AS/400 vs PC as a server

MI>I was talking to an associate yesterday on the life of midrange
MI>computers.  His view was that the PCS will take over the
MI>industry and there will be no use for Midrange or Mainframes.

Ten years ago, I would have disagreed, but today, we see AS/400s with
PowerPC chips, as well as a machine that runs S/38 and S/36 native code.
Today, we see Pentium 200 Mhz and faster machines on the market with 3.2
Gb drives, 32 Mb RAM, 16x CD-ROMs and DVDs on the horizon.  I would be
foolish to claim that PC hardware directions are "too little, too late."
But ten years makes a big difference, and PCs have some ground to gain.

The 1987 machine was little more than a toy for the novice.  It could
be used to print graphics, handle small spreadsheets, and even manage
small databases, but it was too limited to be a major player.

The "hobbyist" computer allowed us to rediscover what a computer is, and
what it is capable of doing, by exploring on a "personal" rather than a
"business" level.  We couldn't pay $10,000 for SDLC, so the cheapie BBS
came to be.  We couldn't afford the major league languages (COBOL) so we
settled with BASIC, and then FoxPro and others arrived.

We found out what a consumer-driven platform does for computer systems.
It puts Windows 95 in the box without something as fundamental as ISAM.
No history file, no job logs, no meaningful security.  The box doesn't
come with a tape drive, the diskette is a mere 1.44 Mb, and the
operating system doesn't even understand a simple "continued on next
diskette".  But weird things happen.  Chip prices plummet on a monthly
basis.  RAM and disk space increase dramatically every year... I say
these changes arise from the consumer-driven PC market and the business
marketplace gains benefits from them.

The PC kept getting better at its premise: extensive computational
end-user processing (audio, video, millions of colors, surfing the
'Net)... while the midrange computer strained at "cooperative
processing" and held a slower pace at "price/productivity gains."
Midrange computers have not matched the frantic PC growth of the 1990s
because, let's face it, we were there in the 1980s.

Our midrange products were great in the early eighties, but they didn't
change much in power or value.  The midrange marketplace was
monopolistic.  With the 1988 AS/400 announcement, midrange computers
began a fundamental change that allowed this industry to survive.

I think we have met the enemy, and he is us... midrange computers will
survive essentially by becoming PCs.  If we can integrate the S/36 and
the S/38 on one box, we can visualize a box that also runs OS/2 and
Windows.  I say, start with the good O/S fundamentals of the midrange
ISAM, database, SQL, etc.), keep level-headed hardware (easy backups and
maintenance), and add PC compatibility... and an ideal machine would be
the result.  Imagine a PC that doesn't crash... or an AS/400 that can be
expanded cheaply... that would be greatness in a black box.

Midrange computers would have bitten the dust 10 years ago if it weren't
for their inherent server capability (dividing the processor's attention
40 ways, effortlessly, to perform user requests... that's what a server
is).  Likewise, midrange computers will bite the dust in 10 years if
they stagnate, don't increase price/performance, or ignore the PC world
and some important changes in communications that are occurring right
now.

In closing, an operating system or a PC chip is not who we are or what
we are as data processing professionals.  We are out in the business
world, and we are kicking ass because we know fundamentally what makes
an MIS shop tick.  Look around you... nobody buys a "RISC" T-shirt.
If and when the PC/midrange shakeout occurs, we will continue to kick
ass, no matter what platform dominates, because we will make the system
work for the customer.  That is who we are and what we are.


Thanks for the use of your soapbox.


Jesse McKay
jgm@nak.com
"System/36 And Beyond!"
   N.A.K.Software, Home of "The Squirrel's Nest
Enjoy Chat with Weblines, Cybernet, Telecafe, & IRC
  199.190.119.2 * http://nak.com * 1-815-795-4894

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