AS/400

Debian GNU/Linux at IBM iSeries model 9406-520

The AS/400 system is a medium and high-end IBM equipment, for all types of companies and large departments.

It is a multi-user system, with an interface driven by menus and intuitive CL (Control Language) commands using terminals and an operating system based on objects and libraries, called OS/400. A strong point of OS/400 is its integration with the DB2/400 database, with system objects being members of that database. It also supports application data, resulting in a powerful and stable embedded system. Currently, under the name IBM i, formerly known as System i and iSeries, it supports other operating systems such as GNU/Linux, AIX or even Windows on an integrated Intel board, also natively supporting multiple applications previously reserved for Windows.

The machine was originally based on an IBM CISC CPU, but in 1996 it was migrated to a RISC CPU family based on 64-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Until March 2010, the latest models, which under the name IBM Power Systems unified IBM's System i and System p platforms, are based on the POWER7 processor.

The survivability of the machine is due to its MI or Machine Interface layer, which isolates the hardware and allows, through the use of APIs, the operating system and application programs to take advantage of hardware advances without having to recompile it and its adaptation to the critical business environment, where the stability and reliability of the system are essential.

It can work with RPG, PHP, C, Java, COBOL, SQL, BASIC and REXX programming languages. Several CASE tools are also available, such as ADP/400, Synon, AS/SET, Lansa, Delphi/400 for Windows, Delphi/400 for PHP, CA Plex (initially called Obsydian), or Genexus.

It was designed as a replacement for the IBM System/38 and based on its architecture, whose origins date back to 1978 and 1979.

Additional information

On December 2, 2006, from an initiative that emerged in the Help400 forum, an iSeries wiki external to Wikipedia was created, although developed in the same environment, in which it was intended that the community of iSeries professionals from Spanish-speaking could participate to collect the most basic information and concepts of this platform. However, the project ended due to the action of crackers.