IBM COMPLETES TRANSFORMATION OF AS/400 ADVANCED SERIES INTO CLIENT/SERVER, ADDING 64-BIT POWERPC TECHNOLOGY.SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 1995--IBM today completed the transformation of its popular AS/400(a) Advanced Series business computer into an open, enterprise-level client/server, adding new server function and 64-bit RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. PowerPC AS(a) microprocessors. Systems announced today are expected to provide up to 300 percent more transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. power than current models. When moving to AS/400 Advanced Series with PowerPC AS microprocessors, customers will be able to take immediate advantage of 64-bit processing with their current applications, a capability unique to AS/400. As other hardware vendors move to 64-bit processing, customers and software developers will have to rewrite or recompile To compile a program again. A program is recompiled after a change has been made to it in order to test and run the revised version. Programs are recompiled many times during the course of development and maintenance. See compile. their applications. There are more than 25,000 AS/400 applications, including 3,000 designed for client/server. Current AS/400 Advanced Series systems can be easily upgraded to RISC technology at the customer's site, providing a growth path for customers who own or purchase current systems. The PowerPC AS microprocessors are the first 64-bit RISC microprocessors based on PowerPC(a) technology available in an IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) system. A new release of the easy-to-use, open AS/400 operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. provides support for: o Novell NetWare (operating system, networking) Novell NetWare - Novell, Inc.'s proprietary networking operating system for the IBM PC. NetWare uses the IPX/SPX, NetBEUI or TCP/IP network protocols. It supports MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, Macintosh and Unix clients. (b) Loadable Modules. o Lotus Notes Messaging and groupware software from IBM Lotus that was introduced in 1989 for OS/2 and later expanded to Windows, Mac, Unix, NetWare, AS/400 and S/390. Notes provides e-mail, document sharing, workflow, group discussions and calendaring and scheduling. (b) (in the near future). o Easier porting of UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). (b) commercial applications. o Connection to the Internet via World Wide Web Browsers The following is a list of web browsers. Historical Historically important browsers In order of release:
o A graphical interface See GUI. for easier system operation. o New object-oriented application development tools. o Planned parallel capabilities for the powerful, integrated DB2(a) for OS/400 database. o Multiple processors connected over high-speed fiber-optic lines for unprecedented database access and processing power. "Although we have changed the technology under the AS/400 covers many times, the value of what we bring customers does not change," said Bob E. Dies, general manager, AS/400 Division. "We designed AS/400 Advanced Series to uniquely integrate the components of computing systems for customers, so they don't have to do it themselves. Customers tell us they want to focus on running their businesses, not on running computers." PowerPC AS Microprocessors The new AS/400 Advanced System and AS/400 Advanced Server use 64-bit PowerPC AS microprocessors developed by IBM, based on the PowerPC technology developed by IBM, Apple and Motorola. The PowerPC AS microprocessors are optimized for AS/400. They include the A10, a 77 megahertz One million cycles per second. See MHz. MegaHertz - (MHz) Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate of modern digital logic, including microprocessors. (MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. ) three-way superscalar A CPU architecture that allows more than one instruction to be executed in one clock cycle. See pipeline processing. (architecture) superscalar - A superscalar architecture is a uniprocessor that can execute two or more scalar operations in parallel. microprocessor and the A30, a 154 MHz four-way superscalar microprocessor used in high-end models. With the PowerPC AS microprocessors, performance of the AS/400 Advanced Server (models 40S, 50S and 53S) and AS/400 Advanced System (models 400, 500, 510 and 530) will be substantially increased over current comparable models. IBM intends to provide system performance improvements for the Model 53S of up to 300 percent over the most powerful non-RISC AS/400 Advanced Server, the Model 30S. IBM intends to improve system performance of the Model 530, with its 4-way processor, by at least 50 percent over the non-RISC Model 320 4-way. Actual performance data for Model 53S and Model 530 will be available in October. Each system has from one to four processor options. High-end processor options (models 53S and 530) include symmetric multiprocessing See SMP. (parallel) symmetric multiprocessing - (SMP) Two or more similar processors connected via a high-bandwidth link and managed by one operating system, where each processor has equal access to I/O devices. capabilities for either two-way or four-way multiprocessors. The new systems support up to four times as much main memory, twice as much disk storage, and more than twice as many communication lines as current systems. A new high-end AS/400 Advanced System can support almost 50 percent more attached workstations -- up to 7,000. AS/400 Advanced Server can support up to 16 local area networks each with hundreds of clients. A new "OptiConnect" feature supports high-speed connection of nearby AS/400 systems through fiber-optic cable, providing unprecedented AS/400 processing and database capacity. OptiConnect can support up to 32 processors sharing databases. AS/400 Operating System A new release of the operating system, Operating System/400(a) Version 3 Release 6 (OS/400(a) V3R6), announced today, supports full 64-bit processing, and provides increased openness, connectivity and ease of use while preserving customer investments in applications, education and networks. IBM also announced today that virtually all the new functions in V3R6 are also available in Version 3 Release 1, which runs on earlier AS/400 systems. The new release of the operating system supports Novell NetWare on the powerful File Server Input/Output Processor (FSIOP See IXS. ) as well as Ethernet(b) and Token Ring A local area network (LAN) access method developed by IBM. Conforming to the IEEE 802.5 standard, Token Ring uses a token ring access method and connects up to 255 nodes in a star topology at 4, 16 or 100 Mbps. local area networks. IBM intends to enhance the integration of NetWare on the system to include the Integrated File System, NetWare Loadable Modules, IPX/SPX See IPX. (Internet Package Exchange/Sequenced Package Exchange) communications and broad printer support. IBM also said it intends to provide support for installation of the widely-popular Lotus Notes on AS/400 Advanced Series so customers with client/server operations can store a Notes document database on the AS/400 Advanced Server. Integrating PC server functions into AS/400 Advanced Series via the FSIOP, a 486-based board, allows customers to: o Eliminate the cost of separate PC servers, as well as their high support costs. o Use AS/400 backup, security, DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) Pronounced "daz-dee." A peripheral device that is directly addressable, such as a disk or drum. The term is used in the mainframe world. DASD - Direct-Access Storage Device and remote management capabilities. The operating system now supports additional Single UNIX Specification A standard Unix programming interface from The Open Group, which governs compliance. Formerly known as Spec 1170, and containing more than 1,100 API calls, products branded with the UNIX 95, UNIX 98 and UNIX 03 logos conform to Versions 1, 2 and 3 of the specification respectively. (SPEC 1170) application program interfaces (APIs) for commercial applications. Applications developed with these APIs can be easily ported to AS/400 Advanced Series from UNIX operating systems supporting these same Single UNIX Specification APIs. Using the new Graphical Access for OS/400 software, PC clients can now display OS/400 information in a more graphical, intuitive manner from both AS/400 applications and point-and-click, mouse-based environments such as OS/2(a) and Windows(b). The powerful, integrated DB2 for OS/400 relational database relational database Database in which all data are represented in tabular form. The description of a particular entity is provided by the set of its attribute values, stored as one row or record of the table, called a tuple. has been enhanced, and the system now supports development of drivers that will allow SQL SQL in full Structured Query Language. Computer programming language used for retrieving records or parts of records in databases and performing various calculations before displaying the results. queries to other popular databases such as Oracle and Sybase. IBM also plans parallel access capabilities for DB2 for OS/400, providing dramatic performance improvements and greatly increased storage capacity. The capabilities will be introduced first using symmetric multiprocessing for AS/400 Advanced Series with N-way processors, and then for multiple, connected AS/400 systems so they can function as one database. A new WebConnection links AS/400 to Internet's World Wide Web to provide images, audio, movies and other data to potential customers. IBM also is making custom services available to help customers set up a Home Page connection. New system facilities and programs support the use of advanced, object-oriented programming object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditional, or procedural, programming the data are separated from the on PCs linked to AS/400 Advanced Series, and a new "VisualAge" program gives developers the ability to write programs visually in the powerful C++ programming language as well as in Smalltalk. Applications Business Partners and software vendors are rapidly expanding the portfolio of AS/400 applications -- by far the largest of any multi-user business system. Business Partners have translated hundreds of applications and thousands of programs to take advantage of 64-bit PowerPC AS systems. Software 2000, for instance, translated two of its applications consisting of more than 1,500 programs during a two-day session at the AS/400 Partners in Development laboratory at Rochester, Minn. -- one of 14 centers around the world where solution providers can test their applications on RISC. More than two dozen major software vendors, including Computer Associates International, Information Management Company, Software AG, Powersoft Corp., Seer Technologies Inc., TopSpeed Corp., and Information Builders (Information Builders, Inc., New York, www.informationbuilders.com) A software company founded in 1975 by Gerald Cohen that specializes in enterprise business intelligence and real time Web reporting. , Inc. have ported current, popular UNIX and PC LAN applications to AS/400. Recently, IBM published a new edition of the AS/400 Application Catalog listing more than 3,000 client/server applications. Consultant View Consultant D. H. Brown Associates, Inc., said in February following a study of the AS/400 operating system, "When compared to its principal UNIX competitors, OS/400 V3.1 was the leading product in both the features/function and the overall commercial server ranking. . . OS/400 V3.1 leads in 7 of 11 different functional categories reviewed." AS/400 Advanced Server AS/400 Advanced Server belongs to IBM's family of four server platforms: PC Server, AS/400, RS/6000(a), and System/390(a). These servers are being transformed to work with each other and with the systems of other vendors through adherence to de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. and industry standards, as described in IBM's Open Blueprint. They also reflect IBM's drive to maximize the use of common technology, subsystems, and software across its platforms. At the same time, the four server platforms retain and build on the individual strengths that have made each of them winners in the marketplace. Those strengths address the different styles of computing that IBM customers have said they prefer, which can be summarized as: affordability (PC Server), simplicity (AS/400), scalable UNIX performance (RS/6000), and large scale robustness (S/390(a)). As a result, IBM offers what no other company in the industry can offer: servers designed to address every customer need, regardless of where the customer is on the road to open client/server computing. AS/400 AS/400 has become the world's most popular, multi-user business computing system, with more than 300,000 systems supporting businesses around the world. In the United States, 97 percent of the Fortune 100 Industrials use AS/400s. Availability and Price AS/400 Advanced Series (models 400, 500, 510, 40S and 50S) will be available starting in September with volume shipments in the fourth quarter. High-end AS/400 Advanced Series (models 530 and 53S) will be available starting in November with volume shipments in the first quarter of 1996. Prices range from $9,000 for the entry-level Model 400 to $195,000 for the Model 510 with its most powerful processor. Prices and performance for the high-end Models 530 and 53S will be announced in October. -0- (a) Trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. (b) Registered trademark of their respective companies. IBM US 218 6/21/95 Fax code: No. 3 IBM news releases are available on the Internet at http://www.ibm.com AS/400 marketing and technical information is available on the Internet at http://www.as400.ibm.com The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive facsimiles of prior IBM product press releases. Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and follow the prompts. CONTACT: Barbara McNair IBM Corporation 212/696-2000 on June 21 914/766-4530 after June 21 or Rachel Postlethwaite/Ari Fishkind TSI TSI Total Solar Irradiance (sum solar light in energy per unit of time) TSI Trading Standards Institute (UK) TSI Transportation Safety Institute (US DOT) for IBM 212/696-2000 |
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