HIGHLIGHTS OF IBM'S AS/400 ANNOUNCEMENT OF FEB 16, 1993 HARDWARE: * IBM announced 14 new F-series systems that replace the E-series systems; availability for these systems is March except for the high-end 9406 models F70, F80, F90 and F95 which will be available in May * the F-series are based on new Bi-CMOS chips, achieve 20% greater reliability and are field upgradable from the E-series systems that were introduced a year ago * this is the third complete refresh in the product lineup in less than two years * average improvement is 33% in performance and 18% in price- performance * performance results on the new systems were as follows: model tpc-C $K/tpm-C F10 66.1 2.097 (30% better than E10) F35 98.6 2.446 (40% better than E35) F80 580.3 3.280 (40% better than E80) HARDWARE FUTURES: * Consultants are uncertain if the AS/400 line would be able to support multiprocessing beyond the current 4 processor implementation. The fourth processor gives approximately 30% incremental performance and additional processors may not be able to improve performance significantly. Given that the bus bandwidth may be reaching its limits already, consultants expect IBM to introduce a newer bus architecture before adding more processors. * Consultants expect another product line refresh in late 1993 to the "G" models with potentially a low-end system priced under $10K. * Major architectural changes are not expected until 1995-96; this may possibly be to a version of the PowerPC architecture. HARDWARE ANALYSIS: * The AS/400 still uses old S/370 technology; there is no definite plan to upgrade to current processor technology * As consultants have indicated, significant performance improvements can only be achieved by enhancing the bus architecture or moving to a new architecture * Scalability and range of high end performance of the product family is still not a attractive as what HP can offer * Analysts expect a major change in the architecture in 1995-96 * Comparing the February announcements for the RS/6000 and AS/400 product families, it seems that the AS/400 product line pricing is set at a 50% premium over the RS/6000 OPERATING SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE: * OS/400: a new version, V2R3 was announced and will be available December 17: -- it allows customers to mix high-availability using RAID-5 with mirrored disk drives, thus making it easier to protect the system from any single disk failure -- it provides enhanced communications, management and emulation facilities and integration of OS/2, Windows and DOS platforms by allowing users to concurrently run OS/2, DOS and Windows over a single connection to the AS/400 -- new release of OS/400 incorporates an Integrated Language Environment for faster, more flexible and efficient application development; IBM announced ILE C/400 and said it intends to provide ILE RPG/400 and ILE COBOL/400 next year -- software license management is embedded in the OS and provides "soft" checks on software licensing (does not actually cut users off if user limit is exceeded) * TPC/IP File Server Support/400: a new program that provides a server implementation of NFS for the AS/400 * a new application development tool kit will give developers that ability to build applications based on OSF/DCE * AS/400 Client Series: a new offering that identifies development tools and business applications; customers buying the Client Series have a single point of support through AS/400 SupportLine and AS/400 ConsultLine services * AS/400 Server Series: a new offering that provides an integrated client/server system with an AS/400 and a PS/2 ready to run business applications * SystemView Automation Center/400: a new offering that provides for centralized management of a single system or a network of systems through a graphical user interface -- this allows a mix of S/390 systems in an AS/400 environment FUTURES: * OS/400 will, in a future release, comply with the XPG4 base branding * C2 security is expected shortly SOFTWARE ANALYSIS: * There was an emphasis on openness for the AS/400. However, this still seems to be a marketing statement, as actual compliance with standards such as XPG4 is not expected before 1994. * There was a significant emphasis on client-server capabilities which seems to indicate a potential change in the sales strategy. It seems that the traditional sales strategy for the product line may have reached its maturity * Third party databases are still not available on OS/400 and there is no indication that this will eventually happen PRODUCT FAMILY SUMMARY: 9402 entry-level systems: F02 F04 F06 perf. increase 25% 30% 25% min. memory (MB) 8 8 8 max. memory (MB) 24 24 40 min. disk (MB) 988 988 988 max. disk (MB) 1976 3952 7904 # workstations 28 42 100+ system price ($) 10,500 12,870 16,990 OS price 1,890 4,130 8,100 9404 mid-range systems: F10 F20 F25 perf. increase 30% 20% 15% min. memory (MB) 8 16 16 max. memory (MB) 72 80 80 min. disk (MB) 988 988 988 max. disk (GB) 11.8 11.8 15.8 # workstations 160 240 240 system price ($) 16,580 37,000 71,070 OS price 8,100 14,330 19,400 9406 high-end systems: F35 F45 F50 F60 perf. increase 40% 25% 60% 40% min. memory (MB) 16 16 64 128 max. memory (MB) 80 80 192 256 min. disk (GB) 1.97 1.97 1.97 1.97 max int. disk (GB) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 max disk (GB) 39.3 39.3 74.7 110.2 system price ($) 39K 73K 155K 280K OS price 19,400 38,580 55,120 79,380 9406 high-end systems (continued): F70 F80 F90 F95 perf. increase 45% 40% 35% 30% min. memory (MB) 128 128 128 128 max. memory (MB) 512 512 512 512 min. disk (GB) 1.97 1.97 1.97 1.97 max int. disk (GB) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 max disk (GB) 165.2 165.2 165.2 165.2 system price ($) 400K 730K 980K 1,080K OS price 104,700 148,800 176,400 199,500