Major enhancements in OS/400 Version 2 – and it is required on the new D Model AS/400s

In OS/400 Version 2 Release 1, IBM says that enhancements include faster system restart, new operational assistant function, Advanced Peer to Peer Networking extensions, programming interfaces, and the capability to merge electronic forms with data. In Version 2.1.1, OS/400 is further enhanced to provide Systems Application Architecture distributed database access, additional networking functions and text search. Version 2.1 will be available on May 24, 1991 except for the Version 1 Release 2 to Version 2 Release 1 installation function, which is planned to be available September 20. Version 2.1.1 will ship March 27, 1992. OS/400 Version 2 is required on all new AS/400 Version 2 Model D processors, and it supports up to 384Mb of main storage and up to 62Gb of disk storage with mirroring on the largest AS/400 model. Enhancements to OS/400 for the D model processors also include support of two-way, shared-memory multiprocessor configurations, up to 2,000 directly-attached workstations and up to 64 concurrent communication lines. Additional device support is provided with OS/400 so that large unattended saves can be made by all models of the AS/400 system. Communications and networking facilities have been enhanced by the addition of integrated services digital network to OS/400. ISDN support includes advanced networking features, calling party identifier, call manager, dialled number identifier, ISDN data link control protocol and extensions to network management support. Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network control has a new function that switches paths after a node failure to continue the flow of alerts. Also, networks that have different identifications can connect to each other in an any-pair configuration, while the topology of each is isolated from the other for security and performance reasons. The APPN end-node support of OS/400 Version 1 and OS/400 Version 2 complies with SAA APPN Common Communications Services. Applications written to the SAA Common Programming Interface for Communications can link program-to-program using SAA APPN end node support on SAA-compliant systems. OS/400 supports the SAA Common Programming Interface for Communications between programs. It is also supported by OS/2, VM/ESA and MVS/ESA. The Common Programming Interface is accessible from every RPG/400, Cobol/400, Fortran/400, C/400 and Procedures Language 400/REXX program. IBM says that OS/400 support of Open Systems Interconnect Communications Subsystem/400, layers three through six, and Association Control Service Element allows the AS/400 system to connect to non-IBM networks. As part of IBM’s notion of controlled openness, OS/400 supports several application programming interfaces that enable software vendors and customers to develop or convert their applications for the AS/400 system. The new AS/400 APIs include a communications interface for private protocols, an interface for terminal emulation programs for non-IBM terminals, an API to folders, an interface to enable applications to send alerts to the OS/400 alert manager, and a security interface that allows an application program to change the profile under which it is running and check the password dynamically.

Open Systems Interconnect Communications and Networking

In OS/400 2.1.1, there is some support of OSI, Open Systems Interconnect, with the enabling of the OSI File Services/400 and OSI Message Services/400 licensed programs. The OSI Message Services/400 support provides for electronic exchange of messages, and the OSI File Services/400 protocols allow the AS/400 system to transparently connect to non-IBM networks for file transfer and management. New emulation support enables a PS/55 to communicate with a 370 host as if it were a 3270 Personal Computer while it is connected to an AS/400 as a 5250.

SAA Distributed Database and Distributed File Support

Access to data on other SAA systems is claimed to be expanded with OS/400 2.1.1’s support of the first stage of SAA distributed database a

rchitecture. The new function is said to simplify read and write access to remote data and provides SAA enterprise-wide data communications. The SQL/400 licensed program is a prerequisite. SAA Character Data Representation Architecture makes it possible for data from multiple national languages to reside in the same table and be accessible through the new distributed database support. Support for SAA-compatible null values, date and time data types, and variable-length fields is added to OS/400. Remote file transactions may be committed and rolled back with new commitment control for Distributed Data Management file functions on OS/400, and this support enables both database and file functions can be committed in the same unit of work.

Availability, Recovery, Performance Tuning

Higher system availability is possible because of several improvements to the operating system, IBM claims. These include a faster system re-start, removal of the limit on the number of objects in a library that can be saved in a single operation, faster saves of changed objects, faster save restore by overlapped operations, and designation of an auxiliary storage pool of data. New tape management enhancements are indended to enable easy duplication of tapes, and tape error recovery is improved, eliminating most job restarts in the event of a tape error, IBM claims. Space left when records are deleted can now be re-used without reorganising, and performance tuning of storage pools can now be done automatically by OS/400.

Licence charges for OS/400

Charges for OS/400 range from $3,750 to $135,000 for processor groups C5 to L6 respectively. The distributed systems licence options are from $3,300 to $118,000. There is no charge for program upgrades within the same processor group prior to September 1, 1992. As from that date, all orders for program upgrades will be charged as follows. Group C5 costs $375 or $330 under the distributed licence, while D5 is $660 and the distributed option is $581. Groups E5, F5, G5, H5, J5 and K5 cost $1,260, $1,680, $3,000, $4,565, $6,605 and $7,895 respectively. In the same order, Distributed Systems Licence Options are $1,110, $41,480, $2,640, $4,015, $5,810 and $6,950. – Janice McGinn