Re: Got myself an AS/400! -- MIDRANGE-L

"Hewitt, Rory" <rory.hewitt@xxxxxx> wrote:

So I've just acquired a shiny new (well, actually veryold) model 9401-150 AS/400, which my company was throwing
out.

. . .

Is it possible to hook it up to a PC running an emaulator,
or would I need a dumb terminal?

. . .

Congratulations. If up to now, all you've ever owned wereWinDoze boxes, you are now the proud owner of a realcomputer.

Technically, there's nothing "dumb" about any Twinaxterminal ever made. (And the same is also true for3270-data-stream terminals as well.) A model 33 Teletypeis dumb. An LA36 DECwriter is dumb. Lear-Siegler actuallytook pride in describing their ADM-3 as "dumb"; competing"glass teletype" models from Teleray are equally dumb.5250 data stream terminals fall somewhere between a smartASCII terminal (like a Lear ADM-1 or a DEC VT-100) and alow-end X-terminal.


Which is why I prefer the term "real terminal."

But for all that, you don't need one for your 150 (andit's really not all THAT old; we have boxes still inservice that are older!). Assuming the thing has a Twinaxport on the back panel, though, you will need SOME sort ofphysical Twinax device. You can probably still find PCTwinax cards somewhere; they typically come with a D-typesocket on the back panel, into which you plug anauto-terminator "Y" or "T" fitting, which will then havetwo Twinax sockets on it, and you can probably still findemulation software, either router-based or direct, thatcan use it.

For many years, we used a beat-up, broken-down PS/2 whosehard drive had long-since died as our console terminal(the "real" terminals were on my desk, where they got muchheavier use!) We've since replaced it with a usedAffirmative Twinax Yestation (they apparently no longermake Twinax models) purchased on eBay.

Assuming it has a network card you can connect to, you canprobably do most of your work using a TN5250 emulatorthrough a network connection.

Best of luck, and please let us know if you want a copy ofQuestView for it. At the same time, though, please bear inmind that the 150 was a miserably slow AS/400, so much sothat in our experience, even the CISC boxes ran circlesaround our 150.


--
JHHL