[Info-vax] Licenses on VAX/VMS 4.0/4.1 source code listing scans

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/11/21 7:38 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/11/2021 7:12 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 12/11/21 2:25 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> On 12/11/2021 1:40 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>> On 12/11/21 11:51 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>> And all the largest systems are distributed. They use
>>>>> Hadoop, Cassandra, Kafka etc.. Traditional technologies
>>>>> does simply not scale to that level.
>>>>
>>>> You wanna bet?  While some of the frontend stuff has mofrated to
>>>> the typical web crap the IRS for example is still a Unisys OS2200
>>>> shop with the code being mostly Legacy ACOB carried forward from
>>>> its origination on a UNIVAC 1100.
>>>
>>> Yes. And that system may have been a big system 30 years ago.
>>
>> The US IRS is one of the biggest ISes in the world.  Large enough
>> that some of the biggest contracting companies in the United States
>> looked at an RFP to replace it and said it probably couldn't be
>> done.  And so it is still written mostly in COBOL running on Unisys
>> OS2200.
>>
>>>
>>> But today large systems are NNN/NNNN nodes, NNNN CPU's, N/NN TB 
>>> memory and N PB disk.
>>
>> In what way does that contradict what I said above?  Or are you one
>> of those people who think IBM Mainframe still means 360/40.
> 
> A z15 max out at 24 CPU with 190 cores for application and OS
> and 40 TB memory 192 IO cards.
> 
> The largest Unisys (the 8300) is as far as I can read only
> 8 CPU with 64 cores for application and OS and 512 GB of memory.
> 
> It just doesn't scale to what companies with large data processing
> requirements need today.
> 
> 11 years ago(!) the largest Hadoop cluster had 2000 CPU with 22400
> cores, 64 TB memory and 21 PB data on disk.
> 

And yet the IRS is doing it just fine.  Go figure.

And then we have DFAS which is an IBM shop handles payroll for all
the military and civilians in DOD.  A bit more than any company I
can think  of.

And then we also have the DOD EMR system.  Every member of the
military, all their dependents, all the retirees that are still
getting care at an MTF (like me!)  That's and IBM mainframe, too.
and the application is written in COBOL.

Seems that COBOL and mainframes are doing just fine.  Maybe
some of those businesses don;t really need all that hardware
and were sold a real bill of goods because the guys making
the decisions aren't really qualified for the job.  :-)

Just so you will know where I am coming from on this, there is
a strong move to push "modernization" of mainframes.  The current
definition of "modernization" is move to a different platform and
re-write all your applications in the language du jour.  Sound
familiar?  It should.  The same tack is frequently used where VMS
is today.

bill