[Info-vax] Unix on A DEC Vax?
Jan-Erik Soderholm
jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com
Sun Jan 20 10:22:42 EST 2013
Wilm Boerhout wrote 2013-01-20 15:43:
> Stephen Hoffman mentioned on 19-1-2013 21:16:
>> On 2013-01-19 18:46:43 +0000, Wilm Boerhout said:
>>
>>> Stephen Hoffman mentioned on 19-1-2013 16:25:
>>>>
>>>> You're probably not going to do significant new development work on this
>>>> target, right?
>>>> Likely incremental enhancements and updates as needed, but probably not
>>>> significant new work.
>>>> Which means this gear will age out, as was mentioned up-thread.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Well, the "gear" will not age out, assuming you mean hardware. I've
>>> seen emulated VAXes go through several generations of increasingly
>>> newer and faster host platforms.
>>
>> The crane. The warehouse. The production line. Whatever the VMS
>> software was embedded within. That will age out.
>>
>>> The software, as I think I mentioned, is relatively stable, because it
>>> is tied to the layout and functionality of the warehouse.
>>
>> So no significant new work.
>>
>> When the new crane, new warehouse or new factory floor line — the next
>> generation or replacement — is contemplated, that probably won't target
>> an emulated environment.
>>
>> Which means the emulated gear will age out, too.
>
> Yes, this is what's happening. Lifetime of a typical warehouse layout (book
> logistics, auto spare parts) is like an airplane, 20 to 30 years or so. So
> emulation is almost mandatory, because the functionality has to have the
> same lifetime, and even the old DEC hardware gives in finally...
>
> And yes, this is maintenance mode mostly. Add a few picking stations, a new
> logistics manager wants to implement a scheme she learned in school, that
> sort of thing.
>
> So once or twice a year we do a few weeks of the old CMS/MMS/COBOL stuff.
> This can go on forever, or at least until the present crisis runs its
> course, and real investment and innovation will return.
>
> /Wilm
I'm right now in the middle of a project where my customer is going to
take a new crane warehouse in production and we have some integration
tasks to their production (mainly assembly and packing support) system.
We do not run the warehouse directly but send transport orders and
receives movements reports back. This involves VMS/Rdb/RMS/Cobol/MQ/XML.
Jan-Erik.
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