IBM i - The Encyclopedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

IBM i
IBM i 6.1 logo i5/OS (V5RxMx)
Company / developer	IBM
Working state	Current
Source model	Closed source
Latest stable release	6.1/ Jan 29, 2008
Kernel type	shares many Microkernel (SLIC) and Virtual machine (TIMI) design philosophies
License	Commercial
Website	IBM i 6.1

IBM i is an operating system used on IBM Power Systems, a unified server platform from the former IBM System i and IBM System p servers. IBM i was formerly known as i5/OS or OS/400. OS/400 and AS/400 were introduced in 1988. The latest version is 6.1, released on January 29, 2008 and shipping since March 21, 2008. The new name, IBM i, was revealed on April 2, 2008.^[1]

OS/400, i5/OS and IBM i have built-in subsystems that provide some backward compatibility with earlier IBM general business systems, such as the IBM System/36 and IBM System/38 series.

IBM designed IBM i as a "turnkey" operating system, requiring little or no on-site attention from IT staff during normal operation. For example, IBM i has a built-in (and quite powerful) DB2 database which does not require separate installation and maintenance. System administration has been wizard-driven for years, even before that term was defined. IBM i is also well regarded for its tuned Java implementation, including hardware specific optimizations.

Though not natively a graphical operating system, the Client Access Licensed Product includes iSeries Navigator a client based and web based version for graphical system and database administration and for the Apache web server and WebSphere Application Server, there is web based administration.

In 2007, IBM, Zend Technologies and MySQL AB announced support for the PHP programming language and the MySQL open source database on the IBM i platform. The goal is to enable modern web 2.0 applications on the platform.

IBM i is one of the three operating systems supported on IBM Power Systems alongside AIX and Linux.

[edit] Version format

Since IBM i, the version format was also changed from VxRxMx (Version, Release, Modification, e.g. V6R1M0) to the more standard format (e.g. 6.1).

[edit] References

^ IBM Power Systems: What is the new Power Equation?

[edit] External links

This is an extract from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia