New 9121 Air-Cooled Frame Models 490, 570 and 610 take 4391 line up to four CPUs
IBM says that the three new multiprocessor models in the 9121 line provide up to twice the performance and capacity of the previous air-cooled processors, making it possible for a whole new class of user to put off the evil hour when the plumbers have to be called in. Models 490, 570 and 610 will be available in March 1992, as will upgrades 320 to 490, 320 to 570, 480 to 570 and 480 to 610. The 490 to 570 and 570 to 610 will ship in June. IBM says that growth enablement provides up to twice the memory, channels, and Vector Facilities, and 1.8 to 1.9 times the performance, comparing a Model 490 with a Model 320. The air-cooled frames consist of Models 190, 210, 260, and 320 which have one central processor; Models 440, 480, and 490 with two central processors; Model 570 has three central processors; and Model 610 has four. The multiprocessor configuration is said to provide greater flexibility in meeting configuration requirements, including the capabilities of partitioning, isolation, back-up, and a single systems image. Subsystem Storage Protection isolates the CICS nucleus from applications, and availability is claimed to be improved by the Processor Availability Facility which automatically migrates work from one central processor to another. The ability to add up to four Vector Facilities to the 490, 570, and 610 models and the new vector operations on all models increase vector performance in numerically intensive computational environments. All models, except the 190, will provide capability for 256Mb of central storage per side. Central storage can be allocated at initial machine load time from a minimum of 16Mb to a maximum of 256Mb in increments of 16Mb, and this has been reduced from a 32Mb minimum. The new vector instructions include four vector square root instructions, providing two Vector Register-to-Vector Register operations and two Storage-to-Vector Register operations. The four Multiply then Add/Subtract instructions provide four Vector Floating-Point instructions, two Multiply-then-Add instructions and two Multiply-then-Subtract instructions. Load the Vector Interruption Index from Address provides an instruction for loading the Vector Interruption Index independently of the rest of the Vector Status Register, and there is a scalar square root. The Subsystem Storage Protection facility is a new ES/9000 hardware function that will be supported by the CICS/ESA transaction processing system, and it prevents CICS/ESA system software and control blocks from being overwritten by application software. As regards system storage, 9121 Models 190, 210, 260, and 320 have 64Mb of storage as standard. Models 440 and 480 have 128Mb while Model 490 has 64Mb and Model 570 has 64Mb on one side and 128Mb on the other. Model 610 has 128Mb of storage. The three systems will operate in either ESA or Logical Partitioning mode and the channel subsystem always operates in ESA mode, although when the system is in Logical Partitioning, mode, 370 mode can be supported.
Escon Capabilities on the 9121
When an Escon channel has an Converter Model 1 attached, the channel in conjunction with Converter Model 1 provides block multiplexor capabilities. The Converter does not support the new Escon XDF channels except through a Director that has an Escon XDF feature. The first eight parallel channels on each side can be initialised to operate as either byte multiplexor or block multiplexor channels, and all other parallel channels can be initialised as block multiplexor channels only. Twelve parallel, Escon, or Extended Distance Feature channels per side are standard on all new models. They can be in combinations of parallel, Escon, or Escon XDF. Additional channels can be added in groups of four as special features providing up to 24 parallel channels or up to 28 Escon and/or Escon XDF channels on Model 190, and up to 48 parallel channels or up to 44 Escon and/or Escon XDF channels can be added in groups of four for Models 210, 260, 320, 440, and 480,
and each side of Models 490, 570, and 610. Escon Architecture permits cable up to 1.86 miles, extendable by Escon Directors to 3.75 and 5.6 miles, between the 9121 Models 490, 570, and 610 and the control unit. Both 62.5/125 and 50/125 micron multimode fibre are supported. The 9121 490, 570 and 610 cost $2.9m, $4.3m and $5.7m respectively in the US, where a price list is still a legal requirement. Conversion from the 320 to 490 is $1.4m, the 320 to 570 is $2.8m and the 480 to 570 is $1.5m. Upgrading from the 480 to 610 costs $2.9m, going from the 490 to 570 costs $1.3m and from the 570 to 610 is $1.4m.
VSE/ESA Version 1 Release 2, VSE/VSAM Version 2 Release 1.1
VSE/ESA Version 1 Release 2 provides support for printers and terminal printers in addition to supporting disk and tape devices, including the Escon channel connection feature, and an Escon Director. VSE/ESA Version 1.2 supports 3390-3 and 9345 disks as well as 9346-2 tape units, and provides Escon attachment of 3990, 3490, 3490E and 9340 subsystems, directly or via dedicated connections through an Escon Director. New printers of the 6252 and 6262 families are supported as are page printers the 3828 and 3900 page printers. The 4028 Model NS1 is supported in 3262-3 compatibility mode, and configuration can be done while VSE/ESA is running. The Battery Back-up Power Unit of ES/9000 Rack Mounted Processors, 9221s, will be supported via a temporary fix, and licensed programs C/370 Version 2, SQL/DS Version 3 Release 2, and X25 NPSI Versions 2 and 3 are offered, while NetView FTP Version 1 replaces File Transfer Program. VSE/ESA Version 1 Release 2 and VSE/VSAM Version 2 Release 1.1 are available now, and enhancement PTF to VSE/ESA Version 1 Release 2 for support of the Battery Back-up Power Supply will ship on January 31.
AIX/ESA Unix Overview
AIX/ESA is to operate natively in a logical partition using PR/SM or as a VM/ESA guest. It will be built on the Open Software Foundation’s OSF/1 with additional enhancements that include Network File System for AIX/ESA; Network Computing System for AIX/ESA; AIXwindows Environment/ESA; Documenter’s Workbench for AIX/ESA; and Build Tool for AIX/ESA. IBM will provide staged support and availability details starting in the second quarter 1992, but details will become available only then.
