Fall 1985 DECUS Symposium: Trip Report When I editted the DECUS Multi-Tasker newsletter, I always conducted a poll at the RSX Special Interest Group closing session. First I asked for everyone who had access to a photocopier to raise their hands. Over 90% of the attendees responded. To those with their hands raised, I then asked how many had to submit a trip report when they returned. I told the 200-300 people with hands still in the air to copy the Multi-Tasker in the distribution list for their report. My informal poll was always good for a laugh. More importantly, I would receive four to six trip reports which I would combine into an article on the past symposium. Continuing this tradition, this is my trip report on the Fall 1985 DECUS Symposium held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. RSX Product Releases --- ------- -------- For the first time in my memory, new releases of all RSX based products are scheduled for the same time. By this time, RSX-11M/S V4.2, RSX-11M-Plus V3.0, Micro/RSX V3.0, VAX-11 RSX V2.0, and P/OS V3.0 should all be shipping from the Software Distribution Center (first kits should ship starting in January, 1986). Dick Day, RSX Product Manager, covered the new features of the various operating systems in the RSX Product Panel session. RSX-11M/S V4.2 changed the least. The only new functionality is the addition of standard Network Command Terminal support. A new SET /HOST command can be used to setup a remote terminal session to some other host in a DECnet network. RSX-11M will not support the LAT protocol. RSX-11M/S V4.2 also includes support for a variety of new devices: the TK50 cartridge tape, RC25 fixed/removeable disk, and the KDA50 controller. The later implements the Digital Storage Architecture (DSA) fopr Q-bus machines. The new release also supports various printers announced in the last year: the LN03 laser printer, LA210 matrix printer, and LQP03 letter quality printer. RSX-11M/S V4.2 is the last release which will support RK06 distribution kits. This includes the magtape version of the RK06 kit. RK06 updates will no longer be supplied after November 1986. While RSX-11M changes little, RSX-11M-Plus V3.0 is a major release. There are some substantial changes which users have long looked foward to using. The latest release merges RSX-11M-Plus and Micro/RSX into a single system. RSX-11M-Plus users gain the named directory support which was previously found only in Micro/RSX. All users benefit from the new VMS style logical name feature. Two new features should improve system performance. All systems can potential benefit from disk caching. Systems which use the memory management directories (PLAS) heavily can see up to a 20-fold improvement by switching to the new fast mapping directives. RSX-11M-Plus V3.0 includes the Network Command Terminal support which was added to RSX-11M V4.2. In addition, an RSX-11M-Plus system can act as a Local Area Terminal (LAT) host. Note, LAT support requires RSX-11M-Plus DECnet. One major security hole in RSX is fixed by using a password encryption for all passwords stored in the accounting file. The same one-way encryption algorithm option used on VAX/VMS is used in RSX-11M-Plus V3.0. Finally, the new release restructures the executive so unique privilege task do not have to be built for every different executive. A vector table helps privilege programs access executive routines and symbols. RSX-11M-Plus supports all new devices listed for RSX-11M: TK50, RC25, KDA50, LN03, LA210, and LQP03. Distribution kits are now available for the TK50. RSX-11M-Plus drops support from some obsolete devices. These include the TU58 DECtape, TC11 cassette and DJ11 asynchronous multiplexor. Support for the IP11 now provided by CSS. Finally, the latest release of RSX-11M-Plus and Micro/RSX raises the minimum memory requirement for 512KB. Micro/RSX V3.0 is now a particular system generation of RSX-11M-Plus V3.0. The pregenerated executive includes full support for such J-11 hardware features as I/D space and supervisor mode. Also, the executive supports up to 4 DSA disk/tape controllers. Micro/RSX V3.0 is distributed on TK50 tape cartridges as well as the standard RX50 floppy diskettes. All features listed above for RSX-11M-Plus V3.0 apply to Micro/RSX V3.0. Micro/RSX supports all RSX-11M-Plus layered products, include DECnet and other communication products. Micro/RSX systems can now be full participants in local and wide-area networks. VAX-11 RSX V2.0 is enhanced to be even more compatible with the current RSX systems. The Applications Migration Executive (AME) includes the memory management directives (PLAS) and the new RSX-11M-Plus logical name directives. With the addition of the PLAS directives, the AME can know support memory-resident overlays, cluster libraries, virtual sections, and Fortran-77 virtual arrays. The new AME still lacks support for send/receive, parent/offspring, command line interpreter, and virtual terminal directives. Digital is looking at methods to implement a 'RSX task' context under VMS. Such support is needed for some of these unsupported areas. VAX-11 RSX V2.0 comes with a PDP-11 instruction set emulator. This provides VAX compatibility mode on MicroVAX processors without the PDP-11 instruction set. There are many other bug fixes and minor enhancements in VAX-11 RSX V2.0. Digital claims there is enough support to execute SYSGEN.CMD and NETGEN.CMD on a VAX system. The package includes complete RMS-11 support and most common utilities: BRU, CRF, DMP, DSC, EDI, FLX, ICM, LBR, MAC, MFT, PAT, PIP, SLP, TKB, and ZAP. Session conflicts kept me from attending any P/OS sessions. The opening product panel mention P/OS V3.0 would be release in January. The most significant change was P/OS Server. As shown in the demo area, P/OS Server allows one Professional 350/380 to act as a disk server to other P/OS systems located within an Ethernet network. It is possible to use diskless P/OS systems, using Ethernet to boot the systems from the P/OS Server. Licensing Changes --------- ------- One major change announced at the Symposia was the General Operating System license has beed dropped and replaced with two new operating system specific licenses. The Class L license is for low-end systems and applies to all Q-bus based systems except the PDP-11/83. All Unibus systems and the PDP-11/83 are classified as high-end systems and require a Class H license. The new licensing allows Digital to better determine how customers are using the various operating systems. The old General Operating System license had no mechanism for tracking which PDP-11 operating system was actually being used. No license pricing was available, however Dick Day stated that prices would effectively remain the same as under the previous General Operating System license with the exception of some RT-11 options. The two class system is also expected to apply to layered products as well as operating systems. SIG Tape --- ---- On Wednesday night, the RSX SIG created its 17th biannual SIG tape. Lead by Glenn Everhart, a number of dedicated volunteers used a VAX/VMS system in the exhibit hall to transfer fifteen user submissions to a master tape. About the time you read this, Glenn will submit the master tape to the National LUG Organization for eventual distribution to your Local User Group. The tape also joins other collections in the DECUS library. SIG tape software covers all subjects. If you do not find the tool you need in the list below, it is probably because the package is on one of the previous 16 tape sets. The Fall 1985 RSX SIG tape includes the following submissions: o Latest Analyticalc speadsheet (previously Portacalc). o Ethernet DEQNA device driver for Q-bus systems. o Latest KERMIT-11 kit. o Utility to find file containing specified logical block (LBN). o Latest improvements to object file disassembler (DOB). o Latest version of Bonner Lab RUNOFF. o Setup user-defined function keys on VT2xx terminals. RSX Short Notes/Magic --- ----- ----------- DECUS is a long and intensive week. If you started with a eight hour presymposium seminar on Sunday, it is possible to attend 56 hours of sessions by Thursday night. The typical attendee begins to overdose on system internals and new product announcements. Thursday is DECUS's fun night. Many years ago, the RSX Special Interest Group began the original 'Magic' session as a place for bragging about your latest invention and telling the funniest war story. In later years, it was appropriate to split the two topics into separate sucessive sessions. RSX Magic no longer fills 1100 seat rooms, but the show is still the zaniest at DECUS. At this symposium, the "Not Quite Ready for Real-Time Players" again presented their version of "A Day in the Life of an RSX System." The newest act was Bruce Mitchell's Gilbert and Sullivan RSX Chorus singing "I'm a Programmer". The Perfect RSX At the Anaheim Symposia, RSX product manager Dick Day sponsored a impromptu Birds-of-the-Feature (BOF) session on "The Perfect RSX: What Do The User's Still Need". The topic is particularly timely for all RSX users. RSX's position in the minicomputer marketplace is clearly defined. The new releases of RSX-11M, RSX-11M-Plus, and Micro/RSX have no earth-shaking features which open new markets. Instead the new features continue RSX's position as a powerful real-time, dedicated system participating in distributed networks. Digital will look increasing to its existing customers for future product development directions. I would like to use this column as public forum for proposing and commenting on future RSX development. Please send your thoughts on "The Perfect RSX" to The Resource Executive, c/o THE DEC* PROFESSIONAL, PO Box 503, Spring House, PA, 19477-0503.