What's New at Migration Specialties?

November 14, 2011: Avanti 2.1 Released

Migration Specialties is pleased to announce the release of Avanti 2.1. This release supports multiple instances of Avanti on a single host system. Read about it, our Charon Trade-in Program, and more breaking news in the November Avanti Newsletter.

October 20, 2011: Avanti 2.1 in Beta

Avanti 2.1 is in beta testing. This and other Migration Specialties product developments appear in the October Avanti Newsletter.

September 28, 2011: How the VAX Lost Its POLY

Migration Specialties has been validating its Mayfair VAX emulator and SimH VAX using the VAX Architectural Exerciser (AXE). AXE test results for SimH have been supplied to Bob Supnik, creator of SimH. Bob has published the paper How the VAX Lost Its POLY, a treatise on floating point instructions on the VAX and a bug uncovered in SimH during AXE testing.

September 14, 2011: Proving the Case for Legacy Equipment

Sourcingfocus.com has published the Maindec article Proving the Case for Legacy Equipment. The article discusses the need for careful evaluation of options and costs when considering legacy hardware replacement.

July 1, 2011: Virtual VAX Development Begins

Development of our commercial virtual VAX solution has begun. Mayfair will emulate a VAX 3900. Follow-on products will emulate other VAX models. Visit our Virtual VAX & Alpha Development page for the latest development news.

June 23, 2011: Avanti Golden Egg Released

Matti Patari has produced a Avanti Golden Egg. We are pleased to be added to a pantheon of Golden Eggs covering over 30 years worth of OpenVMS hardware.

June 21, 2011: Avanti ™ and FreeAXP™ V2.0 Released

Avanti™ and FreeAXP™ 2.0 has been released. This version of Avanti has reached our stated performance goal of 55 VUPs on a dedicated performance test system. This same system has been used without modification to its hardware or O/S to produce all published performance results to date, thus guarantying consistent performance data. FreeAXP users can visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links. Avanti customers will receive download links via e-mail. Avanti users will see a 6% - 12% performance improvement over the V1.1.0.351.

May 23, 2011: VAX 6000 ERP System Replacement

Migration Specialties has successfully replaced a VAX 6000-320 supporting a U.S. based electronics fabricator's ERP applications. The applications are in daily use and the company plans to expand their utilization. Performance and reliability were key factors in the decision to move to a virtual VAX solution. The port was conducted over two days at the client facility. The port was accomplished using SimH VAX and an HP Proliant DL160. Application performance improved over 1000% as a direct result of the hardware upgrade.

May 17, 2011: Dunn & Bradstreet Interface

Migration Specialties recently completed a custom interface that allows an Integrity OpenVMS COBOL/BASIC application to query a secured DNB web interface for DUNNs reports. The query is implemented using an XML formatted request to an https site. The data is returned in XML format, which the OpenVMS interface parses to extract the data elements.

May 2, 2011: More Tru64 Builds Boots

Digital UNIX V3.2G, V4.0B, and V4.0E have been added to the list of UNIX builds certified under FreeAXP and Avanti.

April 27, 2011: AnywhereUSB

Maindec reports success using the Digi AnywhereUSB appliance to serve an Avanti license key to a VMware instance hosting Avanti. Using the appliance, Maindec demonstrated a Vmotion migration of a running virtual Alpha from one host server to another. This combination of products make for a more robust, flexible customer solution. Contact Mark at Maindec for additional information.

March 3, 2011: FreeAXP™ V1 351

Avanti™ and FreeAXP™ release 1.3.0.351 is now available. This release provides a common Configuration Utility and User Guide that cover all Migration Specialties virtual Alpha products. Avanti performance improves 3% - 8% in this release. FreeAXP users can visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links. Avanti customers will receive download links via e-mail.

March 1, 2011: Integrity Migration

Migration Specialties, HvdH Performance Consulting, and PSDS cooperated to successfully deliver an OpenVMS migration for a medium U.S. based financial company. The migration involved moving BASIC, COBOL, C, Macro-32 Datatreive, ACMS, TDMS, and Oracle Rdb applications and data from three mixed VAX/Alpha clusters to a single Integrity cluster. A proof of concept migration using the client's development cluster was delivered in one week. The full migration was completed over several months, allowing the client's development team plenty of time to test applications and clean up a 20 years worth of obsolete routines and expedient patches. The resulting migrated and sanitized code is projected to last at least another decade.

February 23, 2011: MicroVAX ERP System Replacement

Migration Specialties has successfully replaced a MicroVAX 3100-95 supporting a large U.K. manufacturer's legacy ERP applications. The applications remain in daily use. The port was conducted over three days without disrupting production at the client facility. The port was accomplished using SimH VAX. The host system supporting the virtual VAX was itself a VMware virtual system.

December 17, 2010: Avanti Backup Key Improved

We had a customer request regarding using the Avanti Backup Key for both general and disaster recovery (DR) testing. This just made all kinds of sense, so we have updated our Backup Key policies to provide these benefits. Purchase a backup key and maintain a current support contact and the key becomes a useful tool for maintaining your virtual Alpha environment.

Highlights of the new policy include:

• Means to test host system O/S and hardware updates without impacting the primary system.
• Means to conduct Disaster Recovery (DR) testing without impacting the host system.
• Annual refresh to 720 hours regardless of usage with an active support contract. Note: The refresh is not cumulative. A Backup Key containing 320 remaining hours will be refreshed to 720 hours, not 1040 hours.

You will find all the details in the updated Virtual Alpha Pricing Guide.

December 1, 2010: Avanti Priced in Euros

Avanti pricing is now available in both US dollars and Euros. See the Virtual Alpha Pricing Guide for details.

October 25, 2010: AvantiFlex™ Release

AvantiFlex will release on November 4, 2010. AvantiFlex is a customer configurable version of Avanti. Customers that do not require the full power of Avanti, but need some of its features, can create an al la carte Avanti configuration with just the components they require at a reduced cost. Visit our Virtual Alpha page for additional information.

October 6, 2010: FreeAXP™ Beta 307

FreeAXP™ Beta 1.2.0.307 is now available. This release provides a 1% - 8% performance improvement, a 16 fold network performance improvement, and provides DE435 NIC support. Visit the FreeAXP page for download, documentation, and forum links.