Glossary
TPM (Third-Party Maintenance)
Hardware maintenance provided by a vendor other than IBM, typically after IBM's own end-of-service date, at 50-70% below OEM pricing.
TPM providers supply parts, break-fix labor, and often monitoring for hardware IBM no longer officially supports. TPM extends hardware life by 3-5 (sometimes up to 7) years, but does not restore IBM's firmware or OS security patch stream.
Related Terms
EOS (End of Service)
The date IBM stops providing standard hardware maintenance, machine code updates, and parts commitments for a specific model.
Power7
IBM's 2010-generation Power processor and server family, spanning the entry 710 Express through the flagship 795, now the oldest generation covered anywhere in the AS400System.com portfolio.