The 9370 was IBM’s original VAXkiller, and the AS/400 was hastily cast in that role when the 9370 fell at the first hurdle, but neither is causing any sleepless nights in Maynard – the folks there have enough other things to worry about, such as how to make the same profits on its MIPStations as it does on the VAX when the former offers double the price-performance or more – but figures from Computer Intelligence to May show that only 22% of AS/400 machines went other than to System 38 or System 36 users: since a substantial number have gone into non-3X IBM sites, that means that the machine is only a very modest base-builder for IBM.
