IBM iSeries Software
iSeries
The Application System/400 (also known as AS/400), now System i
(also known as iSeries), is a type of minicomputer produced by IBM. It was
first produced in 1988. It was then renamed to the eServer iSeries in
2000 as part of IBM's e-Server branding initiative. Now with the global
move of the server and storage brands to the System brand with the Systems
Agenda, the family has been renamed to System i in 2006, with the POWER5-based
members of the series being called the System i5.
History
The AS/400 was the result of the combination of the System/38 database machine
(announced by IBM in October 1978 and delivered in August 1979) and the System/36.
The first AS/400 systems (known by the development code names Silverlake and Olympic)
were delivered in 1988, and the product line has been refreshed continually since
then. 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 the first general-purpose computer system to attain a C2 security
rating from the NSA, and in 1995 was extended to employ a 64-bit processor and
operating system.
In 2000 IBM renamed the AS/400 to iSeries, as part of its e-Server branding
initiative. The product line was further extended in 2004 with the introduction
of the i5 servers, the first to use the IBM POWER5 processor. The architecture
of the system allows for future implementation of 128-bit processors when they
become available. Existing programs will use the new hardware without
modification.
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. It is noteworthy that 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 internal systems ran on the
AS/400 platform.)
Excerpt from "IBM System i." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
27 Oct 2006, 13:34 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IBM_System_i&oldid=84043862
 Image from Ian Jarman, The Future Simplified.
IBM eServer iSeries. 14. Apr 2005, 16:21 UTC. Software
Software fundamentally is the unique image or
representation of physical or material alignment that constitutes
configuration to or functional identity of a machine, usually a
computer. As a content of memory, software in principle can be
changed without the adjustment to the static paradigm of the
hardware thus without the remanufacturing thereof. Commonly
software is of an algorithmic form which translates into being
to a sequence of machine instructions. Some software, however,
is of a relational form which translates into being the map of
a realization network (see VHDL).
Software is a program that enables a computer to perform a
specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the
system (hardware). This includes application software such as
a word processor, which enables a user to perform a task, and
system software such as an operating system, which enables other
software to run properly, by interfacing with hardware and with
other software.
The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey
in 1957. In computer science and software engineering, computer
software is all computer programs. The concept of reading different
sequences of instructions into the memory of a device to control
computations was invented by Charles Babbage as part of his difference
engine. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was
first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers
with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.
Excerpt from "Computer software." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
25 Oct 2006, 12:59 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_software&oldid=83627420
|
Sep. 2006: Fast Feedback
Jan. 2007: New website design
Feb. 2006: Humain aided Websearch
