TFH Volume: 27 Issue: 8 Archives

More Insight Into The Rumored Power Mini System

February 13, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Back in the day, when IBM wanted to get customers to move ahead to new iron and the Moore’s Law increases in processing capacity meant that it needed to gear down boxes to bring customers forward, IBM actually did something about it and offered a cut-down machines with lower – and competitive – prices.

Remember the AS/400 Model 150 machines launched two decades ago, and then the breakthrough “Invader” AS/400 Model 170 machines, using the “Apache” and then “Northstar” PowerPC processors that followed them in 1998 and 1999? These systems, in a very real sense, saved the AS/400 business. Back …
Read more
Unwinding Python’s Data Science Potential On IBM i

February 13, 2017 Alex Woodie

There’s a revolution occurring in the world of big data analytics and data science at the moment, and Python is playing a starring role. Python is one of the languages that IBM has brought to the IBM i platform, so that’s clearly a good thing for midrange shops. But is enough being done to grow Python’s potential on IBM i? The answer to that question is not clear.

Python was originally conceived by Guido van Rossum as a “hobby” programming language to keep him busy over the 1989 Christmas break. “My office. . .would be closed, but I had a …
Read more
Guru: SQL PL Labels

February 13, 2017 Ted Holt

SQL PL, the powerful, easy-to-learn procedural database language that IBM ships with all versions of DB2, allows you to identify any executable statement or compound statement with a label. I can’t think of a better day than today for us to think about why we might want to do that.

As a minimalist programmer, I avoid useless code, and that includes unnecessary labels. In the following paragraphs, I will list only the cases that require labels.

But first, a few ground rules.
- As with CL, a label name is followed by a colon when used to identify a statement.
…
Read more
Mad Dog 21/21: The Next (And Maybe Last) Mainframe

February 13, 2017 Hesh Wiener

For the past several mainframe generations IBM has announced new large systems about every three years. The current line of big iron, the System z13, emerged in 2015, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the z14 or whatever it is called reaches customers next year, in 2018. Meanwhile, this year Ginni Rometty turns 60, IBM’s traditional CEO retirement age, and, like her predecessor, she could stick around one more year as the company’s chairman.

The upshot: Rometty’s successor as CEO will enjoy the sales boost of a fresh mainframe product cycle. And if IBM is making money …
Read more
ERP Modernizations, Migrations, And Maturations

February 13, 2017 Dan Burger

There are many reasons to re-evaluate business processes. And one of the first places to look is the current state of your ERP software. How old is it and what are its strengths and weaknesses? A character-based interface might have been appropriate when the software was purchased, but for many shops it has wounded productivity and efficiency by stalling process improvements and technology implementations that could be adding value to your organization.

The interface, however, doesn’t deserve all the attention. It’s just a visual cue like grey hair and wrinkles. A lot of value can be found behind the inescapable …
Read more

More Insight Into The Rumored Power Mini System

Unwinding Python’s Data Science Potential On IBM i

Guru: SQL PL Labels

Mad Dog 21/21: The Next (And Maybe Last) Mainframe

ERP Modernizations, Migrations, And Maturations

Content archive

Recent Posts

Subscribe

Pages

Search