IBM i Hardware Glossary

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5250 Terminal

A terminal device running the 5250 data stream protocol used for direct interaction with IBM i green-screen applications.

A

AS/400

The older but still widely used name for the IBM midrange hardware lineage now commonly referred to as IBM i on Power Systems.

ASP (Auxiliary Storage Pool)

A logical grouping of DASD storage on IBM i that organizes data across the physical disk hardware attached to a partition.

C

Capacity on Demand

A feature allowing dormant processor or memory capacity already installed in a Power server to be activated without a physical hardware change.

CEC (Central Electronics Complex)

The core physical server enclosure housing the processors, memory, and system planar for a Power server.

Certified Refurbished

Secondary market hardware that has been tested, documented, and warrantied by a seller before resale.

D

DASD (Direct Access Storage Device)

The internal disk storage drives attached to an IBM i partition, forming the physical basis of its disk pools.

F

Feature Code

An IBM identifier for a specific hardware component, upgrade, or activation option tied to a server model.

Firmware

The low-level software controlling a Power server's hardware behavior, independent of the IBM i operating system itself.

H

HMC (Hardware Management Console)

The physical or virtual appliance used to manage LPARs, apply firmware, and perform service functions on Power servers.

I

IBM i

IBM's integrated operating system and platform family that evolved from the AS/400 lineage and continues to run many business-critical workloads.

IP-Attached Terminal

A 5250 terminal or thin client connected over standard Ethernet networking instead of legacy twinax cabling.

L

Legacy Hardware

Older IBM i server, terminal, or peripheral hardware that has moved past IBM's standard manufacturer support window.

LPAR (Logical Partition)

A logically divided slice of a physical Power server's processor and memory resources, running as an independent system image.

P

Power Systems

IBM's current server hardware family, built on the Power processor architecture, that runs IBM i, AIX, and Linux workloads.

S

SAN Attachment

Connecting an IBM i partition to external storage area network hardware instead of relying solely on internal DASD.

T

Tape Autoloader

A tape backup device with multiple cartridge slots that automatically swaps tapes during unattended save operations.

Twinax

A legacy cabling and terminal attachment standard used to connect 5250 terminals directly to IBM i controller hardware.

V

Virtual Tape Library

A disk-based backup appliance that presents itself to save scripts as if it were physical tape hardware.