[Info-vax] VMS internals design, was: Re: BASIC and AST routines

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/26/2021 1:54 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-11-25, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 11/25/2021 1:25 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>
>>> I doubt many would have joined you.
>>
>> I think most would.
>>
>> Those running VMS today are mostly those without an easy way off
>> VMS.
>>
>> Continuing with VMS is what they want.
>>
>> They are very interested in that VMS has a future. If not then
>> migration becomes necessary at some point in time.
>>
>> So the confidence in VSI completing the port is very important.
>> But the timeline is less important.
>>
> 
> The problem Arne is that in many companies, those who want to stay
> on VMS are not those who actually make the final decision about whether
> to stay on VMS.
> 
> Those kinds of decisions are usually made one or two levels higher up
> and those people tend not to have an emotional bond to VMS and they also
> want to take what they perceive as the safer decision (both for them and
> for their pension.)
> 
> Saying that a port to x86-64 would be available in about 8 years is
> not the kind of thing that endears you to those types of managers. :-)

Most won't care.

They are only interested in whether there will continue to be HW
available to run VMS on. At a reasonable price.

Whether that is Itanium for 4 years and x86-64 after that or
Itanium for 8 years and x86-64 after that does not matter
much.

There can be exceptions like they want to move VMS to
their on-prem ESXi cluster or to public cloud - then
the date does matter.

>> Sure a x86-64 box is way more powerful and way cheaper than
>> Itanium and old Alpha's. But the Itanium's and Alpha's can
>> still do the job those VMS users need.
>>
>> The drop dead time is when IslandCo can no longer deliver
>> Itanium's and Alpha's.
>>
> 
> Alpha not so much, because full system emulation is available.

True.

> But yes, for Itanium, when replacement physical boxes are no longer
> available is when the real problems start to occur.
> 
> It really is a pity that a full system emulator was never developed
> for the Itanium architecture. That would have given people a few more
> options.

Yes.

Arne