vs
The following are the show notes from today's show and include short segment summaries, sponsorship links, content and product links, and other information from today's episode.
vs
Earlier this year Apple Computer dumped IBM PowerPC chips in their entire laptop line up. Rumor mills say during August 2006 Apple will also replace their high-end workstation/server/desktop platform's chips with Core™ 2 Duo. Right now, dual core PowerPC chips are still faster for systems where heat is not an issue. But for the heat-sensitive laptop market Power5 PPC run too hot. Watch Intel's illustration of their new generation of core 2 duo chips for PCs and Macs
Officially available July 28, 2006,
PHP for i5/OS can be
downloaded from
Zend's
website. The software itself is no charge, but support is a chargeable feature.
IBM may have listened to Bob Cozzi or just bowed to market pressures. Either way you win! IBM allows you to purchase a pre-configured iSeries box at a substantial discount. Save up to 40% off list price when you buy on-line--with little or no human interaction (at IBM's end). Only 5 configurations are available and run from $11,995 to $45,020 in price. So if you need a second box or are a software vendor and want to save your clients some money, check it out here. But hurry, their offer ends on 25 July 2006.
IBM, once again, changed the name of the AS/400 just as iSeries was becoming a global brand identification; iSeries is dead, long live "System i5". Already customers, industry reporters and even several IBMers are using the term "System i" (dropping the "5" from the nomenclature). Read Bob Cozzi article from January 2006 on this topic. Their problem isn't the product line name, it is the fact that they seem to want to leave their name off the product, and hence have to categorize things using a class name. "eServer XYZ". Or should that be "eServer IPZ". Why can't IBM simply call it "IBM iSeries", "IBM xSeries" and "IBM pSeries" if the must. Now whenever I tell people what I work on, I have to say "System i5". They'll say "what?" "You know iSeries". "Huh?" "Oh, sorry, I mean AS/400." "Oh, okay. That's that old technology, like those green screens they use in car dealerships? Right?" "Uh... sure."
All these names remind me of the name of the IBM SQL product for AS/400. And if you can remember that, you win.