To avoid any further paraphrasing, here's the article:
http://tinyurl.com/36l4vt
OR
http://www.tug.ca/articles/Volume23/V23N1/TUG_V23N1_05-08_Soltis.pdf
I do know that SLIC is a lot more than "BIOS and an abstraction layer".
Elvis
RPG & DB2 Summit | Minneapolis | October 1-4
Mike Cain - DB2 for i5/OS Temporary Indexes - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
October 16
2007 System i Fall Technical Conference | Orlando | November 4-7
Celebrating 10-Years of SQL Performance Excellence on IBM System i, eServer
iSeries and the server affectionately known as the AS/400
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: I'm about to give up on "System i"
Elvis Budimlic wrote:
To add to all this, I just read Frank Soltis' article that states in no
uncertain terms, from computer science perspective name of the operating
system is SLIC (System Licensed Internal Code) and i5/OS is really other
software (database, work management etc.) that comes with it.
System i is hardware only.
Assuming you understood and paraphrased the article correctly, it only
goes to prove that even Soltis is capable of uttering pure,
unadulterated bovine scat.
SLIC is little more than a BIOS and an abstraction layer.
The one thing that sets the AS/400 and its progeny apart from other
computers is that it is the purest example to be found of a VIRTUAL
MACHINE that is TOTALLY ABSTRACTED from the hardware. That's why
programs written for, and compiled on, a D02, with its CISC component
CPU, will automagically port themselves to a modern PowerPC-based box,
and (within limits) even do so in the opposite direction.
"hardware only" my <equus asinius>! You plug a different SLIC into a
typical "System i," and it becomes a completely different box, running a
completely different operating system.
(And continuously-auto-correcting spell-checkers are EVIL! I remember an
interoffice memo about a proposed company trip to Catalina Island, with
a line mentioning the fact that we could rent "mop-heads" while there.)
midrange.com
