RE: Discontinuance of support for the *M36

["M. Lazarus" <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

DAve,

At 5/5/00 10:38 AM -0400, you wrote:

> M36, on the other hand, is a virtual machine
> defined way down
> deep in the SLIC.  I would guess (based on stuff I read about it
> when they
> introduced the 236 machines) that parts of it might need to be
> hardware
> specific, which means that it would need attention with every new model
> line
> produced.  That's where they would be able to save some cost and
> simplify
> the product by dropping the *M36 support.  The hardware connection
> is
> speculative on my part, but it's clear from the way they work that
> there's
> almost nothing shared between the *M36 and the 36EE implementations -
> not
> even the technical skills to keep bringing them forward from one release
> to
> the next.

 Interesting.  I agree that this is probably the case. 
*But* if you look at the announced plans for OS/400 (this is going back a
while, but the basic premise remains) and you will see that the ability
to host guest OSs are part of that plan.

 Back to the *M36.  SSP is stable.  *The M36 is
stable.  I don't know how many S/36 and *M36 accounts there are out
there, but I would venture to say it's significant.  My guess is 50K
- 100K!!  They are paying customers - hardware, software, services
and loyalty.  Ah yes, loyalty to IBM.  How long can IBM jerk
these customers around before they run to some other platform?

 -mark