Re: native PHP in V5R4??? -- WEB400

> It will be interesting if the iSeries dating PHP
  > turns into marriage in the next couple years.
  
  
  I spent part of the morning following up on links to news, questions,  
commentaries, and developments related to PHP generally, and PHP on the  
iSeries specifically.  It sounds likely that IBM will offer a  supported 
version of PHP on the iSeries this year.
  
  As some have already mentioned, people are running it on the  iSeries.  Our 
model 800 currently hosts a PHP based e-commerce  application right now.  We 
also host a PHP based software catalog  and forums on Intel servers.  The Intel 
servers offer fairly  snappy performance, while the iSeries sort of chugs.
  
  One forum member at www.i5php.net posted a comment about load testing a  
simple PHP page on an Intel server vs. the same script running on his  iSeries. 
 The Intel server performed better, by a factor of  ten.  He wondered why?
  
  The performance might have something to do with IBM hobbling the  processor 
on entry level servers.  Even with the latest  announcements the $10,000 I5 
models are hobbled to about 1/6  capacity.  Customers can pay an extra $15,000 
to IBM for a  software activation key to disable the governor.
  
  Timothy Prickett Morgan, the editor at www.itjungle.com recently made a  
pitch, proposing that IBM reduce the price of the box, and unbundling  the 
hardware from the software.  He suggests charging separately  for software and 
services, to enable the I5 to compete against Wintel  and *nix servers.
  
  We have J2EE developers writing applications on laptops, then deploying  them 
on the iSeries.  They wonder why the server instance  chugs.  What gives?  Some 
by-standers simply conclude that  the JVM on the iSeries is inferior.
  
  It puts IBM, ISVs, and customers in a tough spot by supporting CPU  intensive 
workloads like J2EE and PHP on the I5, but at a price /  performance that's 
inferior to Intel counterparts.
  
  If IBM starts supporting PHP on the I5, and it become popular, maybe  that 
will be a catalyst to motivate them to stop hobbling the  processor.  Microsoft 
puts three (3) Power5 processors, evidently  running full bore in the Xbox, and 
sells it for $500.
  
  

albartell <albartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:  
PHP vs. RPG CGI is a toss up for me - I am a Java fan for web apps. Like you
said native access is HUGE and saves a lot of time. And then having a
language like PHP is really nice also where it was built with the web in
mind - it even is OO now which opens some new doors for abstract framework
building. 

It will be interesting if the iSeries dating PHP turns into marriage in the
next couple years. It is close, but it isn't "out-of-the-box ready" yet.

What would be really interesting is if IBM added PHP to the developer
roadmap. That would give it a lot more face time.

They could put it in the Application Refacing section here:
http://www.developer.ibm.com/vic/hardware/portal/iii_pages/iii_tools_innov_e
nhance


Aaron Bartell


                
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