What's New at Migration Specialties?

June 18, 2009: VAX & Alpha Replacement Presentation pdf version

Camiel Vanderhoeven, chief architech of Migration Specialties upcoming Alpha emulation solution, presided over a well attended session at the 2009 HP Technology Forum in Las Vegas. Camiel held forth to an attentive audience on the various options available to support legacy VAX and Alpha applications. A copy of his presentation slides can be found at this link: Legacy VAX and Alpha Systems: Refresh, Replace or Emulate.

June 14, 2009: OpenVMS Boot on Emulator

Migration Specialties has successfully booted OpenVMS on our Alpha emulator. More details are available on the Virtual VAX & Alpha Emulator page.

March 20, 2009: Emulator Integrity Port

Migration Specialties has successfully ported the VAX & Alpha emulator VL and base components to the HP Integrity platform. More details are available on the Virtual VAX & Alpha Emulator page.

March 4, 2009: VAX & Alpha Emulator Web Page Posted

Migration Specialties has published a new web page covering the development of our virtual VAX & Alpha hardware emulators. Progress reports on product development will be posted to the page. Click the Virtual VAX & Alpha Emulator link to visit the page.

February 4, 2009: Migration Specialties Announces Virtual VAX & Alpha Development

Migration Specialties issues a Press Release today announcing development of virtual VAX and Alpha solutions. The Alpha product is scheduled for an early 2010 release with the VAX product to follow.

January 29, 2009: Utilizing /RETAIN=ERROR to Make Life Easier pdf version

The /RETAIN=ERROR qualifier is a useful tool to identify problem batch and print jobs. Migration Specialties has contributed an article published in the January, 2009 issue of the OpenVMS Technical Journal titled Utilizing /RETAIN=ERROR to Make Life Easier discussing how to deploy the qualifier to your advantage as part of OpenVMS system maintenance and monitoring.

January 19, 2009: Migration Specialties Featured on Nemonix Engineering Home Page

Nemonix Engineering, a partner in supplying VAX replacement solutions, is featuring Migration Specialties on its home page this month. We appreciate the honor.

June 1, 2008: Pueblo Chieftain Features Migration Specialties

The Pueblo Chieftain features Migation Specialties in its business section in an article titled Rehabbing the past.

September 3, 2008: VAX Replacement Options Paper

Migration Specialties has published VAX Replacement Options, a paper intended to help VAX users assess their options when considering how to support legacy VAX applications. The paper covers VAX hardware emulator and VAX hardware refresh options.

May 22, 2008: OpenVMS Marketing Recognition

We are honored that HP and the OpenVMS community chose to recognize Mr. Bruce Claremont at the OpenVMS Advanced Technical Boot Camp during the awards ceremony. Mr. Claremont was recognized for his OpenVMS grass roots marketing efforts. Mr. Claremont wishes to thank his many friends in the OpenVMS communnity for the nomination and award.

May 14, 2008: TSG mbH & Migration Specialties Test Port

Germany's TÜV Thüringen e.V . and TSG mbH, with assistance from Migration Specialties, conducted a preliminary assessment of porting an OpenVMS application running on an Alpha DS15 to HP's OpenVMS Integrity platform. Migration Specialties assessed the portability of MACRO-32 components in what is primarily a DEC BASIC application. Early indications are the port will be easy and successful. Much of the credit for the ease of the port goes to the high quality of the software we assessed. It is well organized and documented. HP gets credit was well for providing an excellent migration path to OpenVMS on Integrity.

April 28, 2008: PDP-11/34 Replacement for U.S. Navy MSDD pdf version

Migration Specialties is pleased to offer a paper covering the replacement of a PDP-11/34 system for the U.S. Navy. The system was rehosted to a Strobe Data Osprey hardware emulator. The MSDD is a fascinating device and the article, PDP-11 Replacement Keeps the Navy's MSDD Spinning, provides a description of it and why preserving its legacy control system was a worthy investment.

April 10, 2008: F$GETQUI to the Rescue pdf version

The DCL lexical F$GETQUI is a powerful OpenVMS function that can be a bit confusing to deploy. Migration Specialties has contributed an article published in the April, 2008 issue of the OpenVMS Technical Journal titled F$GETQUI to the Rescue demonstrating F$GETQUI usage via a useful DCL procedure designed to selectively delete entries from a queue.

March 26, 2008: TECNASA Moves COBOL Apps to Integrity with an Assist from Migration Specialties

Migration Specialties is pleased to have assisted Panama based TECNASA in porting a COBOL application suite running under OpenVMS on a VAX system to the HP OpenVMS Integrity platform. Migration Specialties contribution was the porting of MACRO-32 modules used by the application. HP's excellent MACRO-32 support under Integrity OpenVMS eased the porting effort. Only minor code changes were required to get the modules up and running on the Integrity system. TECNASA testing validated the program interfaces and the job was done.

March 17, 2008: Migration Specialties assists GBC with Data Conversion

Migration Specialties is pleased to have assisted GBC, Inc. in porting data from a legacy COBOL application using flat files to a Navision database driven application. Migration Specialties developed COBOL programs that ran on the VAX system hosting the COBOL application. The programs provided the end-user with a simple interface to extract and format select data for analysis and import into the Navision database. Historical and current production data was ported. GBC and Migration Specialties cooperated during the project, refining the extract programs to eliminate obsolete and inaccurate data and streamline the porting process.

March 1, 2008: CBL 4.0 Released

It is always a pleasure to be challenged by our customers and Vladimir Bacic at DPE in Italy has certainly done that. DPE is using CBL to move DIBOL applications from VAX to Alpha and Integrity processors. In the process, he has pushed us to further improve the product. As a result, we are releasing V4.0 of CBL, the DIBOL to C Translator. This release contains several bug fixes and a substantial Translator performance improvement.

December 14, 2007: CBL Released on Integrity

Migration Specialties is please to announce the release of CBL, the DIBOL to C Translator, on the HP OpenVMS Integrity platform. CBL translates legacy DIBOL application code to C, allowing clients to retain the institutional knowledge invested in important legacy applications while moving the source code to a modern programming language.

December 12, 2007: PDP-11 Re-Host at NSTI

Migration Specialties is please to report a successful PDP-11/34 replacement at the Naval Survival Training Institute in Pensacola, FL. The PDP-11/34 controlled a simulator used to introduce naval pilots and aircrew to the disorientation that can be experienced during limit visibility flight. The PDP-11/34 was replaced with a Strobe Data Osprey/SX. The replacement team, comprised of engineers from NSTI, Strobe Data, and Migration Specialties, completed the installation, acceptance testing, and burn in over six days. Most of the components in the legacy PDP-11 system were virtualized on the Osprey platform. Two unique Unibus controller cards were transferred to the Osprey Unibus back plane.

November 2, 2007: Another HP1000 Re-host at Verizon

Migration Specialties is please to report a successful HP1000 A900 replacement at a Verizon facility in Ohio. The A900 was replaced with a Strobe Data Kestrel/SX. The replacement team, comprised of engineers from Verizon and Migration Specialties, completed installation and acceptance testing in three days. Most of the components in the legacy HP1000 system were virtualized on the Kestrel platform. Three specialized ASIC cards were retained in the HP1000 I/O chassis and interfaced to the Kestrel with a Legacy Interface Card.

August 11, 2007: Preserving Good Software: Replacing a VAX-based Tooling System pdf version

Read our article, Preserving Good Software: Replacing a VAX-based Tooling System , which describes the tools and techniques Migration Specialties deployed to re-host a VAX-based tooling system for ITT/Gould Pumps. VAX hardware emulation technology made it possible to replace the underlying legacy hardware without impacting the software it supported.

July 20, 2007: HP1000 Re-host at Verizon

Migration Specialties is please to report a successful HP1000 A990 replacement at a Verizon facility in Texas. The A990 was replaced with a Strobe Data Kestrel/QX. The replacement team, comprised of engineers from Strobe Data, Verizon, and Migration Specialties, completed installation and acceptance testing in one week. All components in the legacy HP1000 system were virtualized on the Kestrel platform.

June 28, 2007: Simplification thru Symbols pdf version

DCL procedure development and maintenance can be simplified through judicious use of DCL symbol assignments. Migration Specialties has contributed an article published in the June, 2007 issue of the OpenVMS Technical Journal titled Simplification thru Symbols that outlines how to use symbols to improve DCL procedures and the user interface.