Soltis says iSeries and pSeries to merge

[David Abramowitz]

TTBOMK, AIX has no idea what to do with a separate I/O processor. Dave

[WaldenL]

True, however as the iSeries moves to Infiniband it won't be using an IOP anymore so neither system will have them. (Per Frank at the NES conference when I raised that point)

[David Abramowitz]

IMO this would be a huge mistake. The ability to offload I/O onto another processor is one of the best features ever devised into an O/S. Dave

[R.Daugherty]

My understanding from reading is that the CPU is being toggled back and forth between Unix and AS/400 modes. The fact that they stick both CPU architectures on one chip and toggle does not make it one box whose OS is irrelevant unless I completely misunderstood what I was reading, but I doubt it. This is the basis of nothing being able to run in PASE unless it was rewritten to not violate addressing rules in the AS/400 CPU chip side. I remember when dual CPU's were sold in early home PC's to toggle between CP/M and DOS, or CP/M and Apple, etc. I almost bought a Franklin which was CP/M and Apple, but I didn't have enough Franklins. Probably a good thing in retrospect. I don't understand anything about the thought process behind multi-partitioning for different OS's, multiple OS's on the same box, or anything IBM has done to the AS/400 since they decided they weren't a hardware company anymore. It is beyond my comprehension that Unix people would run Unix alongside OS/400 or vise versa. I also never understood divvying up hard drives which get cheaper every day and partitioning out to different OS's. I don't even like doing that on my PC. So what do I know. Luddite signing out here. Ralph

[David Abramowitz]

There are advantages and disadvantages to running everything off of one box. The biggest advantages are integration, and the ability to save your entire enterprise in one shot. The biggest disadvantage is a single point of failure. Dave

[Guest.Visitor]

Could be viewed as a PR thing for MS, but still, I thought this article was interesting. It mentions the AS/400! :-) Helping JetBlue see black Brian

[R.Daugherty]

Dave wrote: "There are advantages and disadvantages to running everything off of one box. The biggest advantages are integration, and the ability to save your entire enterprise in one shot. The biggest disadvantage is a single point of failure." "Integration" is a myth, Dave. The internal bus between those partitions is the same as working over a network, I was stunned to discover through reading. If you don't have mutual access to the OS/400 database, what's the point? One backup across OS/400, AIX, Linux, and AS/400 DASD partitioned to Pentium boards hanging off the box? Give me a break. That's exactly the kind of nonsense I'm referring to when I say that nothing IBM says happens in the real world. Ralph

[Guest.Visitor]

There are wiring and maintenance and other costs with separate equipment you don't have with partitioning. In most cases, just the hardware costs more when it is multiple boxes. The paperwork is another thing. These issues don't even get into multiple vendor compatibility scenarios.

[David Abramowitz]

Ralph wrote: "Integration" is a myth In this case you may be right for the wrong, (wrong is harsh) or at least a different reason. While it is expected that IBM's Lawyers can beat up SCO's lawyers, no one, can absolutely, positively, for sure tell how this thing is going to play out. Should SCO's rights be held legitimate, then there will be no Linux, AIX, etc to integrate with. Oh well. . . . .A myth ith as good ath a mile Dave

[Guest.Visitor]

The biggest benefit I see is the combined Marketing effort and budget. Everyone knows how bad it has been for so long in that respect. The install base will increase to the sum of the two parts when hardware market share is analyzed. Although we in this forum are all smart enough to know the split top brass won’t have a clue. They just want a quick read and numbers to back up their bet. Looking at the Iseries’ numbers now make a strong horse seem like a long shot. It will be a good thing for IBM and us.