AS/400s in the Champaign area

From: r. 'bear' stricklin <red_at_bears.org>
Date: Fri Apr 19 18:49:55 2002

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, Doc Shipley wrote:

> You are, of course, exactly right. I should have said "probably". I
> had forgotten that some of (all?) the rackmount RISC models are beige.
> And cool, late-model stuff does escape into the wild now and then.

None of the RISC AS/400s are beige. Barring yellow, red, purple, copper
or other colored accenting, RISC AS/400s are all black.

No AS/400 ever ran OS/390. None.

All CISC AS/400s ran OS/400 V3R2 or earlier. All.

OS/400 V4 may be transferred with the hardware.

No CISC AS/400s ran OS/400 V4. None.

OS/400 prior to V4 is not transferrable to other than the original owner.
Period.

Some RISC AS/400s ran OS/400 V3R6 or V3R7.

IBM licensing terms for OS/400 V3 state unequivocally that it must be
removed from the machine before de-installation. If IBM does the
de-installation, there is no software on your AS/400 that once ran V3,
whether CISC or RISC.

The cheapest OS/400 V4 license available from IBM currently, is for the
9406-170 (P05 processor class, 5 users). OS/400 for that system will run
you approximately $2500.

If you have a P20-class system, like a 9406-500, OS/400 will set you back
$26,000. A 9406-500 is still relatively small.

In 99% of the forseeable scenarios, a CISC AS/400 is less than worthless.
Without software installed, or original media (which is tied to a system
serial number), it is impossible to do anything with a CISC AS/400. You
cannot buy OS/400 V3 from IBM. They will tell you to scram.

It will not run Linux. It will not run NetBSD.

A RISC AS/400 that had been running V3 is nearly worthless. At least a
RISC AS/400 will run V4, which is (for now) still available from IBM,
though at a high cost.

IBM guards AS/400 software and IP very jealously.

FWIW the AS/400 is essentially the follow-on to the System/36, to the
point of having a highly-evolved software environment allowing S/36
applications to run un-modified on AS/400. Supposedly there is some
dotted-line relationship to S/38 as well, but I don't have any real
information about that.

Anything else?

ok
r.
Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 18:49:55 BST