Difference between Mainframe Systems and Tandem Systems

[Narayan Shrawagi]

Hi,
I have some experience in Mainframe Systems. As now I am learning TANDEM system, can anyone suggest some subsystems relation in these two system?

I know one thing. COBOL85 is common in both the systems.
Also we have PL/1,Assembler as the languages in the Mainframe whereas we have TAL,TACL as the languages in the TANDEM Systems

We have JCL for running jobs which picks up the related program and processes as instructed in the program. The files needed are provided through JCL. How this process happens in TANDEM ? How we provide File to the program and execute it? Do we execute all the programs only through commands directly on PATHWAY?

We have IMS and DB2 as the databases in the Mainframe whereas we have ENSCRIBE and NONSTOP SQL as the databases in the TANDEM. But how we view data in TANDEM? like we run spufi in the DB2 and browse IMS sequemntially

Please help. I would really appreciate if someone will provide me inputs on this.

Thanks,
Narayan S

[wbreidbach]

The philosophy behind a mainframe and a NonStop are completely different, so it is not really easy to explain that in short words.

I switched from mainframe to Tandem about 25 years ago, so here are a few hints:

Mainframe works with EBCDIC, Tandem NonStop works with ASCII
COBOL on Tandem has a couple of specific extensions, similar to Cobol on mainframe, so converting from mainframe usually is only a problem of those extensions.
There is no Assembler available on Tandem NonStop, TAL is a language that is somewhat similar to PL/1 but not as powerful.

A main difference is that a mainframe is a batch oriented system, the NonStop is a process oriented system. In a batch system there are queues of batchjobs which need to be scheduled (in my time that was JES2). On a NonStop a process is simply started, there are no queues for that (exception is the Batch subsystem driven by NetBatch or other schedulers).
JCL is not available on NonStop as a separate "language", everything needed is done with TACL.
So the DD-statement in JCL is replaced with an ASSIGN in TACL.

There are a couple of useful manuals, especially the Guardian Programmer's Guide and the TACL manuals.

[Robert Hutchings]

You will have to re-orient your thinking from the "Mainframe Mentality". SPUFI on a mainframe can be done on the NonStop in a different way. The NonStop is a command-line system, and Utilities are invoked from the command-line. TACL is your "shell" on the Guardian/NonStop OS, and from TACL you can "invoke" or "run" SQLCI, which can read SQL statements and display results to your screen or some other output.

There is no TSO/SDSF/SPUFI/ISPF "panel" on NonStop. If you know UNIX or Linux, that might be helpful in transitioning to NonStop.

NonStop came from TANDEM which came from HP3000 in early 1970's.

[Robert Hutchings]

Download this:

http://h10076.www1.hp.com/education/datasheets/u4147s.pdf

You might be able to use this as a guide for further information.

[anil...@ktekresourcing.com]

Hi Narayan,

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Appreciate if you can help me with your availability if you are available in USA.

[anil...@ktekresourcing.com]

Hi Robert,

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