20 Apr
2002
20 Apr
'02
11:39 a.m.
On April 19, William Donzelli wrote:
The AS/400 grew primarily out of the S/36 architecture but
incorporated many architectural features of the S/38. It has a good
deal of application compatibility with both the S/36 and the S/38.
The S/38 (which came out before the S/36) is otherwise a fairly
different machine from the S/32, S/34, and S/36.
The lineage:
System/3, 1969
System/32, 1975
System/34, 1977
System/38, 1978
System/36, 1983
AS/400 family, 1988
The last model of the System/36 line, the 5363, was "enhanced" (though
I don't know how) and renamed "AS/Entry"...it seems to me that they
followed the numbering scheme, but loosely. I don't have any hard
information about this, but I'm guessing this is how they got to where
they are now. I've put the possible "steps" through the naming system
in brackets below.
...
System/36
AS/Entry
[AdvancedSystem/36]
Advanced36
[AdvancedSystem/40]
[AS/40]
AS/400
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire "Mmmm. Big."
St. Petersburg, FL -Den
FWIW the
AS/400 is essentially the follow-on to the System/36, to the
point of having a highly-evolved software environment allowing S/36
applications to run un-modified on AS/400. Supposedly there is some
dotted-line relationship to S/38 as well, but I don't have any real
information about that.
The other way round, architecturally. AS/400 gained most from S/38 and
FS. The whole AS/400 family was designed to replace S/32, S/34, S/36, and
S/38.