IBM iSeries Tools
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 Tools
A programming tool is a program or application
that software developers use to create, debug, or maintain other
programs and applications. The term usually refers to relatively
simple programs that can be combined together to accomplish a task,
much as one might use multiple hand tools to fix a physical object.
The history of software tools began with the first computers in the
early 1950s that used linkers, loaders, and control programs. Tools
became famous with Unix in the early 1970s with tools like grep, awk
and make that were meant to be combined flexibly with pipes.
Tools were originally simple and light weight. As some tools have been
maintained, they have been integrated into more powerful integrated
development environments (IDEs). These environments can make searching
and editing much easier, however they lack the ability to massage code,
like old Unix tools.
The distinction between tools and applications is murky. For example,
developers use simple databases (such as a file containing list of
important values) all the time as tools. However a full-blown database
is usually thought of as an application in its own right.
For many years, computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools
were sought after. Successful tools have proven elusive. In one sense,
CASE tools emphasized design and architecture support, such as for UML.
But the most successful of these tools are IDEs.
The ability to use a variety of tools productively is one hallmark
of a skilled software engineer.
Excerpt from "Programming tool." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
14 Oct 2006, 11:33 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Programming_tool&oldid=81384294
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