U. S. Geological Survey Submissions
1981 Fall DECUS Symposium, Los Angeles, California

Directory: [307,20]

Our submissions this year, as opposed to previous years, is more
system oriented, towards the goal of maximizing system performance. (We
have submitted many "toys" in the past; try any of the 1980 SIG tapes.)

Most of these submissions are related to some of the topics
discussed in the RSX-11M-PLUS Performance Session, and with some
exceptions, the submissions are RSX-11M-PLUS dependent. With some time
and experimentation, most everything here can be made to work on
RSX-11M.

Please note that with RSX-11M-PLUS V2.0 coming out shortly, some of
our submissions (e.g., the .COR files for MCR and SGNMAS) will have to be
adjusted, thrown out, or whatever. We would be happy to provide updates
for the new release (no guarantees, you realize!); feel free to write
us at the address below.

Our submissions are modularized. The directory contains three files
initially:

README.1ST -- You are reading this now!
USGS.CMD -- Overall command file for unloading modules
USGS.ULB -- Universal library containing ALL the
submissions, including "nested" .ULB libraries

When you invoke USGS.CMD, you will be asked whether you want
each submission unloaded from the universal library.

In particular, our submissions are:

I. FCPMU1 -- Multi-user F11ACP
-------------------------------

If you've heard rumors, and didn't believe it, here it is: multi-user
F11ACP. Check the benchmarks in the Multitasker, and check your memory
requirements. If you want to give it a crack, all the files are
here....it's really easy (easier than on 11M). All that is involved is
to redefine the PSECTions for F11ACP by assembling a dummy MACRO file
and rebuilding F11ACP with a different build file.

II. BLKIO -- Fast Universal Fortran I/O
-----------------------------------------

Routines providing (very) fast Fortran block I/O to either normal or
virtual arrays. (VERY applicable for 11M systems) Routines provided
use direct IO.RVB and IO.WVB QIO's to and from Fortran arrays. We had
another version using standard Fortran I/O (transportable!), but we
seem to have misplaced it somewhere. Get in touch with us if you need it.

III. STREAM -- USGS Local Configuration Command and Batch Files
----------------------------------------------------------------

What puts a RSX-11M-PLUS system together? Do you spend a lot of time
with VMR? One of DEC's great ideas was the .ENABLE/.DISABLE QUIET
directive in INDirect (AT.). That means your STARTUP.CMD file can
be as long as you want, and you don't have to have any of it printed!
We leave SYSVMR.CMD alone, and change STARTUP.CMD whenever a minor
configuration chage occurs. Check our STARTUP.CMD files for ideas.
Don't worry....sometimes we get confused trying to read it also.

Our local program STTY may come in handy. With it, you can do as many
SET /WHATEVER commands to a single terminal that you can fit on a line.
It's included here, also.

A special command file, REASSIGN.CMD, performs REAssign commands on
the tasks which need work files (TKB, F4P, LBR, MAC). By reassigning
the LUN's for the work files, you can balance out the load on your disks.

Batch streams are like any other resource on a system....they must be
properly managed. Without complicating things, you can encourage use
of the batch streams from your CPU-heavy customers by opening up the
number of processors at night, and then closing them down when the
daytime load begins. Take a glance at our configuration files for ideas.

IV. CSH -- Checkpoint Space Handler and TKTN Bug Fix
--------------------------------------------------------

Here's our Checkpoint Space Handler, a tool which will show you what's
on your checkpoint files and will force deallocation of a checkpoint
file by spawning ACS and unstopping/restopping checkpointed tasks.
(NOTE: It doesn't work yet on 11M. Volunteers?)

If you like CSH, you may want to apply the correction file to TKTN
pretty quick. Otherwise, when TKTN is called to deactivate a checkpoint
file, and that file is not first in line, TKTN will hang your system.


V. MCR -- The Non-overlaid MCR dispatcher + a bug fix + extra features
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two mods in particular: patches so that you can un-overlay the
dispatcher (unsupported by DEC -- who knows why???), a fix for
continuation lines (will probably be published by DEC), and some changes
so that your catchall task (if you have one) will get a crack at the
command WHENEVER MCR can't swallow it (also, why didn't DEC do this?).

VI. SYSGEN -- Correction to SYSGEN Subcommand file SGNMAS.CMD
---------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to generate a configuration with multi-access disk drives on
your RH70's, you'd better apply this .COR file to SGNMAS.CMD, or you'll
risk a crash!

VII. VERSATEC - RSX-11M-PLUS Line Printer Driver Including Versatec Support
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Versatec DMA LP driver for RSX-11M-PLUS. This is the driver that Larry
Baker has advertised in the Multitasker. Now you can have it without
writing away for it!

VIII. NOTES -- Larry Baker's notes on Fortran, perfomance, and tapes
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Why not? These are free notes, some of which you may find useful. Taken
from several sessions at the Fall '81 Symposium.

IX. FINALLY -- Who are we, where are we?
----------------------------------------

Please write us if there are any questions or problems associated with
this kit. Please do not call - we don't have a secretary, and we really
can't commit ourselves to handling phone inquiries (sorry!). If you've
come up with enhancements, we'd really like to hear about them!

Larry Baker
Gary Maxwell
U. S. Geological Survey
345 Middlefield Road M/S 77
Menlo Park, California USA 94025