Dr Frank Soltis Archives

What Will the Next 35 Years of IBM i Hardware Bring?

July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

Will IBM move beyond 64-bit memory addressing for the IBM i platform? What about the potential for quantum processors in the next three-and-a-half decades? These were some of the ideas floated by retired IBM Chief Architect Frank Soltis during the recent celebration of IBM i’s 35^th birthday.

One of the reasons the IBM i platform is still kicking 35 years after the launch of the AS/400 back in the summer of 1988 is its capability to incorporate new hardware without throwing all the software developed for it into disarray. There are limits to this adaptability, of course, but it’s …
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Dr. Frank Reminisces on 35th Anniversary, Looks to Platform’s Future

June 28, 2023 Alex Woodie

The IBM i community came out in force last week for the 35th anniversary of the creation of the AS/400 back in 1988. IBM corralled a handful of IBM i authorities to speak during three webcasts it held for fans around the world. During a call with European community members, Frank Soltis, who developed the architecture for the S/38 and AS/400, kicked things off by declaring there was really just one platform.

“I think one of the distinct distinctions that I have is that I worked for IBM for 45 years before retiring,” Soltis, the retired IBM chief scientist told …
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Talking System Architecture With The Frank Soltis

June 21, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

In a very funny way, the System/38 and its AS/400 and following progeny are the product of coincidence and brilliance. In 1962, had Frank Soltis taken that summer job at an aerospace company that he wanted to work for in Southern California, first of all, he might have ended up with a tan, and second of all, whatever followed the System/34 almost certainly would not have had single level storage, much less the architecture that we still know today, in modified form, as the IBM i platform.

Lucky for us that Frank’s father, who ran a parts distribution operation for …
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What Will the Next 35 Years of IBM i Hardware Bring?

Dr. Frank Reminisces on 35th Anniversary, Looks to Platform’s Future

Talking System Architecture With The Frank Soltis

Content archive

Recent Posts

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