The i5 an interactive workloads

I am not a sales guy but I get asked a lot of questions from my customers
about hardware configurations.  Most of them I can answer but lately it has
gotten a bit more difficult to figure out what the right answer is.  Here
are two examples:

1.      What does the interactive CPW rating mean and what does it do to the
number of people who can sign on? My answer:  "I don't know." I see these
CPW ratings but I never get a "real world" sense of what they mean.  If they
have a 520 express edition with 500 CPW and 30 interactive CPW, is there a
limit to number of folks who can sign on?  Or, is it just that it gets "dog
slow" to the point that you don't *want* to sign on?

2.      Is there an iSeries with NO interactive CPW?  My answer: I think so,
but what *IS* it then?  The iSeries is a killer server platform but it is
defined by the 5250 interface (OK, so I am hopelessly out of date) so with
NO interactive that means I can't sign on to a console?  I have no command
line access?  I am forced, then, to use the Operations Obfuscator to find my
way around?  Yikes!  A model 550 with no 5250 interface seems...well...alien
somehow.

So, if someone could give me the short course on the interactive workload of
the i5, I would appreciate it

Pete Helgren
Value Added Software,Inc.
801.581.1154 x202