1991 IBM Computers: AS/400 Announces 11 new Processors for 1991 (minicomputer history applications)

[@CheapSushi]

I love this! I love the aesthetic of the computers, the people, the office, etc, heck even the narrators voice.

[@ChatGPT1111]

I can see the guy in the tie saying "ummm, yeah. I'm going to need you to come in Sunday too!"

[@MrJef06]

"Soooo, Peter! What's happening? Huh, now, are you going to go ahead and add these TPS reports for us this afternoon?" 😂

[@firebladex8586]

😂

[@thesteelrodent1796]

280 GB storage is pretty impressive for 1991. This was when the most common disk size for PC was 80 - 120 MB

[@apl175]

Back when life was "simpler" -- it was AS/400 for transactional business, ESA/390 for mid-range computational, and RS/6000 POWER for high-end engineering,design and analytics

[@stevec00ps]

Great video! AS/400, now iSeries or System i or Power or whatever it's called these days is still in use all over the place - we run them at my work, I even have a 20 year old one at home :)

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Pierre, true, the competition evidenced in many computer mags was very interesting to watch, especially when it came to the microchips. Ads don't talk about chips as much these days. Young people often know less about chips than in the past. Now, they just know "apps"... : )

[@KrisRyanStallard]

curiosity about AS/400 led me to this channel! I had a job where we connected to a text based interface on a remote server, and everyone just called it "AS400." So I did some searching and landed on one of your videos.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Kris, glad you found us! I guess "AS400" turned out to be a catchy name for IBM. The project code name was actually "Silverlake" but AS400 sounds so techy. : )

[@MisterrJmark]

I work in the tech field. I work as a network engineer for a hospital and we have a text based server we call AS400.

[@just_passing_through]

These were everywhere back in the day. I worked with so many of these systems.

[@RottnRobbie]

Wow - I feel old now! "Up to 124 billion bytes" (i.e. 120GB) disk storage - I have several Micro-SD cards bigger than that now, but back in the day a really high end home computer might have a disk 1/1000th the size (that is, 120MB) ... ... and "up to 280 billion bytes" of optical storage (a bit over half a DVD) ... ... not to mention the term "electronic mail", the oh-so-stylish suspenders in the office, and blowing your credit limit with a $785 order... Only 31 years ago, but _SO_ last century! Thank you for reminding us of how far we've come in such a short time!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Canadian RobJ, you are very welcome! Yes, so much has happened in the past 30 years, technologically, historically and with the global economies. Who would have predicted all the events we have experienced in that time! ~ Charles, CHAP

[@ChatGPT1111]

I remember these commercials like they were yesteday!

[@mrbrent62]

We still use an AS400 at work. It’s a blade server rack mounted with a raided NAS. We have some black boxes that are old and run an app we rarely use. I worked at a place where I had to dispose of one about the size of two dishwashers. I hated to get rid of it. Cool thing is I can use Chat GPT a to show me how to do things I don’t do much. But I type wrkusrprf multiple times a day to unlock users.

[@erdianjing]

I love how the interface is basically the same to this day, lol.

[@oceancoast92657]

nice blast from the past, I remember when the S/38 first came out. to think As/400 is still in use today, although name has changed...(iSeries) or rathe IBM i. the system is fundamentally the same.

[@johnathanstevens8436]

I am impressed they were able to view faxes online considering most of the midrange stuff I saw back then had PROFS looking screens...

[@danielburgess7785]

The 'per seat' license wasn't inexpensive. The AS/400 was robust, fault tolerant, and environmentally couldn't give a damn about what was going on around them. Ingersoll Rand owned Bob Cat and demanded that each franchisee ran the IBM AS/400 system. They were not smooth, elegant, or intuitive but it just worked. No matter what, they just worked.

[@tech34756]

Don’t ask me why, but this video works surprisingly well when you listen to the song ‘Oh Yeah’.

[@Spsr555]

In 1998 I joined a company which had just set up a brand new AS400, even back in the day I had the feeling to work on a very obsolete system.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Ah, understood. But, apparently it sold very well.

[@lerssilarsson6414]

"Some acronyms used in this film include:..." Was RPG mentioned?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Lerssi, don't recall it, but it would have been Report Program Generator (RPG) language, which was supported by the AS/400 family too.

[@lerssilarsson6414]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject As well BEA TUXEDO and even Python ("Guru: Getting Started With Python On IBM i").

[@jorgeprado6995]

Es una de las mejores computadoras que hay, Yo la estoy usando, ahora es I series o Power 7 desde hace 40 años, esta todo dicho

[@tuvidao2011]

In fact, AS400 is still a standard for now, x86 and ARM servers and datacenters to follow. I work with the latest generation Xeon Scalable servers from Dell Poweredge, HPE Proliant, Lenovo ThinkSystem, and I research and see their standard rules in IBM AS400.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @tuvidao2011, sounds quite fascinating. Some good systems there! @tuvidao2011

[@franklekwan5860]

Full of memories. I used to hate AS/400 as the system we used back them was running on the S/36. AS/400 a successor to it but the big "BUT" is the 2 systems are actually not fully compatible. You can run applications written for S/36 on the new AS/400 in the "compatible mode" but everything has to be scaled back, and eventually the performance and capacity increase will be very minimal. So many S/36 users have to either rewrite there applications (which will take very long time and cost huge amount of money). Some years later we found a solution from Canada that can run S/36 applications on a UNIX machine, we much like the "virtualization" we see today (e.g. VMWare, Virtual Box, Parallels and etc.). We never upgrade to AS/400, but do run it on the IBM RS600 UNIX machine.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Frankle, interesting. Do you still use the RS 6000 machine?

[@trs80model14]

There were people in my i user group that had a small account that was still running an s/36 app and they stockpiled spare machined etc. so that they could continue to run it.

[@trs80model14]

I remember seeing this video back in the day.. and yes we DID look like that back then: white shirts, ties, polished leather shoes, longer hairstyles .. and yes even suspenders although mostly managers wore them.

[@AlejoMX5]

A hotel I used to work for decommissioned their AS/400 in 2016……basically because all the as/400 sys admins are either dead or dying or retired.

[@chts7429]

I worked with AS/400 from 1995

[@theoldar]

So many suspenders.

[@mikapeltokorpi7671]

Ah, is this that famous chip which double clocked by cutting a pin. Some hustlers in Finland got house paid with that knowledge.

[@SlowPCGaming1]

This is a fascinating trip through computer history. Are the modern mainframes still drastically superior to what home-made super computers or baby clusters can achieve using 64-bit X86 AMD and Intel CPUs?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

HI @SlowPCGaming1, the term "mainframe" is not used as often these days, since the newer machines are so vastly more powereful and smaller than the ones of just 20 or 30 years ago. I think one my find the newer high-performance machines are significantly more powerful that what came before... and then there is the super-computer realm, which we do not even touch on yet. Pretty amazing technology. ~ Thank you for your feedback. Hope this helps. ~ VK, CHAP @SlowPCGaming1

[@user-tc2ky6fg2o]

Not a typical Super Bow-length ad.😀

[@jtshanks]

Pretty solid systems, built like Sherman tanks

[@adamsteele6148]

Shermans got shot to shit they were not goos tanks lol

[@hstrinzel]

I wonder if one 8GB Raspberry Pi 5 with a 1TB NVMe disk would be more powerful than the most expensive one of these AS/400 systems. Does anyone know?

[@thudtheace]

That is easy.. Yes. The AS/400 in 1991 used IBM IMPI (Internal Microprogramming Instructions) based CPU (circa 1985-1994) which ran at 22Mhz and up. Information about these processors is kind of hard to find, but I did find an IMPI programmers manual. These processors were also used in the IBM System 38. Cheers!

[@diracflux]

Did some of those machines have 5.25 inch floppy drives?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Dirac, you could order one with a 5.25 diskette drive, or with an 8 inch diskette drive, according to IBM notes.

[@michaelhoyes3973]

Usually it was with 8 inch floppy. The storage requirements kept going up and so floppies faded out. It also went form 9 track tapes to SLR tapes to now using LTO tapes. Heck, most of the systems I use now don't even have DVD drives anymore. Everything is done with virtual DVDs.

[@jgvillan01]

ISDN!!! 🤣 Oh man, that brings back memories.

[@Nunavuter1]

The top of the line has 124 GB of disk storage! 4:55

[@peewee678]

Not bad, considering my first PC in 1997 (six years later!) had 4.3 GB (average back then). Heck: my Acorn Atom in 1983 didn't have a drive at all (had to use a cassette recorder for storage) and my Atari in 1987 only had a floppy drive: 1.44 MB

[@johndellarciprete1451]

Many home PCs did not even have HDD storage in that time frame. Windows was not even a thing. I think my PC had a 40 MB drive... I don't think I even knew what a GB was.

[@JailDoctor1]

I took AS/400 at the local state TEC. back in 2000. good to know but antiquated, (like me @ 72 and still coding. kind-uh. Long live Duke Nukem!) it helped a lot in other studies. "specially good for programmers that can't program.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi JLDR, yes, have to agree. Had some good benefits though. (I remember Duke Nukem... that brings back memories. Thanks! ) ~ Hunter, CHAP

[@michaelhoyes3973]

It is funny that you say antiquated. I am 60 and I am still working on them. Of course, they are now black, not tan. And now, a lot of what I do is AIX based on the system. It can run Apache web services and the database is still unmatched.

[@firebladex8586]

DOS Programming?

[@michaelhoyes3973]

@@firebladex8586 are you asking if I did DOS programming? Yes, using MASM. I've done punch card, microprocessors, and various computers. Been programming for over 45 years.

[@ultimatefattie9022]

I'm 27 and 5 years ago I started working at a company that uses as400 iseries. We host systems for places like CAT construction and Tiffany & Co to pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

[@daniel-ino]

offices from hell. After working remotely for years seeing these offices with no privacy at all and constant distractions would tire in minutes

[@markarca6360]

These are MIPS based systems which can run business applications like SAP.

[@thudtheace]

They were not, they were IMPI based processors, that later moved to PowerPC based processors. You might be mistaking the R4000/R6000 mips based machines with IBM RS64(aka powerPC) used in RS/6000 machines which closely sounds like the name R6000(mips processor). Cheers!

[@typograf62]

Well, the scenography looks like Star Trek, but the AS/400 was a great machine.

[@DocNo27]

I can remember being at the local community college AS/400 lab when they upgraded systems - with a few commands the tech moved every active session/program from the old machine to the new one and the only thing we could tell in the lab is all the sudden everything got a lot faster! IBM has forgotten more about virtualization, multitasking and reliable computing than the rest of the industry combined :p

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi DocNo27, that sounds like one of those upgrades that went really well! A smooth, seamless upgrade is like a little bit of heaven. Great story, thank you! ~ Hunter, CHAP

[@guilbertpungan3541]

Those were the days....

[@eduardodaquiljr1621]

why IBM has no laptop computer?

[@johndellarciprete1451]

IBM divested all "PC/x86" based products to Lenovo (Laptop, PCs and x86 Servers). IBM Laptops were called ThinkPads and they are still sold by Lenovo

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Eduardo, Good question. Here is a bit of related info we found on the web: IBM released their first laptop, the PC Convertible, in 1986. It weighed 12-pounds, which was light at the time. The U.S. Air Force purchased over 200,000. It was the first to use the 3-1/2 inch floppy disk that became an industry standard. IBM also produced the Thinkpad line, starting in 1992. However, IBM sold its PC making division to Lenovo in 2004. - Perhaps we will do a history of the IBM Laptop models in the future. It is very interesting. ~ thank you for your question! ~ CHAP

[@whackydumdum]

Disk RAM for current ops backup should a system go down. Battery backup for power failure. They were really thinking about a robust business system.

[@rich_in_paradise]

They sound so pleased with their new computers. Shame this kind of computer was made obsolete not long after by increasingly powerful and networked PCs. And I bet people didn't care about integrated Fax support for long with the web on the way.

[@jaimeduncan6167]

Up to 120 billion bytes, so not even a 2TB HDD? 😂 old times.

[@jagmarc]

Wow yeah. .. back in the days when you could spend money that you don't have, to buy product that couldn't be shipped on time because not enough resource on the shopfloor to actually process the order promised, all because couldn't pay staff because paid out mega bucks for fancy computers that kept saying "yes" to everything! !! :-D

[@scottperryman5664]

the best system in the world!

[@tuvidao2011]

I love the working and living environment of the past decades, because men and women were polite, well-spoken, professional, careful, of course, there are still many advantages compared to the current environment, when their descendants are more rebellious, more rule-breaking than before. Programs like this are carefully scripted, professionally narrated, of course, still better than young KZbinrs today, they talk nonsense, can't control their emotions!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @tuvidao2011, very good points! Thank you for the great feedback and observations! ~ VK @tuvidao2011

[@roguetrader1857]

fark 120 MB disk size in 1991! O.o

[@haweater1555]

0:30 "Up to 124 billion bytes... " . Yawn. Today, memory of that amount is the size of a stick of gum and costs the same as dinner out for two at McDonalds.

[@Vik_ru]

В то время, обычный настольный писюк стоил десятки тысяч советских рублей. Порядка 70.000 в 1986 году. Их привозили штучно, только для промышленных гигантов. А дальше, понеслась она в рай.. Это был взлёт ракетой для компьютерной индустрии. В том числе, за счёт неограниченных бесплатных ресурсов из СССР. Обратите внимание, что сейчас халява кончилась. И выпуск новых камней застопорился... Цены какие-то невменяемые....

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Google Translate says: "At that time, an ordinary desktop (?) cost tens of thousands of Soviet rubles. About 70,000 in 1986. They were brought piece by piece, only for industrial giants. And then, she rushed to heaven .. It was a rocket launch for the computer industry. Including, due to unlimited free resources from the USSR. Please note that now the freebie is over. And the release of new stones has stalled ... Prices are somehow insane ...."

[@Vik_ru]

)) Hi! Translation is not precise.. But I remembered, in 1986. Several PCs were installed in a large military factory. As at 3:00. It was a simple desktop PC. A few megabyte disk (7 or 10MB) keybopard and BW monitor. It is impossible to buy them directly in the USA. It is not known how they hit the USSR. The USSR paid finaffy for each of them ~70.000 rubles. This is absolutely astronomical money. ~~ 120.000 USD. The worker at this factory received ~ 150-200 USD per month. Municipal payments for large housing were ~ 10-15 USD/Month. I remember when in the early 90s an incredible rise in computer technology. And I suggested that this is also due to the destruction of the USSR. Huge resources went to the USA and Europe for free. But in the Russian republics, poverty began .. Now I believe these free resources are over. And real money is paid for everything now..

[@steveoc64]

The American Psycho aesthetic at the customer site is just great. Looking at the state of "Web Apps" today I think the best thing than can happen is if one of those "Chinese Spy Balloons" pops off a decent sided EMP and takes out the existing infrastructure so we can start again from scratch using older, proven tech. No more Javascript, no more AWS, no more docker orchestration, no more spyware, no more tangled mess of distributed micro services just to check the stock level at 1 warehouse across the road. And no matter how big and radioactive the EMP strike will be - the AS/400 will still be running, so we can just use them. Just like those W123 / W124 Mercedes Benz cars they were making in that same period. In fact, lets just roll everything back to 1988

[@mrbrent62]

280 billion bytes or 260 gigs. Like a base model ssd for a laptop. But I guess 30 years from now people will be laughing too.

[@jorgeprado6995]

Empecé con el System /3, jajaja

[@minhcuongepzai7826]

I know the ibm build cpu voyager

[@Bonserak23]

I think I had this computer when I was a kid lol oh man that was a POS.

[@dalecomer5951]

I think if you had one you wouldn"t be in any doubt about it.

[@SaccoBelmonte]

Clickity Clackity..prrr..prrr!

[@AlejoMX5]

Way to hype up a 120MB HDD. 120 billion….bytes. Lmao.

[@stevec00ps]

GB not MB :)