AS/400?

From: Geoff Roberts <geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au>
Date: Tue Aug 8 01:44:03 2000

Anyone out there know anything about IBM AS/400's?

Looking for some info on the following system.
This is the first AS/400 I've ever seen, so bear with me a little.
I'm not familiar with IBM stuff at all (pc's excepted) Digital Vaxen,
yes.
I picked up a Type 9402-2xx with 4 x Type 0662 1.05Gb SCSI Hard drives
and a 2Gb Tape drive for $30 at an auction in Adelaide last Friday.
Cool looking ~Microvax II sized box, solid metal, with a black plastic
5 piece shroud. (The back bulkhead cover is missing). A badge with the
IBM logo is on the front shroud, with AS/400 Advanced also in the badge.

Thing appears to boot, rattles away at drives, status display is live
etc, but have no idea what/where/how to connect anything to it. Have
numerous cables etc, and an IBM 3477 terminal I found in my back room.
Looking for advice on how/what to connect to it.

Not sure if this fits in the 10 year rule, though the AS/400 itself goes
way back, this machine appears more recent. Early/Mid 90's?

It appears to have at least 16mb of ram on a board inside. (2 x IBM 72
pin SIMMS). There is a DB25F on the back that appears to go to what I
take to be the main board, (which has part no 74G9701) that I assume is
a console port (do these have a console port?) the ram is on a board
with a part number of 74G9722 which I assume is a memory expansion board
of some description. I suspect it's running some version of OS/400
rather than SSP (I think that's the original O/S for these). This
appears to be a RISC machine based on the pic in the docs on the IBM
site, which show that it is a Version 3 AS/400. (Whatever that means.)

The following modules are fitted in the rear bulkhead. Searching for
module no's on the web found virtually nothing to my surprise.

2612 x 1 (A chance encounter in a newsgroup reveals this is an EIA
232/V.24 One-Line Adapter) I translate that as a serial port.
There is a blanking panel below it that would probably allow another to
be fitted there.

2609 x 2 I have some cables that mate to these, IBM P/N 21F9345
(9843),they terminate in a 'black box' with 2 x DB25M's minus pins 9, 14
and 16, marked P1 and P2 which I suspect are terminal ports. I have 4 x
P/N 22F0152 (9835) DB25F to DB25M, with pins 9-14, 16 and 19 missing,
these were hanging off the DB25M's on the 'black boxes'. I assume these
are to connect to a terminal, they certainly fit one of the ports on the
3477. One 22F0152 cable has an oddball DB25F in a plastic shell that
seems to be "wrapped around" the cable, it turns freely, it has 8 wires
that each jump one pin to another pin, and no connection
to the cable itself. Some kind of loopback connector? Spare part?
Inductive pickup? Who knows?

264A (Blank/space filler)
2641 (Blank/space filler)

2623 (some kind of interface, the 2 x 2609's fit into it)

None of these appear to be an ethernet connector, so I will have to hunt
up one of those too I guess.

Some 3180 "R2D2" Twinax based terms and cables came with it, however
there does not appear to be any kind of Twinax connector on the machine.
There were also some 'clone' type terms with it, but someone else got
them. I suspect these ran off the

IBM's web site has some docs etc available, but the physics of what and
how to connect terms etc are buried deep if they even exist there.

>From sticker on metal side of unit
(Under the black plastic cover)

Type 9402 S/N 10-1428A
Release Level V3ROM5
PTF Level C4179305
TSP (Y/N) : NO
Software License Type: NONE

On a small sticker on the back panel
Type 9402-2xx
S/N 10-1428A
MS9402101428A

Any help appreciated, replies off list if this is off topic most
welcome..

Thanks in advance,

Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe_at_tell.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
Received on Tue Aug 08 2000 - 01:44:03 BST