IBM seems to be ready to slaughter the low end of its mainframe base in the transaction processing world with a multi-user version of CICS that will run under OS/2 on a PS/2 server. The company’s statement of direction says that it plans to provide CICS OS/2 Version 2, which will enable CICS transaction management to multiple users of local network-attached programmable workstations and ARTIC-attached ASCII terminals. CICS OS/2 2 will operate as a high-performance server for clients, support co-operative processing when required with other CICS family systems, and provide transaction processing capabilities in a client-server environment. It will come in both single-user versions for stand-alone and host-attached users, and in a multi-user version to run on a server. CICS OS/2 2 multi-user on a server will support clients that can be a lower powered PS/2, optionally diskless, which can be running under OS/2, MS-DOS or Windows.
