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Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2
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Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso
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ibmas2.txt
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1993-02-24
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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