[rescue] AS/400 question

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Dave McGuire wrote:

> > What color is it?
> >
> > White == hard to get working.
> >
> > Black == not so hard to get working.
> >
> > I think it's because the white one will only use the IBM OS while the
> > black one can run other things.  Unless you have a tape of the OS in
> > question you probably won't be able to do anything with it.
> >
> > At least that's my (very) limited understanding of the situation.
>
>    This is very close but does not apply in all cases.  They switched
> from white to black at *almost* the same time they switched from CISC to
> RISC (PPC-based) in the AS/400 line...but there are some black CISC
> ones.  For example, I have a 9402, black, and it's CISC.
>
>    I wish there was some more info about these machines online.  IBM
> seems to take great pains to make sure nobody gets any use out of their
> hardware without their staff (and lots of $$$) being involved.  Some of
> us just want to learn about it and appreciate their designs...it's not
> like we'd be eating into their profits or anything.

There's still info about this particular machine available, because IBM
still sells them.

Peace..  Sridhar