The History of the "System i" (eServer iSeries or AS/400)

The History of the "System i" (eServer iSeries or AS/400)

The history of the "System i" (eServer iSeries or AS/400), began with a computer which IBM called the IBM 1400. IBM 1400 Series was a series of second-generation transistorized computers midrange oriented administrative tasks that IBM marketed in early 1960. That machine is operated as independent systems, along with an IBM computer punch cards, or as a support team of other computer systems.

The 1400 series machines stored information in a magnetic core memory (also called "ferrite core") as strings of variable length, ending in a particular flag. The arithmetic was performed character by character. The entrance and exit were on punch cards, magnetic tape, and printer of the high-speed line. The first magnetic disk drives were available.

The Programming Languages the 1400 series included Symbolic Programming System (SPS, assembler language), Autocode, COBOL, FORTRAN, and RPG.

The System/360 replaced those machines and low-level computers like the IBM System/3 and the subsequent System/32, System/34, System/36, System/38, and AS/400.

The System/3:

The System/3 (presented 1,969 1,985 discontinued) was a computer for new customers and organizations which was still using IBM computers of the series 1400. It was the first member of what referred to as IBM midrange computers or minicomputers, and the operating system was based on batch processes. Thus IBM introduced the S/3 an online program called CCP (Communications Control Program. "), Which runs as a batch program, then by 1975 the operating system called SCP (system control program." )

The System/32:

The IBM System/32 was a computer-oriented small and medium businesses, primarily for accounting and ERP applications. Used as the main programming language RPGII. This machine was the successor to the IBM System/3 in the line of IBM midrange computer.

The team seemed a desk and had a built-in printer. It was between 16 KB to 32 KB of memory, a hard disk that was available in only 5 MB, 9 MB or 13 MB in size, and a floppy drive eight inches. Among the software that is owned:

- SEU (useful for editing program sources),

- DFU (useful for editing and query data files, and to generate reports)

- OCL (Operations Control Language command language and online),

- # LIBRARY (Directory where is stored executable code),

- Word Processor.

The System/34:

The IBM System/34 was a minicomputer marketed by IBM from 1978 to 1983. It was a multi-user, multi-tasking successor to the System/32. Used as the main programming language RPGII. It had 64K of memory and a set of boxes of 8-inch diskettes. Similarly implemented the benefits inherited from the Mainframe tale as programmable job queues and priority levels.

The operating system was the System Support Program, or SSP, which contained support for multiprogramming, job queues, printer queues, security and support for indexed files.

The System/36:

The IBM System/36 was a minicomputer marketed by IBM from 1983 to 2000. The system was entirely multi-user, multi-tasking successor to the System/34. Like the previous systems and System/34, the System/36 used as the main programming language RPGII. Similarly had a box set of 8-inch diskettes. The System/36 also had many mainframe features such as programmable job queues and scheduling priority levels.

Features. 

This machine was flexible and powerful:

• Allowed 80 monitors and printers that are connected. All users could access the system's hard disk or printer.

• Provided password security and resources, allowing control over who was authorized to access any program or file.

• It supports devices up to a mile of the system drive.

• Users can mark a line through dial-up, from anywhere in the world and have a connection to 9600 baud (which was very fast in the 1980s), an excellent technology for connections that use only text screen and no graphics.

• It allowed the creation of databases of enormous size.

• It came to support four hard drives in his expanded cabinet which could hold up to 1453 gigabytes.

The System/38:

The System/38 was a platform built midrange server. The system offers a range of innovative features, which became available commercially in August 1979

The System/38 worked with a 48-bit address, and the operating system based on security as part of its architecture, where users could have controlled access to each object or library. The System/38 has been maintained and expanded in the AS/400 computer lines, ESRI, iSeries or System i. Among the programming languages available were included RPG III, COBOL, BASIC, and PL/I. The language of operational control of the System/38 was called CL, "Control Language." CL programs, similar in concept to the shell scripts, it could be compiled and executed natively. 

AS/400, eServer iSeries or System i

The IBM AS/400 was introduced in 1987 and later renamed the eServer iSeries in 2000. As part of IBM's Systems brand initiative in 2006, was again renamed as  "System i." Today we find in critical services like banking and accounting of large companies due to their high availability robustness. The operating system uses called OS/400. Among the programming languages available for developing applications include RPG (RPGILE and Free) and COBOL, supplemented by the interfaces in Java. As integrated DB2 database as part of the operating system.

In April 2008, IBM announced its integration with the System p platform This product line was renamed Consolidated Power Systems and has the support of the "System i" (formerly i5/OS and OS/400), similarly provides native support for AIX and Linux operating systems which were supported only with hardware not native.

The operating system was initially called OS/400 (following the naming scheme that gave birth to OS / 2 and OS/390). It was later known as i5/OS in line with the introduction of the eServer i5 servers with POWER5 processors. Finally, IBM gave it the name of "IBM i" coinciding with version 6.1.

Features include a handle integrated database (DB2/400), a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, terminals 5250, printers, and security, communications and web-based applications that could natively be implemented using service in WebSphere Application Server or PHP / MySQL using the Apache web server.

In the "System i" everything is an object, but also offers a set of Unix-like file directories using an integrated file system. This computer implements the Java compatibility through a native port of the Java virtual machine.

The IBM "System i" (known as AS/400) System/38 was a continuation of maintaining an integrated architecture with a database manager, adding compatibility with the similarly System/36 source.

It is one of the computer systems to achieve a C2 security rating from the NSA. In 1995 it extended the architecture with the objective of using a processor and 64-bit operating system. In 2000 the name was changed to IBM AS/400 iSeries as part of IBM's initiative aimed at eBusiness. IBM expanded the product line in 2004 with the introduction of the i5 servers, the first to use the IBM POWER5 processor. The system architecture allows future implementation of 128-bit, when available. Existing applications can use the new hardware without modification.