IBM Corp duly announced its MVS/ESA SP Version 5 Release 2 with OpenEdition last week (CI No 2,614), claiming the new operating system release, due out by the end of June, would make its System/390 mainframes suitable for use as a cornerstone of a successful open client-server environment. X/Open XPG4 Base Profile, and a subset of the new Single Unix Specification will be supported by the end of September, with Release 2.2. Novell Inc and OS/2 local network support, System Object Model MVS enhancements include extensions to parallel Sysplex functionality and systems management, but IBM Corp also added local network serving functionality and object capabilities in line with its System Object Model strategy. For local networks serving the mainframe, it now includes server functionality for NetWare, OS/2 LAN Server and Network File System clients. The LAN Resource Extension & Services/MVS feature provides disk serving, print serving, and central administration for NetWare local networks, while LAN Server for MVS provides an OS/2-compatible file system on MVS/ESA that works in conjunction with OS/2 LAN Server on the workstation. An unlimited number of local area network server clients can be connected. Multiple OS/2 LAN servers and Network File System clients can share a common data repository with a full update capability for every client. The LanRes/MVS feature supports both Escon and several parallel channel direct attachment configurations, as well as wide area network connections using either SNA or TCP/IP. It is also available as a stand-alone product for users with earlier versions of MVS. Object support has been extended with the addition of IBM’s SOMobjects for MVS Run-time Library (launched separately last October) and a set of SOMobjects for MVS application classes and frameworks.
Socket application
The run-time library enables any System Object Model-compliant applications to be run on the mainframe without the need for the full System Object Model application development environment. MVS OpenEdition’s socket application environment now supports socket application transport over SNA networks, and IBM’s elderly AS Application System decision support tool for MVS/VM now supports the OpenEdition hierarchical file system. But it will be Release 2.2, due out on September 29, that will support XPG4 Base Branding and XPG4.2 specifications, standards-based C/C++ language support, and will run some of the first open MVS applications, including the Tuxedo transaction processing monitor, converted and supported by Edison, New Jersey-based Information Management Co, and Sybase Inc’s complete S/10 client-server development environment for MVS OpenEdition, due out by the end of this year. Other applications on the way include the Eiffel object-oriented software development environment from Interacti ve Software Engineering; Open Environment Corp’s Encompass Distributed Computing Environment-bas-d middleware product; SAS Institute Inc’s SAS/C compiler; Peoplesoft Inc’s application suites, Sterling Software Inc’s Vision Results mainframe proprietary applications generation language; Softool Corp’s CCC/Harvest cross-system development tool; and Sysdeco Mimer AB’s high level language Datamodeller. Some 90% of the Single Unix Specification will be covered by Release 2.2, but it will take a second phase of development before MVS can be branded a Unix system. This is something that IBM intends to request from X/Open once that work is done. Release 2.2 also includes enhanced support for serial and network terminal communications via IBM’s Communications Server. Terminals connected to asynchronous ports on an RS/6000 server can operate as if they were directly connected to the MVS/ESA SP Reloease 5.2.2 system and direct terminal log-in to the OpenEdition shell is supported.
