Expert: Pete Mayhew - 6/9/2008

Question
Where could i get info about AS400 system architecture completely free of cost? I mean, the range of processors.. how operations are controlled and all..
And also how can i get information about AS400 as an amature user?
Is there any grapic based pdf book on AS400 which is free of cost?


Answer
The bad news is that there is not a lot of information available about the AS400/iSeries/i5/System i (all names for this machine) compared to PCs and Windows. The good news is that IBM publishes a lot of technical manuals called Redbooks for the system. They are available for download for free at www.redbooks.ibm.com. That being said, most of the manuals are highly technical and assume some knowledge of the system already.

If you REALLY want to know about the inner workings of the machine, find a book called Fortress Rochester by Frank Soltis. Frank is the chief scientist responsible for the architecture of AS400.

I'm not sure what you are looking to accomplish. Even as a programmer, the underlying architecture of the system (processor, memory, I/O operations, etc) is not available to manipulate like it is on an Intel-based PC.