Fremont, California-based Fundamental Software Inc has now finished work on its mainframe emulation software for Sequent Computer Systems Inc’s NUMA-Q Unix servers (CI No 3,254), and made the technology generally available. The product, Flex-ES, is described as virtual machine software and is a Unix application running under Sequent’s Dynix operating system, which enables the mounting and execution of all IBM System 3/90, S/370 and S/360 operating systems, data and applications without modification, the company claims. Mainframe applications can be re-hosted onto Unix systems, a move that could be spurred on by worries over Year 2000 compliance. And despite talk of a mainframe resurgence, Fundamental says that hesitancy to add more mainframe capacity and continue to support older models is still a factor in shifting to Unix. Sequent worked closely with the software house on the product. Flex-ES implements the mainframe’s architecture in software, provides a range of emulated devices and SCSI attached physical devices, and offers parallel attachment of most physical mainframe peripherals. Fundamental claims it is a plug- compatible mainframe in software. Unix applications can be run simultaneously on the Sequent machine. No pricing details were available.
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