[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[John Wallace]

On Mar 26, 10:28 pm, Keith Parris <keithparris_deletet... at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> On 3/24/2012 7:38 AM, John Wallace wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Mar 24, 12:45 pm, "John Reagan"<johnrrea... at earthlink.net>  wrote:
> >> "JF Mezei"  wrote in message
>
> >>news:4f6d5a90$0$2201$c3e8da3$460562f1 at news.astraweb.com...
>
> >>> I was just thinking.
> >>> If HP were to produce fault tolerant 8086s for NSK, those boxes could
>
> >> Any more fault tolerant than the Itaniums used by NSK today?
>
> > Exactly.
>
> > Tandem hasn't needed CPU lockstep since they dropped their own
> > proprietary processor architectures, and that's a LONG time ago in
> > processor history. This isn't a secret, but it may as well be as far
> > as the trade media and others are concerned.
>
> > In modern Tandem boxes, the synchronisation is not at instruction
> > level or even main-memory access level but conceptually more like "IO
> > access level" (or maybe process context switch level). The
> > synchronisation is not on the CPU chip, not even particularly close to
> > it, but is managed by a piece of complex external logic called the
> > Logical Synchronization Unit, which doesn't care about instruction-
> > level lockstep but does care that each processor's operations result
> > in the same IO with the outside world (and the same context if a
> > processor swap has to occur). The LSU also does a lot more than that,
> > which I won't go into here.
>
> > The 2006 Oztug presentation at [1] was given by one of Tandem's senior
> > architects, Hal Massey, and was an excellent intro to the internals of
> > Tandem boxes over the years. Sadly, it's fallen off the internet and I
> > haven't kept a copy and nor have I yet been able to find a suitable
> > replacement. Suggestions welcome for a definitive replacement - but
> > I'm not holding my breath.
> > [1]www.oztug.org/events/2006/AdvancedArchitecture_Massey.pdf- now
> > vanished, sadly.
>
> I see the session description for Hal Massey's session at Archive.org:http://web.archive.org/web/20060716110540/http://www.oztug.org/events...
>
> "NonStop Advanced Architecture for Integrity NS Server, Hal Massey, HP
>
> The NonStop Advanced Architecture (NSAA) is a new offering in the
> NonStop world. It's so new that we are finding new ways to describe it,
> new aspects of its advantages, and positve feedback from customers who
> are utilizing it in their applications on Integrity NS-series servers.
> The fundamentals that the NonStop division is famous for are showing up
> in exciting new forms and functions. This is the session to learn about
> how NSAA can make a difference in your world."
>
> Does sound interesting. Maybe some of these will be helpful:
>
> HP NonStop Advanced Architecture web page with FAQs and white paper:http://h20223.www2.hp.com/NonStopComputing/cache/77119-0-0-0-121.html
>
> NonStop Advanced Architecture, System Configuration and Site Planning,
> Bob Kosslerftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/nonstop/ccc/2005/jun0905.pdf
>
> The NonStop Advanced Architecture Value Proposition: HP Integrity
> NonStop Server Availability Compared to NonStop S-series Server, Bob Kosslerftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/nonstop/ccc/2005/sep1505.pdf
>
> Data Integrity in HP NonStop Servershttp://www.cs.uiuc.edu/class/sp06/cs523/nonstop-selse06.pdf
>
> NonStop Advanced Architecturehttp://www.cse.chalmers.se/~davidwh/eac/papers/karlsson5.pdf
>
> NonStop Servers - The future    (from 2003)http://www.suntug.org/Articles/SE_RUG_Roadshow_V3_June_203.pdf

Good stuff on that list, but the Hal Massey one is/was betterer (or so
my subjective memory tells me).

You might want to add (from 2008, so relatively recent):
http://www.availabilitydigest.com/public_articles/0308/ns_blades.pdf