The System 38 is dead, long live the System 38. IBM won’t enjoy this glib analysis of its launch of the AS/400 range on Tuesday, but in the most part the individuals that brought the AS/400 to market will agree with it. The AS/400 is based on the architecture of the System 38, and despite IBMers claiming that they will continue to build 38s as long as people continue to buy them, the old System 38 models were obsoleted as absolutely as the bulk of the System 36 range, because instead of adding to the 38, IBM replaced it the length and breadth of the range. And IBM hasn’t even dropped the prices on the 38 here to match its new price performance curve (it has cut memory and upgrades in the US), but it is being widely predicted. IBM believes though, that it will still sell many upgrades to 38 customers that don’t want to shell out for a completely new machine yet. Revolutionary When confronted with this opinion Don Friedman, head of marketing worldwide for the AS/400 agreed that it was basically a System 38, but faster and cheaper and done a lot better. Some people would say that it didn’t need to be a lot better than the 38 – it was, after all a revolutionary box that has lasted nine years, and in the guise of the AS/400, will last many more. So what’s been added? And the answer is lots and lots of basically small items, which add up to a far more polished marketing package than IBM has put out since the early Personal Computer days. In fact if there is one thing that IBM has done right this time around it is the market positioning. The product is cheaper, IBM claims a 50% improvement in price performance, although on closer inspection it looks more like 25%. IBM has cleared the two biggest obstacles from acceptance of a 38-like architecture with the same piece of compiler technology. The RPG II code from the Systems 34 and 36 will run unchanged on the new machine, which protects both the investment in applications and perhaps more importantly the investment in RPG II training. You can’t find spare RPG programmers today, so training is at a premium. Even if customers still think they have a tight training need, almost 50 on-line lessons, each lasting around 45 minutes come built into the system for self study. Customers can even add to the lessons with corporate information and use it as a generalised company-wide computer-based training system. But IBM has shown an attention to detail that was sadly lacking in November 1978, when the System 38 was born. The machine is tried and tested in the field, with over 1,700 machines installed and another 2,000 to go in before official volume shipments start. There is plenty of packaged application software available – IBM claims that 2,500 applications will be available from Agents by August and that 1,000 are available in the UK right now. About 80% of the sales will touch the hands of Agents, IBM says, which gets these Agents very actively on IBM’s side. IBM’s internal favourites like Maapics are tagged for delivery in October this year. Last time around everyone had to guess whether or not IBM would convert it into a relational environment. The support is a feature, with 1,200 of the most frequent quest ions built into the Help code, and a new IBMLink phone in support service that escalates software problems right through to a patch if necessary, which IBM says can be generated and installed within a few hours. This features a remote diagnostic Copy Screen service, so a local IBM expert can look at the screen that’s giving the problem, emulating it on his own machine. Maintenance pricing has been lowered to where it allows IBM to bring down the overall cost of ownership over a five-year period to a level where it is claiming price leadership over DEC for the first time in years. That and the genuine low hardware price allows IBM to hide the increasing cost of both the basic software and any extras you may feel you’ll need. Some installations may be surprised to find that outgoings on software eventually come to equal 33% of all their expenditure. A multi-language feature i
s a nice touch, where you can be operating with screens in different languages talking to the same processor. IBM Paris is one of the most multilingual environments in Europe, and this requirement could have even been an internal one – and also poises IBM Europe awfully well for 1992 and the Single Market. Finally IBM has added a couple of long overdue pieces of software. SQL is provided alongside the Query software that has differentiated the System 38 relational database from all others sold by IBM. Old users with old habits can use Query, anyone who decides that he really needs an SQL server can now seriously consider an AS/400. And AS/400 Office is based on Displaywrite, adds Personal Services, and offers an SAA-compatible user interface that looks like Profs. IBM has recanted definitively on not including RPG in Systems Applications Architecure: it now says minimal code changes will be needed to RPG III to make it fit SAA. IBM also promised the AS/400 a future, stating that it has devel opment for OS/400 2.0 in place, and that the hardware and software improvements over the next four years, will take this product stream up to the power of a 3090- 150E, and that announcements will be separated by no more than six months so as to bring between 30% and 50% improvement in uniprocessor performance each year. Massively parallel IBM also lifted its skirts a touch, with the revelation that to build this machine in the incredibly short 28 months (30 to shipment date) it had to turn to a massively important new internal technology. Already tried on the 9370 though not boasted about, it is called EVE, or Engineering Verification Engine, which is a massive parallel processor which uses 256 parallel processors, and delivers 100 times the power of a 3090. There are a handful inside IBM and they are used to simulate chip performance without ever fabricating the chip, so that IBM can eliminate several levels of chip fabrication. Perhaps that was just part of the public relations image of a new improved IBM, but it difinitely gives the sort of impression that IBM is happy to present as a technology leader. IBM has also endeavoured to make its midrange philosophy a touch clearer. If you have six or seven users and are starting to look at multi-user environments you now go one of two routes. You can get involved at the operating system level, and opt at the same time for portability by buying AIX, or you don’t want to touch the operating software and need the fast development times that AS/400 can give. The argument that there was lots of room for the 9370 as well was less convincing.
