Soltis says iSeries and pSeries to merge

[GlenKerner]

From what I read in the article and if I understand it correctly, there will be 1 hardware platform and the ability to run 1 or more Operating Systems simutainiously. Isn't that what we have on the iSeries now? If you choose to have the main O/S as OS/400 you still have to have someway of running another O/S. The mainframes have used partitions way back to the late 70's early 80's to run multiple O/S's. We have been told for years that IBM planned to have the AS/400 hardware as their standard hardware for midrange (and maybe above). It sounds as they are going to do that. The problem I see is that the special hardware features (such as IOPs) that make the iSeries handle I/O much more efficiently and faster than other machines will be sacraficed. This may be the biggest mistake of all. I know that I've worked at companies that had both RS6000 and AS/400s. The RS6000 would run the POS system or Warehouse system (for example) and the AS/400 ran everything else (financials, Sales Analysis, etc.) Having both the AIX O/S and OS/400 O/S running on the same box would have saved the companies money and data transfer between the 2 types of systems would have been faster. I believe a merge of hardware could be productive to the sales of both Operating Systems as long as the best of the hardware is also combined. Otherwise we are going to have both the pSeries and iSeries be nothing more than another type of mainframe. How much will we loose in the merging is my biggest consern and not what it will gain. I wonder if the statements made in the article were actually made to get a feeling of we would react to that kind of merge. It would not be the first time that an IBM'er spoke about an upcoming change that got a big negative reaction and the change wasn't implemented. Just my 2 or 3 cents.

[Guest.Visitor]

http://www.the400group.com/aiw/free/04-1403.html

[David Abramowitz]

Glen Kerner wrote: . . .The problem I see is that the special hardware features (such as IOPs) that make the iSeries handle I/O much more efficiently and faster than other machines will be sacraficed. This may be the biggest mistake of all. Amen to that. When I hear criticism of the AS/400 because of its proprietary nature I cringe. The response is generally along the lines that losing superior proprietary qualities in favor of the mundane does no one any good. Dave