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AS/400

The AS/400 is an IBM minicomputer for small business and departmental users, released in 1988 and still in production in February 2002, now called iSeries[?] 400.

Features include a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, terminals (IBM 5250[?]) that are (in the grand IBM tradition) incompatible with anything else including the IBM 3270 series, and an extensive library-based operating system, OS/400.

The machine survives because its API layer allows the operating system and application programs to take advantage of advances in hardware without recompilation and which means that a complete system that costs $9000 runs the exact same operating system and software as a $2 million system. There is a 64-bit RISC processor operating system implementation.

Programming languages include RPG, assembly language, C, COBOL, SQL, BASIC, and REXX. Several CASE tools are available: Synon[?], AS/SET[?], Lansa[?].

It was designed as the successor of the IBM System/38[?]

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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