Saturday, 28 February 2009

IBM System i

IBM System i
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


i5 Model 570 (2006)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)
The IBM System i is IBM's previous generation of systems designed for IBM i users, and was subsequently replaced by the IBM Power Systems in April 2008.
In 2006, the platform was rebranded to System i as part of IBM's Systems branding initiative. Previously it was known as eServer iSeries in 2000 and before that it was introduced as AS/400 in 1988.
In April 2008 IBM announced its integration with the System p platform. The unified product line is called IBM Power Systems and features support for the IBM i (previously known as i5/OS or OS/400), AIX and Linux operating systems. Previous hardware ran OS/400 exclusively.
Contents [hide]
1 Summary
2 Features
2.1 Instruction set
2.2 Software
2.3 Programming
3 History
4 Hardware
4.1 CPU in AS/400, iSeries, i5
4.2 Models of AS/400, iSeries, i5 systems
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
 Summary

The AS/400 was introduced in 1988 by IBM as a minicomputer for general business and departmental use. It underwent several rebrandings until its last rebrand in 2006 to the name of IBM System i. It remained in production until April 2008 when it was replaced by the IBM Power Systems line. It uses an object-based library-based operating system called IBM i. The operating system also underwent rebrandings in accordance with the name changes of the general line. At first it was called OS/400 (following the name schema that gave birth to OS/2 and OS/390). Later on became known as i5/OS in line with the introduction of the powerful eServer i5 servers featuring POWER5 processors. Finally, it was called just IBM i coinciding with the 6.1 release.
Features include a DBMS (DB2/400), a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, dumb terminal support (IBM 5250), printers, as well as security, communications and web-based; which could be programmed either inside the (optional) IBM WebSphere application server or in PHP/MySQL[1] using a native port of the Apache web server.
While in Unix-like systems everything is a file, on the System i everything is an object, with built-in persistence and garbage collection. It also offers Unix-like file directories using the Integrated File System [2]. Java compatibility is implemented through a native port of the Java virtual machine.
 Features

The IBM System i platform extended the System/38 architecture of an object-based system with an integrated DB2 database that was designed to implement E. F. Codd's relational database model, which is based on Codd's 12 rules, in the operating system and hardware. Equally important were the virtual machine and single-level storage concepts which established the platform as an advanced business computer.
 Instruction set
One feature that contributes to the longevity of the IBM System i platform is its high-level instruction set (called TIMI for "Technology Independent Machine Interface" by IBM), which allows application programs to take advantage of advances in hardware and software without recompilation. TIMI is a virtual instruction set; it is not the instruction set of the underlying CPU. User-mode programs contain both TIMI instructions and the machine instructions of the CPU, thus ensuring hardware independence. This is conceptually somewhat similar to the virtual machine architecture of programming environments such as Smalltalk, Java and .NET. The key difference is that it is embedded so deeply into the AS/400's design as to make applications effectively binary-compatible across different processor families.
Note that, unlike some other virtual-machine architectures in which the virtual instructions are interpreted at runtime, TIMI instructions are never interpreted. They constitute an intermediate compile time step and are translated into the processor's instruction set as the final compilation step. The TIMI instructions are stored within the final program object, in addition to the executable machine instructions. This is how application objects compiled on one processor family (e.g., the original CISC AS/400 48-bit processors) could be moved to a new processor (e.g., PowerPC 64-bit) without re-compilation. An application was saved from the older 48-bit platform and restored onto the new 64-bit platform, where the operating system discarded the old machine instructions and re-translated the TIMI instructions into 64-bit instructions for the new processor.
The IBM System i's instruction set defines all pointers as 128-bit. This was an original design feature of the System/38 (S/38) in the mid 1970s. For PowerPC processors, the virtual address resides in the rightmost 64 bits of a pointer (48 bits in the S/38 and CISC AS/400), leaving room for addresses to be expanded past 64 bits in future processors. The 64-bit address space addresses all of main memory and disk (the single-level storage concept).
The original AS/400 CISC models used the same 48-bit address space as the S/38. This was expanded to 64-bits in 1995 when the PowerPC RISC 64-bit CPU processor replaced the 48-bit CISC processor.
 Software
The IBM System i includes an extensive library-based operating system, i5/OS, and is also capable of supporting multiple instances of AIX, Linux, Lotus Domino, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. While i5/OS, AIX, Linux and Lotus Domino are supported on the POWER processors, Windows is supported with either single-processor internal blade servers (IXS) or externally-linked multiple-processor servers (IXA and iSCSI). iSCSI also provides support for attachment of IBM Bladecenters. Windows, Linux, and VMWare ESX(VI3) are supported on iSCSI attached servers.
LPAR (Logical PARtitioning), a feature introduced from IBM's mainframe computers, facilitates running multiple operating systems simultaneously on one IBM System i unit. A system configured with LPAR can run various operating systems on separate partitions while ensuring that one OS cannot run over the memory or resources of another. Each LPAR is given a portion of system resources (memory, hard disk space, and CPU time) via a system of weights that determines where unused resources are allocated at any given time. The operating systems supported (and commonly used) under the LPAR scheme are i5/OS, AIX, and Linux.
Other features include an integrated DB2 database management system, a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, non-programmable terminals (IBM 5250) and printers, security, communications, client-server and web-based applications. Much of the software necessary to run the IBM System i is included and integrated into the base operating system.
The IBM System i also supports common client-server-based technologies such as ODBC and JDBC for accessing its database from client software such as Java, Microsoft .NET languages and others.
The IBM System i also provides an environment for AIX applications to run natively on i5/OS without the need for an AIX LPAR.
AIX programs are binary compatible with OS/400 when using OS/400's PASE (Portable Applications System Environment). PASE is essentially "an operating system within an operating system", supporting the most recent stable version of AIX. Binaries need to be re-compiled on the AIX system, with 16-byte (quadword) pointer alignment enabled. Once the program is compiled with this option, it can be executed under the PASE Korn Shell.
 Programming
Programming languages available for the AS/400 include RPG, assembly language, C, C++, Pascal, Java, EGL, Perl, Smalltalk, COBOL, SQL, BASIC, PHP, PL/I, Python and REXX. Several CASE tools are available: AllFusion Plex (see *Plex Wiki), ADELIA, Synon, AS/SET, IBM Rational Business Developer Extension, LANSA and ProGen Plus.
The IBM System i fully supports the Java language, including a 32-bit Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and a 64-bit JVM.
Commands in the Control Language (CL) are promptable using the keyboard F4 function key, and most provide cursor-sensitive help to make specifying command parameters simpler. All command names and parameter keywords are based upon uniform standardized and mostly 3-letter abbreviations for verbs and subjects, making for easy rendering and interpretation by the application developer, as opposed to other operating systems with often cryptic or inconsistent command names for related functions or command parameter switches. For instance, the parameter keyword to apply a text description to any object to be created or changed is spelled the same way for all such commands.
Examples:
CRTUSRPRF - Create user profile
DSPUSRPRF, CHGUSRPRF, DLTUSRPRF - Display, change, and delete user profile
DLTLIB - Delete library
CRTLIB, DSPLIB, CHGLIB - Create, display, and change a library
ADDLIBLE, CHGLIBL - Add to or change library list
CPYF, CRTF, DSPF, CHGF, DLTF - Copy, create, display, change, and delete file
WRKACTJOB - Work with Active Jobs
WRKSYSSTS - Work with System Status
STRSST, STRPASTHR, STRSBS - Start System Service Tools, start pass through (remote login), start subsystem
VRYCFG - Vary configuration, bring interfaces up or down
PWRDWNSYS - Power Down System
WRKSPLF - Work with spool files
For traditional business programming languages such as RPG, COBOL, and C, the IBM System i provides an interface to the integrated database that allows these languages to treat database files much like other platforms treat ISAM or VSAM files.
Support for 5250 display operations is provided via display files, an interface between workstations, keyboards and displays, and interactive applications, as opposed to batch processing with little or no user interaction. ASCII terminals and PC workstations are equally and well supported, also via internet or LAN network access supplemented by either IBM or non-IBM communication software, for example TELNET or TELNET 5250.


 History

The IBM System i, then known as the AS/400, was the continuation of the System/38 database machine architecture (announced by IBM in October 1978 and delivered in August 1979). The AS/400 removed capability-based addressing.[3] The AS/400 added source compatibility with the System/36 combining the two primary computers manufactured by the IBM Rochester plant. The System/36 was IBM's most successful mini-computer but the architecture had reached its limit. The first AS/400 systems (known by the development code names Silverlake and Olympic) were delivered in 1988, and the product line has been refreshed continually since then. The programmers who worked on OS/400, the operating system of the AS/400, did not have a UNIX background. Dr Frank Soltis, the chief architect, says that this is the main difference between this and any other operating system.
The AS/400 was the first general-purpose computer system to attain a C2 security rating from the NSA, and in 1995 was extended to employ a 64-bit processor and operating system.
In 2000 IBM renamed the AS/400 to iSeries, as part of its e-Server branding initiative. The product line was further extended in 2004 with the introduction of the i5 servers, the first to use the IBM POWER5 processor. The architecture of the system allows for future implementation of 128-bit processors when they become available. Existing applications can use the new hardware without modification.
Although announced in 1988, the AS/400 remains IBM's most recent major architectural shift that was developed wholly internally. Since the arrival of Lou Gerstner in 1993, IBM has viewed such colossal internal developments as too risky. Instead, IBM now prefers to make key product strides through acquisition -- e.g., the takeovers of Lotus Software and Rational Software -- and to support the development of open standards, particularly Linux. It is noteworthy that after the departure of CEO John Akers in 1993, when IBM looked likely to be split up, Bill Gates commented that the only part of IBM that Microsoft would be interested in was the AS/400 division. (At the time, many of Microsoft's internal systems ran on the AS/400 platform.[4])
 Hardware

The AS/400 was originally based on a custom IBM CISC CPU which used a CPU architecture known as Internal MicroProgrammed Interface (IMPI) and an instruction set similar to the IBM 370. It was later migrated to a POWER-based RISC CPU family eventually known as RS64.[5]
 CPU in AS/400, iSeries, i5
The System i5 uses IBM POWER CPUs. These CPUs are developed and manufactured by IBM. The POWER 4/5/5+ chips contain two cores. There are Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) available. They have 2 CPUs (4 cores) or 4 CPUs (8 cores) in one MCM.

IBM Rochester

IBM Rochester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The sprawling IBM facility in Rochester, Minnesota.
IBM Rochester is the facility of International Business Machines in Rochester, Minnesota. The initial structure was designed by Eero Saarinen, who clad the structure in blue panels of varying hues after being inspired by the Minnesota sky. IBM being known as "Big Blue" was undoubtedly no small factor. The building was first dedicated in 1958, but has been expanded considerably since then. Today, the mile-long facility is best known as the plant that produces the AS/400 computer system, which in the past was marketed as the eServer iSeries or System i5/OS and is now simply "System i". RS/6000, now System p, and hard disk development has also occurred at the site at points in the past. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, although having been spun off from IBM Storage Technology, remains on-site, leasing otherwise unused space from IBM. Along with the Mayo Clinic, the IBM plant is one of the biggest employers in the Rochester area, reportedly numbering around 5,000 in 2002.
The AS/400 division at the plant received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990. In November 2004, the facility claimed the top spot in the TOP500 list of fast supercomputers with a prototype Blue Gene/L system containing 32,768 processors. It clocked in at 70.72 teraflops. The manufacturing output of the site is so great that if it were a separate company, it would be the world's third-largest computer producer.


Closer view of IBM Rochester, locally nicknamed the "Blue Zoo".
Groundbreaking for the facility took place on July 31, 1956. When it was first completed, there was 576,000 square feet (53,500 m²) of floor space. There is 3.1 million square feet (290,000 m²) today on the main campus, more than half the size of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Employment at the site has gone through several cycles of growth and collapse, but is over twice what it was in the 1950s. Rumors have appeared over the years suggesting that the structure was designed to look like a punch card from above, but this is more due to the facility's expansion over the years rather than an intention by Saarinen.
The plant, which is near U.S. Highway 52 in the northwestern part of Rochester, was recognized in 1990 by the National Building Museum as one of the significant contributions of IBM to the built environment of the United States, along with IBM's New York City headquarters and the IBM building in Atlanta, Georgia.

OS/2

OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation personal computers. OS/2 is no longer marketed by IBM, and IBM standard support for OS/2 was discontinued on 31 December 2006.[1] Currently, Serenity Systems sells OS/2 under the brand name eComStation.
OS/2 was intended as a protected mode successor of PC-DOS. Notably, basic system calls were modeled after MS-DOS calls; their names even started with "Dos" and it was possible to create "Family Mode" applications: text mode applications that could work on both systems.[2] Because of this heritage, OS/2 is like Windows in many ways, but it also shares similarities with Unix and Xenix.
IBM made a deal with Commodore to license Amiga technology for OS/2 2.0 and above in exchange for the REXX scripting language.[3] This means OS/2 may have code not written by IBM, which can prevent the OS from being open-sourced in the future.[4][5]

CORPORATE AFFAIRS


 Diversity and workforce issues
IBM's efforts to promote workforce diversity and equal opportunity date back at least to World War I, when the company hired disabled veterans. IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005 (the other company being Hewlett-Packard).[31][32]
On September 21, 1953, Thomas J. Watson, the CEO at the time, sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that IBM needed to hire the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or gender. In 1984, IBM added sexual preference. He stated that this would give IBM a competitive advantage because IBM would then be able to hire talented people its competitors would turn down.[33]
The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing, although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States.
In the 1990s, two major pension program changes, including a conversion to a cash balance plan, resulted in an employee class action lawsuit alleging age discrimination. IBM employees won the lawsuit and arrived at a partial settlement, although appeals are still underway. IBM also settled a major overtime class-action lawsuit in 2006.[34]
Historically IBM has had a good reputation of long-term staff retention with few large scale layoffs. In more recent years there have been a number of broad sweeping cuts to the workforce as IBM attempts to adapt to changing market conditions and a declining profit base. After posting weaker than expected revenues in the first quarter of 2005, IBM eliminated 14,500 positions from its workforce, predominantly in Europe. In May 2005, IBM Ireland said to staff that the MD(Micro-electronics Division) facility was closing down by the end of 2005 and offered a settlement to staff. However, all staff that wished to stay with the Company were redeployed within IBM Ireland. The production moved to a company called Amkor in Singapore who purchased IBM's Microelectronics business in Singapore and is widely agreed that IBM promised this Company a full load capacity in return for the purchase of the facility. On June 8, 2005, IBM Canada Ltd. eliminated approximately 700 positions. IBM projects these as part of a strategy to "rebalance" its portfolio of professional skills & businesses. IBM India and other IBM offices in China, the Philippines and Costa Rica have been witnessing a recruitment boom and steady growth in number of employees due to lower wages.
On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to formally commit to not using genetic information in its employment decisions. This came just a few months after IBM announced its support of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project.
 Gay rights
IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and provides an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began compiling its report on major companies, IBM scored 86%).[35]
In 2007, IBM UK was ranked #1 in the Stonewall UK annual workplace equality index.[36]
IBM has won over forty gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender awards globally.[37]
As part of IBM's diversity program, there is a GLBT Diversity Network Group, as well as a GLBT employee group (called EAGLE - Employee Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Empowerment) with over 1000 registered members worldwide
 Logos

The logo that was used from 1924 to 1946. The logo is in a form intended to suggest a globe, girdled by the word "International".[38]

The logo that was used from 1947 to 1956. The familiar "globe" was replaced with the simple letters "IBM" in a typeface called "Beton Bold."[39]

The logo that was used from 1956 to 1972. The letters "IBM" took on a more solid, grounded and balanced appearance.[40]

The logo that has been used since 1972. The horizontal stripes now replaced the solid letters to suggest "speed and dynamism."
This logo (in two versions, 8-bar and 13-bar), as well as the previous one, was designed by graphic designer Paul Rand.[41][42]
Logos designed in the 1970s tended to be sensitive to the technical limitations of photocopiers, which were then being widely deployed. A logo with large solid areas tended to be poorly copied by copiers in the 1970s, so companies preferred logos that avoided large solid areas. The 1972 IBM logos are an example of this tendency. With the advent of digital copiers in the mid-1980s this technical restriction had largely disappeared; at roughly the same time, the 13-bar logo was abandoned for almost the opposite reason – it was difficult to render accurately on the low-resolution digital printers (240 dots per inch) of the time.
 Board of directors
Current members of the board of directors of IBM are:
Cathleen Black - President, Hearst Magazines
William Brody - President, Johns Hopkins University
Ken Chenault - Chairman and CEO, American Express Company
Juergen Dormann - Chairman of the Board, ABB Ltd
Ayan Barua - CEO, PIC
Simon Shum Siu-hung - CEO, Lenovo Computer Ltd.
Michael Eskew - Chairman and CEO, United Parcel Service, Inc.
Shirley Ann Jackson - President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Minoru Makihara - Senior Corporate Advisor and former Chairman, Mitsubishi Corporation
Lucio Noto - Managing Partner, Midstream Partners LLC
James W. Owens - Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
Samuel J. Palmisano - Chairman, President and CEO, IBM
Joan Spero - President, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Sidney Taurel - Chairman, Eli Lilly and Company
Lorenzo Zambrano - Chairman and CEO, Cemex SAB de CV
 See also

SCO v.s IBM

Summary

On March 6, 2003, the SCO Group (formerly known as Caldera Systems) filed a $1 billion lawsuit in the US against IBM for allegedly “devaluing” its version of the UNIX operating system. The amount of alleged damages was later increased to $3 billion, and then $5 billion. SCO claimed that IBM had, without authorization, contributed SCO's intellectual property to the codebase of the open source, Unix-like Linux operating system. In May 2003 SCO Group sent letters to members of the Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies warning them of the possibility of liability if they use Linux.
The claims and counter-claims made by both sides then escalated, with both IBM and Linux distributor Red Hat starting legal action against SCO, SCO threatening Linux users who do not take out SCO UNIX licenses, and SCO suing Novell (see also SCO-Linux controversies), AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler.
On September 30, 2003, Judge Kimball (the presiding federal district judge) granted the SCO Group's request for a delay until February 4, 2004, “to file any amended pleadings or add parties to this action”. The schedule was amended again on July 1, 2005. In December 2006 the trial date was vacated pending the resolution of SCO's litigation with Novell, all parties agreeing that SCO v. Novell would resolve issues relating to SCO v. IBM.
In an “Order Granting in Part IBM's Motion to Limit SCO's Claims” dated June 28, 2006, Judge Brooke Wells (the federal magistrate judge presiding over discovery aspects of the case) barred SCO from asserting 187 of the 298 allegedly misused items that IBM had moved to exclude from the lawsuit for lack of specificity,[1] stating “many of SCO’s arguments and much of Mr. Rochkind’s declaration miss the mark”, and comparing SCO's tactics with those of an officer who accuses a citizen of theft, but will not disclose what the citizen is accused of stealing. “Certainly if an individual was stopped and accused of shoplifting after walking out of Neiman Marcus, they would expect to be eventually told what they allegedly stole. It would be absurd for an officer to tell the accused that ‘you know what you stole I'm not telling.’ Or, to simply hand the accused individual a catalog of Neiman Marcus' entire inventory and say ‘it's in there somewhere, you figure it out.’”[1][2]
On August 10, 2007 Judge Kimball, who also presides over the SCO v. Novell case, ruled that Novell, not the SCO Group, is the rightful owner of the copyrights covering the Unix operating system. The court also ruled that "SCO is obligated to recognize Novell's waiver of SCO's claims against IBM and Sequent". After the ruling Novell announced they have no interest in suing people over Unix and stated "We don't believe there is Unix in Linux".[3][4][5][6]
In a order entered on 21 September 2007, Judge Kimball administratively closed the case of SCO v. IBM due to SCO filing for bankruptcy on 14 September 2007. This means that all action in SCO v. IBM is stayed until SCO emerges from bankruptcy proceedings. If and when it does, the case SCO v. IBM will resume where it left off.[7]
 SCO's claims

SCO's lawsuit has been consistent only in its claim of breach of contract[8][9] (since the abandonment in early 2004 of its claim of misappropriation of trade secrets). SCO's initial claims were:[8]
Misappropriation of trade secrets
Unfair competition
Interference with contract
Breach of IBM Software Agreement
On July 22, 2003, SCO amended its complaint. It added two new claims:[10]
Breach of IBM Sublicensing Agreement
Breach of Sequent Software Agreement
On February 27, 2004 SCO amended the complaint again. It dropped the trade secrets claim, but added the following claims:[9]
Breach of Sequent Sublicensing Agreement
Copyright infringement
Interference with contract
Interference with business relationships
SCO's claims in press releases and interviews have changed repeatedly as the affair has progressed. SCO has also both claimed and denied that the alleged copyright violations involved the Linux kernel.[11] Computerworld reported Chris Sontag of SCO as saying:
It's very extensive. It is many different sections of code ranging from five to ten to fifteen lines of code in multiple places that are of issue, up to large blocks of code that have been inappropriately copied into Linux in violation of our source-code licensing contract. That's in the kernel itself, so it is significant. It is not a line or two here or there. It was quite a surprise for us.[12]
SCO refuses to allow access to the samples of code containing the alleged copyright violations except under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). SCO's NDA would not only require that the signer keep confidential which lines of code SCO contested, but would also require that they hold confidential any information SCO told them, even if they already knew that information before being informed of it by SCO; all Linux kernel developers have considered this to be far too restrictive, so none of them have signed it. However, at SCO's annual reseller's convention in August 2003 they revealed two short sections of code they alleged were copyright violations, and images of Darl McBride's presentation of this code were soon after published on German computer magazine publisher Heinz Heise's website.[13]
On May 30, 2003, SCO Group's CEO Darl McBride was quoted as saying that the Linux kernel contained "hundreds of lines" of code[14] from SCO's version of UNIX, and that SCO would reveal the code to other companies under NDA in July.[15] To put this into context, David Wheeler's SLOCCount estimates the size of the Linux 2.4.2 kernel as 2,440,919 source lines of code out of over 30 million physical source lines of code for a typical GNU/Linux distribution. Therefore, as per SCO's own estimate, the allegedly infringing code would make up about 0.001% of the total code of a typical GNU/Linux installation.[16] SCO has since upwardly revised this figure to over a million lines of code, however.[17][18][19]
SCO's major claims have now been reported as relating to the following components of the Linux kernel:
symmetric multiprocessing (SMP),
non-uniform memory access (NUMA) multiprocessing,
the read-copy-update (RCU) locking strategy,
This technique is widely believed to have been developed at Sequent Computer Systems, who were then bought by IBM, who holds several patents (including patent 5,442,758 ) on this technique.
SGI's Extended File System (XFS),
IBM's JFS journaling file system
These claims flow from the accusation of breach of contract. The contract between IBM and AT&T (to which SCO claims to be successor in interest) allows IBM to use the SVR4 code, but the SVR4 code, plus any derivative works made from that code, must be held confidential by IBM. According to IBM's interpretation of the contract, and the interpretation published by AT&T in their "$ echo" newsletter in 1985, "derivative works" means any works containing SVR4 code. But according to SCO's interpretation, "derivative works" also includes any code built on top of SVR4, even if that does not contain, or even never contained, any SVR4 code. Thus, according to SCO, any AIX operating system code that IBM developed must be kept confidential, even if it contains nothing from SVR4.
On August 10, 2007 a federal district court judge in Utah ruled that Novell, not the SCO Group, is the rightful owner of the copyrights covering the Unix operating system.
 Free software and open source community reaction


This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)
The lawsuit caused moral indignation and outrage in the free software and open source communities, who consider SCO's claims to be without merit and even cynically dishonest. Open source advocates' arguments include:
that SCO does not even own the code in question. SCO has often called themselves "The owner of the UNIX operating system." But that claim is dubious at best. SCO certainly has no clear claim to SVR4 code. This view is now upheld by summary judgment in the SCO vs Novell Slander of Title case.
that the Linux operating system was unlikely to contain UNIX code, as it had been written from scratch by hundreds of collaborators, with a well-documented provenance and revision history that was entirely in the public view;
that it made no technical sense to incorporate SCO UNIX code in Linux, as Linux had the technical features that are claimed to have been appropriated already implemented before SCO UNIX had them;
that even if Linux and SCO UNIX had some code in common, this did not necessarily mean that this code was copied to Linux from SCO UNIX -- perhaps the common pieces of code had been legitimately copied from another open source operating system, perhaps a BSD-derived one, or one of the historical UNIX versions previously released by SCO;
that Caldera Systems had begun as a Linux company before buying SCO's UNIX business and certain assets related to it, and has added many Linux-like features to SCO UNIX, and any common code may have in fact been copied from Linux into SCO UNIX:
and furthermore, that if such reverse copying from Linux itself had occurred, that the distribution of SCO UNIX binaries containing GPL'd contributions may therefore require SCO either to remove their product from the market until GPL'd code has been removed, or to release their source code under the GPL to their users;
that even if Linux did contain copied SCO UNIX code, the UNIX source code had already been made widely available without a non-disclosure agreement, and therefore had no trade secret status (as a judge found in USL v. BSDi);
that even if Linux did contain some UNIX code, the SCO Group had lost any right to sue IBM for trade secret or other intellectual property infringement by distributing Linux itself (their Caldera distribution) under the GNU General Public License (GPL), both before and after their announcement, which precludes them from pursuing any other user of Linux.[20][21]
SCO and its officers have been the subject of much criticism by the free software community, some of whom have stated that SCO's behavior may amount to illegal conduct.[22] SEC filings[where?] show that senior SCO executives dumped their personal holdings in SCO shortly after counter-suits were filed by IBM and Red Hat. SCO Group's CEO Darl McBride has been the subject of particular criticism, because of his extreme statements to the press.
On March 10, 2003, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) released a position paper on the SCO v. IBM complaint, written by Eric S. Raymond, president of the OSI and author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar.[23]
On May 16, 2003, Groklaw, a website founded by journalist/paralegal Pamela Jones began covering the SCO litigation on a daily basis, and became a voice for the community to express its views of SCO's claims, as well as being an experiment in applying Open Source principles to legal research. The SCO Group has singled the site out as a particular thorn in its side.[24]
On May 30, 2003, Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux kernel, was quoted as saying, regarding the case:
Quite frankly, I found it mostly interesting in a Jerry Springer kind of way. White trash battling it out in public, throwing chairs at each other. SCO crying about IBM's other women. ... Fairly entertaining.
—,[25] paragraph 7
The Inquirer reported on June 15, 2003, that an unnamed Linux kernel programmer has written to SCO, threatening action based on their distribution of a Linux distribution that, according to their own claims, contains code not licensed under the GPL. According to the letter reproduced there, the programmer claimed that SCO's doing so was an infringement of his own copyright. SCO's response to this letter is not known.[26]
In an interview on June 23, 2003, Torvalds responded to SCO's allegation that Linux development had no process for vetting kernel contributions:[27]
I allege that SCO is full of it, and that the Linux process is already the most transparent process in the whole industry. Let's face it, nobody else even comes close to being as good at showing the evolution and source of every single line of code out there.
On June 27, 2003, Eben Moglen, the counsel for the Free Software Foundation, released a fuller statement regarding the SCO lawsuit. In this statement, he reiterates many of the points made above, and states that:[21]
As to its trade secret claims, which are the only claims actually made in the lawsuit against IBM, there remains the simple fact that SCO has for years distributed copies of the kernel, Linux, as part of GNU/Linux free software systems. [...] There is simply no legal basis on which SCO can claim trade secret liability in others for material it widely and commercially published itself under a license that specifically permitted unrestricted copying and distribution.
On July 31, 2003, the Open Source Development Labs released a position paper on the ongoing conflict,[28][29] written by the FSF's Eben Moglen.
 Accusations of creating fear, uncertainty and doubt
A number of Linux supporters have characterized SCO's actions as an attempt to create fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux. Many believe that SCO's aim is to be bought out by IBM.[30] Others have pointed to Microsoft's subsequent licensing of the SCO source code as a possible quid pro quo for SCO's action.[31]
Univention GmbH, a Linux integrator, reported[32][33] on May 30, 2003 it was granted an injunction by a Bremen court under German competition law that prohibits the SCO Group's German division from claiming that Linux contains illegally obtained SCO intellectual property. If the SCO Group continued to express this position, they would have to pay a fine of €250,000. A similar injunction was sought around the same time in Poland.[34]
On July 23, Open Source Victoria announced that they had filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, "asking the ACCC to investigate the SCO Group's activities in light of their unsubstantiated claims and their extortive legal threats for money against possibly hundreds of thousands of Australians."[35]
SCO Group then filed subpoenas for Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds on November 13, 2003.[36]
 The GPL issue

Within a few months of the filing of the lawsuit, Eben Moglen, the Free Software Foundation's legal counsel, stated that SCO's suit should not concern Linux users other than IBM. In an interview with internetnews.com, he was reported as saying:[20]
There is absolute difficulty with this line of argument which ought to make everybody in the world aware that the letters that SCO has put out can be safely put in the wastebasket... From the moment that SCO distributed that code under the GNU General Public License, they would have given everybody in the world the right to copy, modify and distribute that code freely... From the moment SCO distributed the Linux kernel under GPL, they licensed the use. Always. That's what our license says.
Apparently noticing the incongruity of their selling a Linux distribution while suing IBM for stealing their intellectual property and giving it to the developers of that operating system, the SCO Group then announced on May 14, 2003 that they would no longer distribute Linux. According to their press release,[37] "SCO will continue to support existing SCO Linux and Caldera OpenLinux customers and hold them harmless from any SCO intellectual property issues regarding SCO Linux and Caldera OpenLinux products."
SCO currently claims:[38][39]
Any code belonging to SCO that might have been GPL'd was done by SCO employees without proper legal authorization, and thus is not legally GPL'd.
That for code to be GPL'd, the code's copyright owner must put a GPL notice before the code, but since SCO itself was not the one to add the notices, the code was never GPL'd.
 GPL and the US Constitution
During a certain period of its litigation against IBM, SCO alleged that the GPL violates the United States Constitution. This allegation was dropped however from SCO's claims in April 2004 in "SCO's Answer to IBM's Second Amended Counterclaims".[40]
SCO originally based its views on the following considerations:
Section 8 of Article One of the United States Constitution states that
[Congress shall have power] to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Since the GNU General Public License for the most part disclaims exclusive rights, SCO claimed that its use violates this clause. SCO's argument asks the court to limit both Congress's discretion in implementing the copyright clause, which the Supreme Court refused to do in Eldred v. Ashcroft, and copyright holders' discretion over the enjoyment of their exclusive rights. The GPL specifically prohibits, in section 7, distribution of software in jurisdictions where the laws are incompatible with the GPL, so a ruling that upheld SCO's constitutional argument would prevent distribution of Linux (and other copylefted software) in the United States.
Other commentators disagree however. One such commentator, Tom Carey, partner and chairman of a Boston intellectual property law firm, even went so far as to say "Attacks on the GPL are far-fetched and a little bit desperate."[41] Stacey Quandt, principal analyst at Quandt Analytics, remarked, "SCO's prior claim that the GPL was unconstitutional was equivalent to Microsoft's claims about open source being un-American — totally ridiculous.".[41]
Professor Eben Moglen, on leave from the Columbia University law faculty for the year 2006-2007, speaking as counsel to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) who is responsible for drafting the GPL, also takes this view. He says, "I believe the constitutionality attack on the GPL is not a tenable legal argument but is rather a public relations argument." In a talk at Harvard in February, he addressed the issue of constitutionality by referring to Congress' recent extension of copyright term limits. "It turns out that there's no such thing as an unconstitutional copyright rule," he said, "if Congress passes it, and if it observes the distinction between expression and idea."[42]
 Novell enters the controversy

Main article: SCO v. Novell
Novell entered the controversy by publishing on May 28, 2003, a press release concerning the SCO Group's ownership of UNIX. "To Novell's knowledge, the 1995 agreement governing SCO's purchase of UNIX from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights," a letter to the SCO Group's CEO Darl McBride said in part. "We believe it unlikely that SCO can demonstrate that it has any ownership interest whatsoever in those copyrights. Apparently you share this view, since over the last few months you have repeatedly asked Novell to transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests that Novell has rejected."
SCO later claimed to have discovered an amendment to their contract with Novell transferring partial ownership to SCO. Novell stated that the amendment "appears to bear a valid Novell signature, and the language, though convoluted, seems to support SCO's claim that ownership of some copyrights for Unix did transfer to SCO"; Novell also said that it could not find its own copy of the amendment.
But in subsequent letters to SCO that Novell released as part of a press release on December 22, 2003, Joseph LaSala Jr., Novell's general counsel, argued that the amendment provided for a copyright transfer only under certain conditions that SCO has allegedly failed to meet.
SCO was quick to dismiss Novell's claims. The same day, during a conference call to discuss SCO's quarterly financial results, SCO CEO Darl McBride said "We see this as a fraudulent filing of copyright notices ... and we'll take the appropriate measures as necessary with our legal team." SCO made good on this threat on January 20, 2004, when it filed SCO v. Novell. On August 10, 2007, Judge Kimball issued a ruling which says in part "the court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights." This decision is expected to impact the SCO v. IBM since the ruling states that Novell "is entitled, at its sole discretion, to direct SCO to waive its claims against IBM and Sequent".[43][5]
 IBM's AIX license

Reuters reported that the SCO Group intended to revoke IBM's license to use UNIX code in their AIX operating system on Friday, June 13, 2003 if no resolution is reached before then. IBM responded that they believe that SCO has no power to do so, as their license is "irrevocable". On the following Monday, June 16, 2003, CNET News.com reported that SCO had announced it had terminated IBM's license. IBM continues to distribute and support AIX, and the SCO Group now states that they will be seeking an injunction to force IBM not only to stop selling and supporting AIX, but also to return to the SCO Group or destroy all copies of the AIX operating system. IBM's continued distribution of AIX is the basis of SCO's copyright claim.
On June 9, however, Novell privately conversed with SCO expressing their belief that SCO did not have rights to terminate the license. Three days later, Novell cited Section 4.16(b) of their Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with SCO that gave Novell the ability to intercede in the dispute between SCO and IBM and waived SCO's rights to terminate the license.[44]
On August 10, 2007, Judge Kimball ruled that Novell was the owner of UNIX and thus could waive SCO's termination of IBM's license.[45]
 IBM counterclaims against SCO

On August 6, 2003, IBM filed its counterclaims against SCO.[46][47] It made 10 counterclaims:
breach of contract
Lanham Act violation
Unfair competition
Intentional interference with prospective economic relations
Unfair and deceptive trade practices
Breach of the GNU General Public License
and four counts of patent infringement
In response to these counterclaims, SCO asserted that the GPL is unenforceable, void, and violates the United States Constitution, but later dropped that claim. If these claims are true, then the GPL'd applications that SCO continues to distribute (like Samba) are being distributed without the permission of the copyright owners of those applications (since the permission was the GPL itself), which would be illegal. Thus some speculate that, in order to remain legally consistent, SCO will claim that software that has been GPL'd is actually in the public domain.
On September 25, 2003 IBM amended its counterclaims bringing the total number of counterclaims to 13. The new counterclaims are:
Copyright infringement
This counterclaim involves an alleged copyright infringement by SCO of GPL-licensed IBM code in the Linux kernel. Some commentators have pointed out that if SCO manages to invalidate the GPL, they are highly likely to be caught by this counterclaim, as it is of the same form as their claim against IBM.[48]
Promissory estoppel
Declaratory judgment
On March 29, 2004 IBM amended its counterclaims again. It dropped one of the patent infringement claims, but added 2 new Declaratory judgments of Noninfringement of Copyrights. One of these seeks a declaration that IBM's AIX-related activities do not infringe any of SCO's copyrights. The other one seeks a similar declaration about IBM's Linux-related activities.
 Discovery

The discovery portion of the lawsuit has been dragging on for several years. The basis for SCO's suit is that any code developed on top of SVRX is a derivative work of SVRX (which would include AIX), and that IBM has publicly admitted to contributing AIX code to the Linux kernel. Since SCO has never seen the AIX code, it has, as part of the discovery process, deposed IBM for the AIX code, so that it can compare AIX code to Linux kernel code. IBM, rejecting SCO's concept of derivative work, has deposed SCO for which lines of code it claims are infringing. SCO has responded that it can't determine which code is infringing until it has had the chance to look at the AIX code.
On December 5, 2003, in the first oral arguments relating to the discovery process, a judge granted IBM's two motions to compel against SCO, and deferred consideration of SCO's motions until later. This gave SCO a 30 day deadline to provide "with specificity" which lines of code in Linux they claim form the basis of their case. This was widely regarded as a first-round victory for IBM.[49][50]
On June 28, 2006 Judge Brooke Wells granted IBM's motion to strike most of SCO's evidence, citing in part SCO's inability to provide the specificity required by the court:
In December 2003, near the beginning of this case, the court ordered SCO to, "identify and state with specificity the source code(s) that SCO is claiming form the basis of their action against IBM." Even if SCO lacked the code behind methods and concepts at this early stage, SCO could have and should have, at least articulated which methods and concepts formed "the basis of their action against IBM." At a minimum, SCO should have identified the code behind their method and concepts in the final submission pursuant to this original order entered in December 2003 and Judge Kimball’s order entered in July 2005.
—[1] (paragraph 30)
SCO appealed to Judge Kimball and asked for a de novo review of Judge Wells' order.[51] On November 29, 2006, Judge Dale Kimball affirmed Judge Wells' order in its entirety.[52]
 Controversial code

At a reseller show in August 2003, SCO revealed a sample of alleged copied code. This was later shown to be originally released under a BSD License.[53]
The code (atealloc) has been in the IA64 version of Linux for a short period of time. It is no longer in Linux after having been removed on July 4, 2003, since much better alternatives existed.[54][55]
UNIX creator Dennis Ritchie confirms that either he or Ken Thompson wrote the atealloc code, which is released under the BSD licence.[56][57] It is claimed that SCO removed the original license text from UNIX source, allegedly violating the BSD licence.[58]
 Copyright claims and DMCA notices

In late December 2003, new developments involving copyright claims emerged.
Novell registered their claim to the copyright of original UNIX source code, effectively challenging SCO's registration of the same code.[59][60]
SCO Group claimed in a press release to have sent DMCA notification letters alleging copyright infringement.[61][62] Alleged copies of these letters were posted online.[63][64] The letters give the names of 65 files in the Linux source code tree which supposedly incorporate "copyrighted binary interfaces". Linus Torvalds then posted a rebuttal on Groklaw.

UC2: Unified Communications and Collaboration

UC2: Unified Communications and Collaboration
UC2 (Unified Communications and Collaboration) is an IBM and Cisco joint project based on Eclipse and OSGi. It will offer the numerous Eclipse application developers a unified platform for an easier work environment.
The software based on UC2 platform will provide major enterprises with easy-to-use communication solutions, such as the Lotus based Sametime. In the future the Sametime users will benefit from such additional functions as click-to-call and voice mailing.[14]
 Internal programs
Extreme Blue is a company initiative that uses experienced IBM engineers, talented interns, and business managers to develop high-value technology. The project is designed to analyze emerging business needs and the technologies that can solve them. These projects mostly involve rapid-prototyping of high-profile software and hardware projects.
In May 2007, IBM unveiled Project Big Green -- a re-direction of $1 billion per year across its businesses to increase energy efficiency.
 Environmental record

IBM has a long history of dealing with its environmental problems. It established a corporate policy on environmental protection in the year 1971, with the support of a comprehensive global environmental management system. According to IBM’s stats, its total hazardous waste decreased by 44% over the past five years, and has decreased by 94.6% since 1987. IBM's total hazardous waste calculation consists of waste from both non-manufacturing and manufacturing operations. Waste from manufacturing operations includes waste recycled in closed-loop systems where process chemicals are recovered and for subsequent reuse, rather than just disposing and using new chemical materials. Over the years, IBM has redesigned processes to eliminate almost all closed loop recycling and now uses more environmental-friendly materials in their place.[15]
IBM was recognized as one of the "Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) in 2005. This was to recognize the Fortune 500 companies that provided their employees with excellent commuter benefits that helped reduce traffic and air pollution.[16]
However, the birthplace of IBM, Endicott, suffered IBM's pollution for decades. IBM used liquid cleaning agents in its circuit board assembly operation for more than two decades, and six spills and leaks incidents were recorded, including one 1979 leak of 4,100 gallons from an underground tank. These left behind volatile organic compounds in the town's soil and aquifer. Trace elements of volatile organic compounds have been identified in Endicott’s drinking water, but the levels are within regulatory limits. Also, from 1980, IBM has pumped out 78,000 gallons of chemicals, including trichloroethane, freon, benzene and perchloroethene to the air and allegedly caused several cancer cases among the villagers. IBM Endicott has been identified by the Department of Environmental Conservation as the major source of pollution, though traces of contaminants from a local dry cleaner and other polluters were also found. Despite the amount of pollutant, state health officials cannot say whether air or water pollution in Endicott has actually caused any health problems. Village officials say tests show that the water is safe to drink.[17]
 Solar power
Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) and IBM are collaborating to establish new, low-cost methods for bringing the next generation of solar energy products, called CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide) solar cell modules, to market. Use of thin film technology, such as CIGS, has great promise in reducing the overall cost of solar cells and further enabling their widespread adoption.[18][19]
IBM is exploring four main areas of photovoltaic research: using current technologies to develop cheaper and more efficient silicon solar cells, developing new solution processed thin film photovoltaic devices, concentrator photovoltaics, and future generation photovoltaic architectures based upon nanostructures such as semiconductor quantum dots and nanowires.[20]
Dr. Supratik Guha is the leading scientist in IBM photovoltaic research.[20]
 Corporate culture of IBM



1970s IBM System/3 with characteristic blue hardware.
Big Blue is a nickname for IBM; several theories exist regarding its origin. One theory, substantiated by people who worked for IBM at the time, is that IBM field reps coined the term in the 1960s, referring to the color of the mainframes IBM installed in the 1960s and early 1970s. "All blue" was a term used to describe a loyal IBM customer, and business writers later picked up the term.[21][22] Another theory suggests that Big Blue simply refers to the Company's logo. A third theory suggests that Big Blue refers to a former company dress code that required many IBM employees to wear only white shirts and many wore blue suits.[23][21] In any event, IBM keyboards, typewriters, and some other manufactured devices, have played on the "Big Blue" concept, using the color for enter keys and carriage returns.
 Sales
IBM has often been described as having a sales-centric or a sales-oriented business culture. Traditionally, many IBM executives and general managers are chosen from the sales force. The current CEO, Sam Palmisano, for example, joined the company as a salesman and, unusual for CEOs of major corporations, has no MBA or postgraduate qualification. Middle and top management are often enlisted to give direct support to salesmen when pitching sales to important customers.
 The uniform
A dark (or gray) suit, white shirt, and a "sincere" tie[24] was the public uniform for IBM employees for most of the 20th century. During IBM's management transformation in the 1990s, CEO Lou Gerstner relaxed these codes, normalizing the dress and behavior of IBM employees to resemble their counterparts in other large technology companies.
 IBM company values and "Jamon"
In 2003, IBM embarked on an ambitious project to rewrite company values. Using its Jam technology, the company hosted Intranet-based online discussions on key business issues with 50,000 employees over 3 days. The discussions were analyzed by sophisticated text analysis software (eClassifier) to mine online comments for themes. As a result of the 2003 Jam, the company values were updated to reflect three modern business, marketplace and employee views: "Dedication to every client's success", "Innovation that matters - for our company and for the world", "Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships".[25]
In 2004, another Jam was conducted during which 52,000 employees exchanged best practices for 72 hours. They focused on finding actionable ideas to support implementation of the values previously identified. A new post-Jam Ratings event was developed to allow IBMers to select key ideas that support the values. The board of directors cited this Jam when awarding Palmisano a pay rise in the spring of 2005.[26]
IBM launched another jam session called InnovationJam 2008.[27] This jam began on October 5 at 6:00 p.m. US EDT and continued for 72 hours through October 8. Unlike past jams, Innovation Jam 2008 involved wide participation from hundreds of IBM's clients, business partners and academics from around the world as well as thousands of IBM's own employees.
 Open source
IBM has been a leading proponent of the Open Source Initiative, and began supporting Linux in 1998.[28] The company invests billions of dollars in services and software based on Linux through the IBM Linux Technology Center, which includes over 300 Linux kernel developers.[29] IBM has also released code under different open-source licenses, such as the platform-independent software framework Eclipse (worth approximately US$40 million at the time of the donation),[30] the three-sentence International Components for Unicode (ICU) license, and the Java-based relational database management system (RDBMS) Apache Derby. IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free, however

alphaWorks

alphaWorks
Main article: alphaWorks
alphaWorks is IBM's source for emerging software technologies. These technologies include:
Flexible Internet Evaluation Report Architecture - A highly flexible architecture for the design, display, and reporting of Internet surveys.
IBM History Flow Visualization Application - A tool for visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors.
IBM Linux on POWER Performance Simulator - A tool that provides users of Linux on Power a set of performance models for IBM's POWER processors.
Database File Archive And Restoration Management - An application for archiving and restoring hard disk files using file references stored in a database.
Policy Management for Autonomic Computing - A policy-based autonomic management infrastructure that simplifies the automation of IT and business processes.
FairUCE - A spam filter that verifies sender identity instead of filtering content.
Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) SDK - A Java SDK that supports the implementation, composition, and deployment of applications working with unstructured information.
Accessibility Browser - A web-browser specifically designed to assist people with visual impairments, to be released as open-source software. Also known as the "A-Browser," the technology will aim to eliminate the need for a mouse, relying instead completely on voice-controls, buttons and predefined shortcut keys.
 Semiconductor design and manufacturing


IBM's Wii "Broadway" CPU
Virtually all modern console gaming systems use microprocessors developed by IBM. The Xbox 360 contains the Xenon tri-core processor, which was designed and produced by IBM in less than 24 months.[11] Sony's PlayStation 3 features the Cell BE microprocessor designed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. Nintendo's seventh-generation console, Wii, features an IBM chip codenamed Broadway. The older Nintendo GameCube utilizes the Gekko processor, also designed by IBM.
In May 2002, IBM and Butterfly.net, Inc. announced the Butterfly Grid, a commercial grid for the online video gaming market.[12] In March 2006, IBM announced separate agreements with Hoplon Infotainment, Online Game Services Incorporated (OGSI), and RenderRocket to provide on-demand content management and blade server computing resources.[13]
 Open Client Offering
IBM announced it will launch its new software, called "Open Client Offering" which is to run on Linux, Microsoft's Windows, and Apple's Mac OS X. The company states that its new product allows businesses to offer employees a choice of using the same software on Windows and its alternatives. This means that "Open Client Offering" is to cut costs of managing whether Linux or Apple relative to Windows. There will be no necessity for companies to pay Microsoft for its licenses for operations since the operations will no longer rely on software which is Windows-based. One of Microsoft's office alternatives is the Open Document Format software, whose development IBM supports. It is going to be used for several tasks like: word processing, presentations, along with collaboration with Lotus Notes, instant messaging and blog tools as well as an Internet Explorer competitor – the Firefox web browser. IBM plans to install Open Client on 5% of its desktop PCs.