Hercules-390 Version 4

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Brigitta Martini

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:13:00 PM8/3/24

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The hyperion repository is used by a group of developers as acutting-edge developer sandbox.It is currently designated as version 4.00.This repository evolved from Hercules version 3.07 enriched bya series of user interface changes and usability enhancementsproduced during the TurboHercules period.It also contains experimental support for the QDIO and MPCPTP6networking interfaces and a redesigned I/O subsystem.

The current minimum supported Windows platform is Windows Vista. Anyone still running a version of Windows older than Windows Vista is strongly encouraged to upgrade to Windows Vista or greater with Windows 7 being the preferred choice.

Hercules is a computer emulator allowing software written for IBM mainframe computers (System/370, System/390, and zSeries/System z) and for plug compatible mainframes (such as Amdahl machines) to run on other types of computer hardware, notably on low-cost personal computers. Development started in 1999 by Roger Bowler, a mainframe systems programmer.

Hercules runs under multiple parent operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and macOS and is released under the open source software license QPL.[3] It is analogous to Bochs and QEMU in that it emulates CPU instructions and select peripheral devices only. A vendor (or distributor) must still provide an operating system, and the user must install it. Hercules was the first mainframe emulator to incorporate 64-bit z/Architecture support.

The emulator is written almost entirely in C. Its developers ruled out using machine-specific assembly code to avoid problems with portability even though such code could significantly improve performance. There are two exceptions: Hercules uses hardware assists to provide inter-processor consistency when emulating multiple CPUs on SMP host systems, and Hercules uses assembler assists to convert between little-endian and big-endian data on platforms where the operating system provides such services and on x86/x86-64 processors.

Hercules is technically compatible with all IBM mainframe operating systems, even older versions which no longer run on newer mainframes. However, many mainframe operating systems require vendor licenses to run legally. Newer licensed operating systems, such as OS/390, z/OS, VSE/ESA, z/VSE, VM/ESA, z/VM, TPF/ESA, and z/TPF are technically compatible but cannot legally run on the Hercules emulator except in very limited circumstances[citation needed], and they must always be licensed from IBM. IBM's Coupling Facility control code, which enables Parallel Sysplex, and UTS also require licenses to run.

There is also a large community of current and former mainframe operators and programmers, as well as those with no prior experience, who use Hercules and the public domain IBM operating systems as a hobby and for learning purposes[citation needed]. Most of the skills acquired when exploring classic IBM mainframe operating system versions are still relevant when transitioning to licensed IBM machines running the latest versions[citation needed].

The open source nature of Hercules means that anyone can produce their own customized version of the emulator. For example, a group of developers independent of the Hercules project implemented a hybrid mainframe architecture which they dubbed "S/380"[6] using modifications to both Hercules and to freely available classic versions of MVS (and later VM and DOS/VS), enhancing the operating systems with some degree of 31-bit (and as of 2016, 64-bit) binary compatibility with later operating system versions (and as of 2018, 32-bit is also supported).

It is difficult to determine exactly how Hercules emulation performance corresponds to real mainframe hardware, but the performance characteristics are understandably quite different. This is partially due to the difficulty of comparing real mainframe hardware to other PCs and servers as well as the lack of concrete, controlled performance comparisons. Performance comparisons are likely legally impossible for licensed IBM operating systems, and those operating systems are quite different from other operating systems, such as Linux.

Hercules expresses its processing performance in MIPS. Due to the age of the earlier System/360 and System/370 hardware, it is a relatively safe assumption that Hercules will outperform them when running on moderately powerful hardware, despite the considerable overhead of emulating a computer architecture in software. However, newer, partially or fully configured System z machines outperform Hercules by a wide margin. A relatively fast dual processor X86 machine running Hercules is capable of sustaining about 50 to 60 MIPS for code that utilizes both processors in a realistic environment, with sustained rates rising to a reported 300 MIPS on leading-edge (early 2009) PC-class systems. Hercules can produce peaks of over 1200 MIPS when running in a tight loop, such as in a synthetic instruction benchmark or with other small, compute-intensive programs.

...We can run a reasonably sized load (800 MIPS with our standard package). If the machine in question is larger than that, we can scale to 1600 MIPS with our quad Nehalem based package, and we have been promised an 8 way Nehalem EX based machine early next year that should take us to the 3200 MIPS mark. Anything bigger than that is replicated by a collection of systems.[7]

Hercules generally outperforms IBM's PC based mainframes from the mid-1990s, which have an advertised peak performance of around 29 MIPS. Compared to the more powerful but still entry-level IBM Multiprise 2000 and 3000 mainframes (also from the 1990s), Hercules on typical x86 hardware would be considered a mid-range server in performance terms. For every mainframe after the 9672 Generation 1, Hercules would generally be the lowest end system. For comparison, 2010-era high-end IBM zEnterprise 196 systems can deliver over 52,000 MIPS per machine, and they have considerable I/O performance advantages.[citation needed] With the same number of emulated Sys Z processors, z/PDT is about 3 times faster than Hercules.[citation needed]

In 2009, Roger Bowler founded TurboHercules SAS, based in France, to commercialize the Hercules technology. In July 2009, TurboHercules SAS asked IBM to license z/OS to its customers for use on systems sold by TurboHercules. IBM declined the company's request.[8] In March 2010, TurboHercules SAS filed a complaint with European Commission regulators, alleging that IBM infringed EU antitrust rules through its alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system, and the EC opened a preliminary investigation.[9] In November 2010, TurboHercules announced that it had received an investment from Microsoft Corporation.[10] In September 2011, EC regulators closed their investigation without action.[11]

Since January, 2001 I have personally devoted my time to MVS 3.8, as it is the environment that I have spent the majority of my career working in and with which I am the most familiar. However, there is still information on this site to benefit those who are running MVT 21.8f.

I have collected and organized a diverse amount of information on this siteto help those who are just starting out with Hercules and/or one of theoperating systems that run under Hercules' emulation. Some of the materialis hosted elsewhere and I simply provide a link to the host site. Somematerial I provide a copy of that is directly downloadable from the server thathosts my web pages, in some cases in a slightly different format from that theoriginal material. However, the most important content of this site is thedocumentation and tutorials that I have written to help people get up to speedusing Hercules and MVS 3.8j on their own systems.

The information in this site is organized into specific topiccategories. The links below may be usedto navigate to the beginning page of a particular topic area. Some topics includequite a bit of information and have additional levels of pages accessible fromthe main page. A brief summary of some of the topics follows.

VSCopy is a version if IEBCOPY that may be used to restore datasets under MVTthat were unloaded using the version of IEBCOPY from MVS - the versions ofIEBCOPY included with MVT is very limited and is not compatible with the versionincluded with MVS.

IFOX00 is the assembler that is included with MVS and is much more capablethan the assembler included with MVT. However, there is nothing thatprevents the IFOX assembler from executing under MVT and this page will help youinstall it - an archive included on the page has everything you need. Inaddition, this page includes a set if revised assembler procedures that allowyou to easily use both versions of assembler on a single system. There isalso a detailed comparison of the options effective for each assembler.

There is a group of dedicated individuals who, in their spare time and for no compensation, are willing to help others find solutions to problems they have with Hercules (and/or the Operating Systems that run underneath Hercules). If you have exhausted your own efforts to solve a particular problem with your own efforts reading the material provided with Hercules and/or available on the Internet, you may be able to find assistance in resolving your problem(s) by joining one of the Hercules related support forums. In these forums, there is a wealth of information available in archived messages extending back over a period of years, file sections, and links to other resources. If your question is still not answered, you may post a message for describing your problem(s) and ask others if they are able to offer any assistance. Please make an effort to post your question to the forum most relevant to the question. Posting Operating System questions on the main Hercules forum is not as likely to result in the assistance you are seeking.

SNA networking & Hercules has always been a goal for a lot of people, including me as we always wanted to setup some SNA server of some kind. Especially on RISC platforms, as there is only so much fun on SQL server.