Introduction of as4

Dr. Frank G. Soltis, the founder of IBM AS/4, believes that "history" has far more influence on designing new computer systems than other factors. ? Similarly, when designing a new computer system, the development site and previous products also have considerable influence.

in the 196s, many computer companies located in the East Coast of the United States, such as Digital,DataGeneral and IBM's New York Lab, took full advantage of the situation. They not only shared the research results of famous universities and research institutes such as MIT, but also hired a large number of high flyers from eastern universities. ? At that time, MIT developed a project called MULTICS for the US Department of Defense. When designing the structure and operating system of computers, companies in the east borrowed a lot from the idea of MULTICS. UNIX of Bell Lab. is the product of this environment.

however, the development history of AS/4 is a different story. AS/4 was born in Rochester, Minnesota, in the midwest of the United States. At that time, it was quite difficult to recruit graduates from developed eastern universities to work in remote Rochester. Therefore, the founders of AS/4 are all in the midwest, and they have no close ties with computer companies in the east, which makes their AS/4 design different from other computers in many aspects. ? Before IBM officially released AS/4, its code name was called "Silverlake". When IBM started to develop the next generation system of AS/4, it gave it a code name "Superior". Many people think that when this new generation of system is officially announced, it will no longer be called AS/4. There is a view in the computer industry that any computer system has a life span of only about 6 years. From 195 to now, there are only a few exceptions, including AS/4. The basis of this view is that with the rapid development of computing technology, a system that has gone through six years will no longer be timely. This may be true for systems that rely on hardware technology.

By 1993, many experts in the industry predicted that IBM's AS/4 would die out and be replaced by "AS/5". Because by 1994, AS/4 was 6 years old. For the new machine "Superior”,IBM had the opportunity to change its name to AS/4 (it was suggested to use AS/6), but in the end IBM decided to continue to use AS/4, one of the most recognized names in the industry. It is not easy to create a brand, so when the name of a commodity has been highly recognized by users, only a fool will think about changing it.

the origin of the name as/4 is also quite dramatic. As early as 1988, IBM could have named AS/4 as System/38, because AS/4 at that time only added many new functions on the basis of System/38, which could be regarded as an upgraded version of System/38. But IBM is actually tired of using the name "System/3x". If they want to create something new. It happened that a new set of product naming rules was being formulated within IBM. IBM has a project called SAA (System Application Architecture), which aims to build a universal application software that can run on all mainstream systems of IBM.

Similar System names can better reflect this universality, so several mainstream systems of IBM all carry the word "system", such as Enterprise System/9 (ES/9), Personal System/2 (PS), etc. The difference is only the first word. The choice of the first word of AS/4 also caused a controversy in Rochester Lab. Some people suggested using "Advanced" while others used "Application". Finally, the result of the argument chose the latter. But later, when introducing the Advanced series of AS/4, IBM used "advanced" again.

so why did you choose "4" when choosing numbers? As AS/4 originated from System/36 and System/38, Rochester Lab first thought of "37" and "39", but immediately decided to use "4". The name "ApplicationSystem/4" comes to the fore in Rochester Lab. However, I didn't expect another IBM organization, PersonalSystems Organization, to apply for all 1-digit and 2-digit numbers. They complained that only 9 different products could be released with 1-digit number, and no one would buy PS/. Finally, Rochester Lab. gave in, and they added a "" after "4", so "AS/4" was finally born.

AS/4 dating? In 1988, the first generation of departmental computers was introduced, which was a bit like mainframe in scale. It followed the application idea of information system centered on mainframe at that time and achieved great success after its launch. ? 1994 was the second generation. With the popularization of Client/Server application scale, AS/4 launched an advanced series, commonly known as "black box", and the operating system running on it was called OS/4 version 3. The combination of operating system and hardware made AS/4 an open client/server platform at that time. ? The third generation was introduced in 1996. AS/4 based on 64-bit RISC chip hardware technology opened a door for entering the network-centric era. In order to deeply understand a system, we must be familiar with its development history and background. Most computer systems are developed from the original system. The development history of AS/4:

◇ System/ 3 (batch machine) was released in June 1969

◇ System/32 (for small business office environment) was released in January 1975

◇ System/ 34

◇ System/38 (first generation AS/4, commercial failure, technical success) was released in October 1978

◇ System/36 (commercial success) was released in May 1983

◇ AS/4 B model was released in June 1988. The second generation AS/4)

released as/4 advanced series/server (Advanced System/4, Third generation AS/ 4) ◇ released AS/4 Power PC advanced series/server in June 1995

◇ released AS/4e series in August 1997

◇ released AS/4 e server 17 and 7xx

◇ in February 1999. 4e Domino dedicated server (lotus treasure chest)

released iSeries 4 in October 2, including 27, 82, 83, 84 and IBM lotus treasure chest (DSD).