In late 2025, I rescued one of the earliest IBM AS/400 computers ever built from being scrapped for gold. This machine, a 9406-B30, was manufactured in July 1988, one month before IBM even publicly announced the AS/400 platform. Its serial number (S44-B2084) places it among the first 1,000 to 2,000 units ever produced. Fewer than 10 of these machines are known to still exist worldwide.

The machine was found through a LeBonCoin listing in France. A metal scrapper was about to destroy it for its gold content. I contacted the seller less than a minute after the listing went up. Multiple companies also reached out, wanting to tear it down for parts. The seller chose to reserve it for me because I wanted to restore it, not strip it.

My partner and I took a day off work, rented a truck, and drove 800 km round trip from Rennes to the Paris suburbs to haul back this 780 lbs machine. We had five days to pick it up before it was scrapped. We made it with time to spare.

Along with the machine, we recovered almost 200 magnetic tapes in 9-track reel format (including IBM OS/400 installation media, application source code, and client data from a late-1980s French software company), several dozen original IBM documentation binders, and various period peripherals. This is a complete time capsule of a French software company that developed financial software on AS/400 in the late 1980s.

Read the full story of how we got this machine here: https://podalirius.net/en/mainframe/rescuing-one-of-the-first-ibm-as400-a-9406-b30-from-1988/

The goal

My goal is to fully restore this machine to a working state and boot it by August 2028, in time for the 40th anniversary of the IBM AS/400 platform.

This means:

I have already restored a smaller IBM AS/400 9401-150, so I know what this work involves. The 9406-B30 is a significantly older and rarer machine, and the restoration will be longer and more delicate.

Why this matters

The IBM AS/400 (now IBM i) is one of the most important computing platforms in history. Announced in August 1988, it became the backbone of thousands of businesses worldwide and is still in active use today. But the earliest hardware from 1988 has almost entirely disappeared. Most machines were scrapped, thrown away, or stripped for parts.

This 9406-B30 is a piece of computing history. It was built before IBM had even finalized the AS/400 branding -- its rack cabinet carries no AS/400 logo, only the generic "9309 2" enclosure designation. It contains an 8-inch floppy drive, a 9-track tape reader, and three 400 MB hard drives. Preserving it means preserving a snapshot of what enterprise computing looked like at the dawn of the AS/400 era.

The magnetic tapes and documentation are equally irreplaceable. They contain the source code and business data of a French software company from the late 1980s. If these tapes are not imaged soon, the magnetic media will continue to degrade until the data is lost forever.

Budget breakdown

The full project is estimated to be around 11,000 EUR, it breaks down like this:

Who am I

My name is Remi GASCOU (Podalirius). I am a security researcher and vintage computing enthusiast based in Rennes, France. I have previously restored an IBM AS/400 9401-150 to full working co ndition and I document my work publicly on my blog. Every step of this restoration will be published as detailed blog articles.

How you can help

Any contribution, no matter the size, brings this machine one step closer to booting again for its 40th anniversary. If you are a company interested in sponsoring this restoration, please reach out directly at [email redacted] .

All individual and company supporters will be credited on a the blog series about the restoration on my blog (unless you prefer to remain anonymous).

Thank you for helping preserve a piece of computing history.