HP 3000 Manuals

General Information Manual

Open Systems and Standards 

The HP 3000 open systems environment is based on the needs of the
commercial marketplace.  Several standards bodies are striving to provide
environments for portability and interoperability.  The HP 3000's
strategy is to encompass the driving forces of X/Open's interoperability
and portability guidelines, de facto market standards, and IBM's SAA
interoperability guidelines.  The HP 3000 supports key industry and de
facto standards in the areas of operating system, user interfaces,
database, languages, development tools, and networking.

This section discusses the operating system interfaces and the user
interfaces supported on the HP 3000.  The HP 3000 also supports an
ANSI-compliant and X/Open-compliant ALLBASE/SQL, for optimal relational
database performance and data integrity; and leading multivendor 4GL
tools, for application portability.  The HP 3000 also supports popular
third-party relational databases.  For detailed information on databases,
computer-aided software engineering (CASE) development tools, and
languages, please see Chapter 4.  For open systems networking, the HP
AdvanceNet strategy encompasses a long-term commitment to OSI standards
and services such as ARPA TCP/IP and IBM SNA connectivity on the HP 3000.
For more information on HP 3000 networking, please see Chapter 5.


          Figure 3-5.  The HP 3000 Open Systems Environment 

Operating system standards 

To support application portability across systems, the IEEE P1003 group,
accredited by ANSI, is chartered to standardize UNIX by specifying a
portable operating system interface (POSIX) standard for application
development.  The POSIX group was formed to specify functions and
services that an operating system must support and to specify the
application programming interfaces (APIs) to these services.

Support of POSIX on the HP 3000 will facilitate the addition of an even
broader range of application solutions.  The POSIX standard simplifies
application portability because software suppliers can expect a
well-recognized set of operating system interface services across
different vendor platforms.  Thus, it provides the ability for users and
VABs to develop common applications for the HP 3000 and other
POSIX-compliant systems, such as the HP 9000.  POSIX also provides a high
level of compatibility with applications written for UNIX systems.

POSIX on the HP 3000.   

The HP 3000 will support POSIX 1003.1, the Core POSIX System Interface in
1991.  The HP 3000 will also support the POSIX 1003.2 Shell and Tools
specification.  As the POSIX committees define specifications for other
key operating environment components, such as security, networking,
system administration, and transaction processing, Hewlett-Packard will
be adopting these standards on the HP 3000, as appropriate.

Because POSIX recognizes that only the API is relevant, and does not
specify the internal implementation details, the HP 3000 can take
advantage of its high performance OLTP operating environment features,
such as high availability and systems management, while providing an
industry-standard interface.  This allows the POSIX implementation on the
HP 3000 to be tightly integrated with its underlying, high-performance
OLTP operating system benefits, such as significantly reduced disk I/Os,
efficient workload prioritization, and dynamic memory management.  The HP
3000 will support the following POSIX 1003.1 API conventions:

   *   process creation and identification
   *   normal and abnormal termination of processes
   *   application and process environment information
   *   process signal handling
   *   timer operations
   *   file/directory management
   *   backup capabilities
   *   hierarchical directory
   *   byte stream file type

The goal of the HP 3000 POSIX environment is to integrate new features as
transparently as possible to HP 3000 users, while maintaining the HP
3000's easy to use features.  MPE/XL users will be allowed access to most
of the new POSIX functionality, such as hierarchical directory
management, using intrinsics and commands.  Likewise, POSIX extensions
will be able to access HP 3000 files and directories.  POSIX applications
will be able to access files created by MPE/XL and vice versa, providing
compatibility between existing HP 3000 data and new POSIX-compliant data.
The HP 3000 will provide MPE/XL systems management capabilities for the
new environment.

User interface standards 

Graphical user interface (GUI) standards have emerged for desktop
systems, and the HP 3000 supports industry and de facto standards.  The
HP 3000 is completely compatible with MS Windows and Presentation Manager
running on PCs and also supports HP VPLUS/Windows.  In addition, HP has
adopted the HP OSF/Motif style guide for the HP 3000 and will support the
industry-standard X Windows System.  This allows applications to provide
the same look and feel regardless of which platform the application is
running on:  HP 3000, MS-DOS, OS/2, UNIX, or other standards-compliant
open systems.

On MS-DOS PCs, HP's NewWave provides an object-oriented application
programming environment.  NewWave is not a GUI, but it derives its look
and feel from the underlying GUI. It is currently supported on top of MS
Windows, and Hewlett-Packard plans to support it on PM and OSF/Motif.

VPLUS/Windows is a client-server solution that leverages existing HP 3000
VPLUS forms.  VPLUS/Windows delivers a smooth migration path to a
graphical windows-based user interface on PC platforms under MS Windows.

X Window System and OSF/Motif.   

X Window System has been adopted by X/Open as the industry-standard
protocol for implementing a distributed, high-resolution GUI. The GUI
built on top of X Window System is OSF/Motif, which HP designed in
partnership with OSF. The X Window System allows applications running on
different vendor systems in a network to be displayed simultaneously on
an X-display device.


          Figure 3-6.  The HP 3000 and HP OSF/Motif 

HP Motif XL.   

HP Motif XL supports UNIX workstations, X terminal displays
(HP 700/X), and PCs equipped with an X Window System card (HP Vectra
PC/AXDS). HP Motif XL allows development of new X Windows System-based
applications for the HP 3000 and porting of existing applications.  HP
Motif XL includes the X11 R4 Xlib programming library, Xt intrinsics,
OSF/Motif 1.1 widgets and gadgets, and documentation.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation