m epi P Por ega No EEA NON VOK 5 RON Gana O i š RR NPNORENEI TREE 1 ben ati O P MAY 22, 1989 - V The AS/400 Is Justifiably Popular —but It Has Its Limits Communications, system matures during the 1990s. The struct the contents of all disk drives. which gives AS/400 users a flexible and A number of optional facilities are J z design also provides for the introduction ! 1 In s . NI ue solketate mopores Wilh- to completely redi sl disk Mes For i IM: ks of computers. age and large solid sta ; š h AS/200 1 tri k 6 Fint ae implementation of out affecting applications design. ooo roke ortioc el ooo si, : range family of. SAA. IBM has made it clear that the set Probleme adl milatlcie RESNA ENE a kod and TO computers. The of standards called Systems Application covery time is often a matter of hours. AS/400 is an Architecture (SAA) will form the foun- Overall, the AS/400 has met or ex- ; zl com- dation for future software products. ceeded its original design objectives; . ee Of ekaznji me ponent of IBMs The AS/400 provides more SAA capa- however, a few problems have yet to be recovery NOT si NE era SdtČ A $ strategy to pro- | bilities than any other computer envi- resolved satisfactorily. The AS/400s cur- it impractical now | A tione that vide greatly en- " ronment, and its advanced architecture. rent limits include the following: : le iti apP! JAMES hanced consts- offers a more practical and workable 6 Missing SAA languages. Not avail- reguire gt ava TRIS 400 s car tency and con- approach to relational processing, Al- able yet are C, FORTRAN, SAA Control € Fault to! et SE M KATIN nectivity across — though the current relational database Language (REXX), Cross System Prod- rently impracti NE TA TORRES multiple sup- lacks some important features (such as uct (CSP) and SAA Overy (MF). Sup- | ations where ra; a i ported, envi- relational integrity), the DBMS more port for C and an execution-only version very high availability is reguired. ronments. The AS/400 has been an immediate market success, even though its full ca- pability is just beginning to be under- stood. This week, Ill examine the keys to its success, as well as its limits. š Some reasons why the AS/400 is so popular include the following: e System/3X compatibility. IBM stopped most of its development work on the System/36 and System/38 in the summer of 1986 and focused on the AS/400. By mid-1988, many of the 850,000 System/3X users were ready for something newer and better. The AS/400s ability to run System/3X appli- cations with a limited conversion effort ensured it an initial surge of orders from System/3X users primed for an upgrade. e Database capability. The AS/400 is a database computer, not a general-pur: pose computer to which database-man- agement software has been added. As a result, it offers advanced relational da- tabase features without the perfor: mance degradation normally associated with relational processing. € Cost of ownership. The combination of AS/400 architecture and features makes it a very affordable computer, particularly when the cost of support functions (systems programming, data- base support, network management, op- erations and software) are considered. e Downsizing option. Some organiza- tions, particularly those faced with an expensive conversion from IBM's DOS/VSE to the MVS operating system, are switching to networked AS/400s. e Advanced architecture. The AS/400 incorporates all of the innovative fea- tures poe Te System/38 architecture, in- el a high-level machine interface, object orientation, single-level address- ability, a large address space, integrated € Ease of use. The AS/400 offers a great deal of capability without the need for numerous complex interfaces. ' Avnilability of applications. System/3X compatibility allowed the more than 8,000 application available for System/3X to be rapidly available on the AS/400. iputers and devices. Connectivity with IBM-com- patible PCs is strong. Support for šta Network Architecture (SNA) LU 62 is provided by Advanced Simplicity: The Attractlon of IBM's AS/400 How tHe AS/400 Coripares with TradiHotial Systetnst Traditional Systems > Applicatlonis sold is separate imoduleš ' Specialized experis needed to support tach module Basic Olfica Interactive SuppoH Supervisor/Job Scheduler Cotrimuhications Database Security Graphics Operating System Intertial Code UAsbd. | ' Sepatata tuncilonš bundied withli a single operating systerti < Operating Systetniddij | | Graphles Basic Oflice ij Interactive Siipbort,, kej 1 Hi ii lj l Security |, Comirilinicatloks Database Supetvisloni and Cohttol Funetions Apbllcatiori-telated tuHellans System luneilonš ; ' Fof etatniple, IBM MVS and VM; Bec vis ji John veki The AS/400 provides the most SAA capabilities, and its advanced architecture offers a means of relational processing — but the relational database lacks features. than makes up for this by being afford- able and easy to use. ; Compared with traditional systems, the AS/400 provides an integrated sys- temsoftware structure, As illustrated, traditional systems provide separate system-software packages for graphics, basic office, security, communications, database and so on. The AS/400 com- bines these software layers into one comprehensive system-software module identical for all models, which makes it possible to offer high Tuncikrali, with. out h. of CSP are likely to be available in 1989, and the ini no later e Tape-backup devices. The fastest backup tape currently offered is the IBM 2440, which isn't fast enough to back up very large disk configurations (more than 10 gigabytes) in a reason- able time. The faster 3422 has been an- nounced for the A8/400, but it won't be available until the fourth guarter. % Recovery. The recovery from com- plete failure of a disk drive can be com- plex and slow. This is caused by the way in which single-level addressability is implemented. If a disk drive fails and cannot be read, it's necessary to recon- e Technical computing. The AS/400 currently lacks hardware floating:point capability, so it can't be used for num- ber-intensive computing. This limitation may be resolved by IBM during 1989. e System/36 mode performance. Al- though the facility that allows the AS/400 to run System/36 applications after a simple migration is generally guite effective, iti does reguire more computer resources than if System/36 applications had been written to take full advantage of the AS/400. e Entry price. The cost of owning even a small AS/400 is well over $50,000 (in most cases this includes hardware, sys- tem software, applications software, training and so on). A lower entry price is needed to bridge the gap between PC solutions and the current low end of the AS/400 line. e Application-development tools. There are relatively few good tools available for application development on the AS/400. € Connectivity with 3270 work- stations. It can be difficult to create networks with both AS/400 and Sys- tem/370 systems if the workstations on the System/370 systems include older 3270-type workstations. Often, the most, significant problem is the limitation of the 3270's keyboard. € Support of non-SNA devices. The AS/400 currently lacks connectivity to many non-SNA devices, such as certain Unix workstations, Macintosh comput- ers or other devices that use the TCP/IP protocols. e Office automation. The AS/400 was announced with an adeguate—but not superior—office-automation capability. The AS/400 Office functions will be en- hanced through the availability of the IBM OfficeVision Family of office prod- ucts announced last week. However, these new office products will not likely be fully available until mid-1990. Next week, T1l evaluate the AS/400 as an alternative to the widely used IBM System/370 architecture. 8 The James Martin Productivity Series, an information service updated guar- terly, is available through High Pro- ductivity Software Ine., of Marble- head, Mass. Cod] opira For sago mation on seminars, contact (in the Une zneje enje, ae. nology er nstitute, Santa pona Calif. 90402 (213) 394- 8305. In zada contact Č omike N« Lances, United Kingdom (0999) 794 905