New Find: AS400

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Wed Feb 2 20:02:49 2005

David wrote:
> I don't deal with the AS/400 much, but a good friend of mine does. I was
> under the impression that IBM would provide a password for non-commercial
> use on the CICS machine assuming a valid chain of ownership was
> provided.....

I tried to do that and they quoted me a price in the thousands of dollars.

I bought the machine at an auction. I don't remember if I still had
the auction paperwork at the time, but the IBM rep didn't ask me for it.

The other problem is if you don't get the MULIC tape with the machine.
That's "Machine-Unique Licensed Internal Code". Basically the software
that runs on the bare metal, beneath OS/400. As the name suggests, it's
specific to each model. And if you don't have that tape, IBM will be
happy to sell you one for really big buck$.

I was interested in the AS/400 because I wanted to learn more about
how they use a single-level store. But apparently the single-level
store isn't directly available to application programmers, though the
OS uses it extensively.

Eric
Received on Wed Feb 02 2005 - 20:02:49 GMT