HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
900 Series Migration
The use of Compatibility Mode (CM) and migration utilities provides
smooth, flexible migration to 900 Series systems. The high degree of
object code compatibility between MPE V/E and MPE/iX operating in CM
allows you to store any MPE V/E based application object code program
written in a language supported on MPE V/E, restore it on a 900 Series
system, and run it in MPE/iX Compatibility Mode. You can move data bases
to a 900 Series system in the same way.
900 Series systems are fully upward compatible with other systems in the
HP 3000 family. Migration tools are provided to facilitate upgrading to
the 900 Series in stages, as your schedule permits, without interruption
of operations. Migration to the 900 Series provides:
* Object code compatibility: a simple store/restore procedure
allows you to move MPE V/E applications and data to the 900
Series. You can back up applications and databases on a tape and
restore them on a 900 Series system without modification. The
applications and databases run on the 900 Series in CM.
* Source code compatibility: you can recompile applications for
maximum performance by using Native Mode (NM) optimizing
compilers, which improve performance. You can achieve maximum
database performance by using software utilities to transform
databases into NM.
* Migration flexibility: upgrading to the 900 Series is extremely
flexible because applications and databases can access and
communicate with each other when they are in different modes (in
other words, when one is in CM and the other is in NM).
* Operational flexibility: MPE/iX is a functional superset of MPE
V/E. They are nearly identical in terms of user interface, system
management, accounting, and security.
* Peripheral compatibility: Because of common I/O mechanisms, the
900 Series supports many of the same peripherals and workstations
as other HP 3000 systems do.
* Cross-family development: CM allows you to develop applications
on the 900 Series that can also be run on MPE V/E-based systems.
Migration to the 900 Series is flexible because you can move some
applications to NM and move others to CM. Both kinds of applications can
access the same database, and it can be in CM or NM. You can immediately
move all your applications and databases to CM and can migrate
applications to NM at convenient times.
Object Code Translator
MPE/iX provides an Object Code Translator (OCT) that can be used to
translate MPE V/E object code into native instructions for the 900
Series. This improves performance over that of the MPE V/E object code.
Native Mode Compilers
To take full advantage of 900 Series performance capabilities, you can
recompile MPE V/E based applications using Native Mode (NM) compilers for
the 900 Series. They provide source code compatibility with the rest of
the HP 3000 family of computers. Usually, applications require little or
no code modification. The NM compilers available on MPE/iX include:
* HP C/iX
* COBOL II/XL
* HP Pascal/iX
* HP FORTRAN 77/iX
Data Base Manipulations
For improved performance of database manipulations, you can move to
ALLBASE/SQL, the Native Mode Database Management System for the 900
Series. Utilities are available for converting to ALLBASE/SQL from
TurboIMAGE/XL.
Migration Restrictions
Minor restrictions may apply to migrating MPE V/E-based applications to a
900 Series system. An application may require modification if it uses:
* Undocumented intrinsics
* Privileged machine instructions
* Unsupported hardware
* Architecture-dependent information
Applications written in SPL/V, the systems programming language for MPE
V/E-based systems, can run in Compatibility Mode (CM) on a 900 Series
system, but cannot migrate to Native Mode (NM) because SPL/V has a high
dependence on the MPE V/E-based HP 3000 architecture. However, you can
improve the performance of an SPL/V application running in CM by using
the MPE V/E Object Code Translator.
If you require NM performance, these applications should be rewritten in
HP C/iX or HP Pascal/iX, which are systems programming languages for
MPE/iX. If an application written in a high-level language calls SPL/V
procedures, you can recompile it in NM. It runs in NM and uses a
user-supplied mode switching procedure to switch to CM to call SPL
procedures.
For information on less frequently encountered exceptions, refer to the
Migration Series of manuals. For information on switching, refer to
Switch Programming Guide (32650-90014).
Cross-family Application Development
You can develop applications on a 900 Series system for use on HP 3000
systems that use HP Precision Architecture (HP-PA) by using a 900 Series
for centralized development. You can compile the source code for
programs written to run on a Native Mode compiler on the 900 Series
system and compile it to run on MPE V/E-based systems.
Similarly, you can compile source code written to run in Compatibility
Mode on the 900 Series and compile it to run on MPE V/E-based systems.
The MPE V Segmenter is supplied with MPE/iX to facilitate cross-family
development in these languages.