Unisys Corp has unveiled new software to overcome millennium bug problems on its 2200 mainframe series. The IT services and solutions’ computer systems division is using a customized version of Micro Focus Plc’s SmartFind and SmartFix to ensure that its high-end mainframe boxes – used to run airline and on-line banking systems – will operate after the year 2000. The tools are designed to identify, and subsequently modify, COBOL code: the computer language used to write many of the older mainframe applications. SmartFind analyzes the code and shows the impact on the system beyond the year 2000, while SmartFix automatically applies changes to affected lines of code. As well as checking and fixing any COBOL applications that sit on the 2200 mainframe, the software also works with Unisys’ proprietary database software; DMS Data Management System, RDMS Relational Data Management System and ECL Executive Control Language: the workflow language used to control the way jobs run on the databases. Andy McIntyre, Unisys’ Computer Systems’ (UCS) program manager for Year 2000 and Euro, estimates that there are around 5,000 users of its 2200 mainframe series worldwide, second only to IBM Corp, and IBM compatible, mainframes. The systems are used to run some of the largest airline reservation systems, check-in systems and cargo management systems, he said. The mainframe also has a well-established client base in the banking world, including the TSB bank in the UK and the Union Bank of Switzerland.
