RE: What is an i5 (iSeries, AS/400)

> So the i5/iSeries/AS400 is simply a hardware platform? And in some cases
> not a very stable once since we can run Windows on it? If so, how is
> that use of an i5 any different from a blade server and a SAN?

You *can't* run windows on an i5/iSeries/etc. 

You *can* run windows on an internal IXS server board. Which then gets to
use emulated disk space provided by the hosting iSeries. 

Functionally, there is no real difference between the *IXS boards* and a
blade server and SAN. Maybe faster since there is no external network
interface to deal with, but still the same idea. 

But these are just peripherals (or maybe parasites, depending on how much
you loathe windows. :)), no different than tape drives, printers, etc. You
can crash your IXS servers all day long, and the hosting i5 server won't
care, nor will anything running on it be affected. (But it can notify your
system operator about the failures, and will dutifully log it all.)

The i5/iSeries server doing the hosting of these boards is still running
i5/OS (OS/400, or whatever its called at the moment), and is still
completely independant.