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In the three years since MPE/iX 5.0, HP has shifted the introduction of many of its operating system’s cutting-edge enhancements to Express releases. Mainline releases, as the versions of MPE/iX numbered with .0 are called, now tend to consolidate those enhancements. The 6.0 version will bring together tools from five of these Express releases, incorporating advances such as telnet, FTP, sequential indexes for IMAGE, 32 bit ODBC middleware and Year 2000 enhancements. All were introduced on Express releases since the 5.5 release in late 1996.

HP’s Kriss Rant explained in a briefing that the 3000 division (CSY) is grouping the 6.0 features into three categories: Internet and interoperability, database and application development enhancements, and system management improvements. HP expects the release to ship in late summer.

Internet advances

Connectivity has kept the 3000 a vital, productive player in MIS shops long beyond analysts’ predictions, largely due to the advanced software on MPE/iX’s 6.0 release. Some programs have only been available from CSY’s Jazz Web server without support until 6.0 rolls out. Samba/iX , the software that lets an HP 3000 appear like another Windows, NT or Unix server for file and resource sharing, gets bundled with full support for 6.0. Samba lets HP 3000 users move files between 3000s and diverse systems such as Windows NT servers, and it will arrive after well over a year of field testing.

Also making its first supported appearance on the operating system is Java. CSY’s Mike Yawn said that Java/iX version 1.1.5 will be included on MPE/iX 6.0, the first language bundled with HP 3000s in more than 20 years. Java includes a development kit and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) runtime engine, so HP 3000s can run applications written for other systems’ JVMs.

Rant said Java was being included to bring more programs to the 3000. “It will be preinstalled in the environment so customers can more quickly make use of it, as well as to stimulate new applications being developed on the HP 3000 platform,” Rant said.

HP will also be including the software necessary to let 3000s work as Domain Name Servers in intranets and on the Internet. This DNS software appears as BIND/iX, as well as a companion Syslog/iX program to track networking activity. Rant called DNS “a basic internet service that’s been lacking from the HP 3000,” and noted that the addition will help sites bypass Unix or NT systems and create all-3000 intranets.

The 3000 gets its 100-megabit networking with the 6.0 release as well, as CSY offers both 100-Base-T and VG AnyLAN configurations to go with new networking cards from HP.

HP is also made changes to its FTP software for file transfer between systems, both those running MPE/iX and others. The changes make FTP more consistent with other platforms’ standards, Rant said.

The 3000 will support larger networks through multiple default gateways with the 6.0 release, as well as unlimited number of other gateways and defaults in network routing, Rant said.

“Without integration with heterogenous environments and modern technologies the 3000 would become an island,” Rant said. “When it becomes an island it withers away and dies. We’re taking the pragmatic approach to ensure the 3000 can integrate and interoperate with some of these modern technologies.”

Database, development power

The 6.0 release of MPE/iX bundles a pair of database advances first rolled out in the Express 3 release of 5.5: ODBCLink/SE and indexed sequential access for IMAGE/SQL. Customers have been calling the latter enhancement b-trees for more than seven years, looking for a way to avoid serial reads. Third-party tools from Bradmark and DISC have delivered the high speed access since the late 1980s, but HP is providing a basic subset of the capability much like it bundled network print services in the 5.5 release. Partial key retrievals, including those from QUERY and Transact, will be possible with 6.0 to give applications a speed boost of up to 100 times faster.

ODBCLink/SE also makes its first non-Express release appearance in 6.0. The software helps HP 3000 TurboIMAGE databases that have Allbase’s database environments defined connect with PC tools such as Microsoft Access, VisualBasic, Crystal Reports and other query tools. The software enables HP 3000s to deliver client server access for desktops in the Windows 95 or Windows NT environments. More fully featured ODBC solutions have been available from three vendors, some as early as 1994, but HP is including ODBC services that rely on a combination of Allbase/SQL and TurboIMAGE as a least common denominator solution.

Other popular 3000 development tools are getting improved in 6.0. COBOL II is getting enhancements in the release for Boolean operations such as packing and unpacking and comparisons.

This release will be the first platform-level MPE/iX to be certified Year 2000 ready. CSY made changes to the Command Interpreter (CI) and VPlus screen handler, first shipped on last winter’s Express 4 release of 5.5, that let the operating system work with four-digit year dates.

System delight solutions

An enhancement first discussed in 1995 will surface in the 6.0 version of MPE/iX. Multiple independent job queues give system administrators a basic-level tool to manage multiple dependencies between jobs on the HP 3000. This means that jobs related to applications such as payroll, manufacturing, order entry can all be separated and controlled, instead of lumping them all in the single input job queue the 3000 has today.

“This can make it difficult sometimes to manage multiple dependencies between jobs,” Rant said. “This lets system managers define their own job queues.” This enhancement is one of the few in 6.0 that customers haven’t sampled in CSY’s freeware or an Express release.

CSY is also releasing for the first time a HIPRI parameter for the ALTJOB command, another way to control jobs on the 3000. In the event that an HP 3000 runs out of resources, a system manager can change priorities of jobs to speed up processing, or lower priorities so other jobs can get in.

CI enhancements include LISTF parameters to allow users with appropriate capabilities to see who is accessing a file. A PAUSE enhancement first introduced in an Express release is also being bundled.

Date manipulation intrinsics first offered in Express 4 are rolled into 6.0, to make comparisons, additions and subtractions of dates. “These will handle four-digit years, but they also handle other types of dates,” Rant said.

CSY also reserved the right to more delight once MPE/iX 6.0 ships. Rant said HP would be holding back on a few more enhancements to announce at the HP World ‘98 conference.