Terminology

This page attempts to catalogue the various IBM-isms used through the years and translate them to terms more synonymous with the rest of the computer industry. As this is an IBM-focused wiki relying heavily on IBM sales brochures, manuals, and service information, we use the IBM terminology where possible.

AKA AS/400 As She Is Spoke

A

ASMI, advanced system mangaement interface

Embedded management controller found in Power Systems servers; similar to HP iLO, Dell iDRAC, or Lenovo IMM

B

C

CSP, control storage processor

Can refer to:

- the main processor of the System/32 - the I/O processor of the System/34 and System/36

Analogous to the AS/400 MFIOP or a PC chipset or RAID controller

D

DASD, direct access storage device

Hard drive

display station

An interactive terminal consisting of display, input device, and keyboard

E

EIA-232

Electronic Industries Association standard RS-232-C, commonly known as RS-232

F

file

context dependent; disk or diskette file refers to a physical hard drive or floppy disk while file refers to a database on the machine

G

H

I

IPL, initial program load

boot, booting

J

K

L

LAN

context dependent; refers to any standard in which the AS/400 will participate in a TCP/IP or NetWare network. i.e., "Ethernet LAN Controller," "Token-Ring LAN Attachment"

M

main storage

Random Access Memory, RAM - termed "main storage" because IBM's marketing department felt that calling it "memory" would imply that computers would just forget things like people do

main storage processor

Can refer to:

- the main processor in the System/3 - the userspace processor of the System/34 and the System/36

Shortened to just "processor" in AS/400

midrange computer

What the rest of the industry called a minicomputer, a computer in between microcomputer and mainframe computer

N

O

P

planar, planar board

Motherboard

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

WAN

used to refer generically to any serial communications adapter or connection

workstation, work station