RE: V5R2 Quality - Notes from the field needed

> From: Andy Nolen-Parkhouse
>
> I think that you're expecting too much here.  When IBM releases a new
> processor, it also releases a new operating system written for that
> processor.  Backward compatibility with the new processor will be
> maintained in future releases.  Because these are real, hardware-based
> partitions, as opposed to virtual guest operating systems, it makes
> perfect sense that you can only run the operating systems written for
> the processor.

I am not trying to get into the LPAR dicussion; that's a little beyond me
(although not being able to run multiple versions of OS/400 on one machine
reduces even further the relevance of LPAR to me).

However, I thought that one of the fundamental ideas of OS/400 was that you
could slip new hardware underneath the operating system without disturbing
it.  I thought the horizontal and vertical microcode was supposed to allow
exactly this sort of thing.  Haven't we had processor upgrades before that
didn't require an upgrade to a new version of the operating system?

Just wondering.  Because if you're saying each new version of hardware
requires new software, then OS/400 has lost one of the major benefits that I
(evidently mistakenly) thought it had.

Joe