20, P30, P40 11,6 - 177,4
400, 40S, 436 1995 P05, P10 13,8 - 91,0
500, 50S, 510, 530, 53S 1995 P10, P20, P30, P40 18,7 - 650
600, 620, 640, 650 1997 P05, P10, P20, P30, P40, P50 22,7 - 4550
720 1999 P10, P20, P30 240 - 1600
730 1999 P20, P30, P40 560 - 2890
740 1999 P40, P50 3660 - 4550
800 2003 P05, P10 300 - 950
810 2003 P10, P20 750 - 2700
820 2000, 2001 P05, P10, P20, P30, P40 100 - 3700
825 2003 P30 3600 - 6600
830 2000, 2002 P20, P30, P40, P50 1850 - 7350
840 2000-2002 P40, P50 10000 - 20200
870 2002 P40, P50 7700 - 20000
890 2002 P50, P60 20000 - 37400
520 2004–2006 P05, P10, P20 500 - 7100
550 2004–2006 P20 3300 - 14000
570 2004–2006 P30, P40 3300 - 58500
595 2004–2006 P50, P60 24500 - 216000
515 2007 P05 3800 - 7100
525 2007 P10 3800 - 7100
570 2007 P40 16700 - 58500
MMA (9406) 2007 P30 5500 - 76900
M15 2008 P05 4300
M25 2008 P10 4300 - 8300
M50 2008 P20 4800 - 18000
MMA 2008 P30 8150 - 76900
JS12 2008 P05 7100
JS22 2008 P10 13800
JS23 2008
JS43 2008
570 (9117) 2008 P30 104800
595 (9119) 2008 P60 294700

See also

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Preceded by IBM RS/6000
1990 - 2000
Succeeded by
Preceded by IBM AS/400
1988 - 2000
Succeeded by

References

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  1. ^ "IBM eServer iSeries 400". IBM. October 3, 2000.
  2. ^ "Zend Solutions for IBM i".
  3. ^ "File Integrity Monitoring for iSeries". Archived from the original on 2009-05-14.
  4. ^ IBMnt (2008). "IBM confirms the use of EBCDIC in their mainframes as a default practice". Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
  5. ^ Frank G. Soltis Fortress Rochester: The Inside Story of the IBM ISeries p.119
  6. ^ "Gould, Inc. Computer Systems Division". Defense Technical Information Center. December 31, 1986.
  7. ^ "IBM i 6.1 - Program conversion". 03.ibm.com. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  8. ^ Microsoft TechNet. "AS/400s extinct at Microsoft since 1999". Google discussion group, Microsoft runs AS/400's in-house - Article?. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
  9. ^ "Disparition des systèmes AS/400 chez Microsoft depuis mai 1999". Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
  10. ^ "Microsoft Uses the iSeries to Run its Business". Blogspot,Confessions of An iSeries Priest. Retrieved 2006-03-05.
  11. ^ IBM i Technology Updates
  12. ^ IBM i Software lifecycle
  13. ^ IBM i Upgrade planning:Releases
  14. ^ IBM i Documentation:Releases
  15. ^ David McKenzie. "Notes for storage research". Archived from the original on October 8, 1999.
  16. ^ Soltis, Frank G. "When Is PowerPC Not PowerPC?". The 400 Squadron. Archived from the original on January 8, 2008.
  17. ^ a b Schmierer, Q.G.; Wottreng, A.H. (1991). IBM AS/400 processor architecture and design methodology. IEEE International Conference on Computer Design: VLSI in Computers and Processors. pp. 440–443. doi:10.1109/ICCD.1991.139942.
  18. ^ a b "AS/400e System Handbook" (PDF). IBM. 1999-08-03. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  19. ^ "Family 9406+01 IBM AS/400e servers". www.ibm.com. 2020-05-12. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  20. ^ "AS/400e SB1, S10, S20, S30, and S40 models" (PDF). delaco.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ IBM.com. "V4R3 Questions and Answers". Reference # 8625668200695613. Retrieved 2007-04-04.[permanent dead link]
  22. ^ "IBM AS/400E MIDDLE-TIER SERVERS...FOR EXTREME BUSINESS". www.ibm.com. 2000-06-12. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  23. ^ https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_sm/5/897/ENUS9406-_h05/index.html&request_locale=en
[edit]

Category:AS/400 System i Category:Computer-related introductions in 1988