Looks Like It Will be i 7 for that Future Release
June 1, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan
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If the search engine behind IBM‘s iSource announcement and product catalog is any guide, then it looks like Big Blue is going to call the next release of the OS/400 operating system i 7. Check it out:
As you can surmise from this drill down in its iSource menu system, OS/400 V5R1, V5R2, and V5R3 as well as i5/OS V5R4 are all being lumped into something IBM is calling i 5 (formerly known as i5/OS V5, somewhat inaccurately), and it even says that i 6 was formerly known as i5/OS V6 (which wasn’t actually true). You can also see that IBM hasn’t made its mind up about what AIX 7 will be called, or at least the people building the menus for iSource haven’t. There was nothing wrong with OS/400. And really, IS/400 is also good. But the standalone “i” is driving most of us a bit crazy. Seeing as though IBM has taken away the AS/400 division and the AS/400 name and jammed it all into one Power Systems division, it could do worse than show a little respect to the base and decide to get a little crazy and call this future release OS/400 V7R1. Think about it. You still have some time, Big Blue. As I reported a little more than a month ago, this next major release is expected in 2010, and will most likely be concurrent with Power7 hardware. This release–oh, for fun, I am going to call it OS/400 V7R1–will have native XML support in the DB2/400 V7R1 release of the database (that felt right, natural, good). To get XML data in and out of DB2 for i today, you have to use the XML Toolkit. That future OS/400 database will also have enhanced encryption. OS/400 V7R1 will have asynchronous (geographically distributed) server clustering using IBM’s PowerHA high availability clustering (which came by virtue of its DataMirror acquisition). Asynchronous clustering is only available i5/OS and i systems with PowerHA if customers use disk arrays that support geographically dispersed systems; the future i release will allow such dispersed systems clustering using the internal disk arrays inside Power Systems boxes. OS/400 V7R1 will also have tweaks to the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) that underpins virtualized AIX, Linux, and sometimes i partitions, and will make some changes in the i operating system to more automatically move got data to SSDs. That’s all IBM has said so far. And yes, I know this story, by calling it OS/400 V7R1, just screwed up the search engines of the world by just a tiny bit. Goodie for me. RELATED STORIES IBM Launches Power6+ Servers–Again IBM and Resellers Do the iLoyalty Blitz IBM drops Power7 drain in ‘Blue Waters’ An Open Letter to i Shops from the Power Systems GM Look for an Interim i Release Next Year, and i 6.2 in Early 2010 Q&A with IBM’s Ross Mauri: Talking Power Systems and Power7 More Power7 Details Emerge, Thanks to Blue Waters Super The i Platform Roadmap Is a Work in Progress There’s No i in Future, But Is There a Future in i? It’s Official: Now We’re Power Systems and i for Business
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