Connect:Direct (previously known as NDM) can only be loosely related to check processing as it just transmits files back and forth. An IBM Check shop uses CPCS (check processing control system) Vector sort (by Sterling), etc.
These are low level programs still shipped in source (at least partially) and run Authorized and preform device control and other non specialized processes. The article seems to have a bunch of information assembled in a random fashion. Either the writer does not understand check processing or the person who provided the information was not clear on the details. It is not clear how microcode fits into this unless they are talking about the 3890 check sorters (unit record devices). Just not enough information to make any sense of what actually occurred. Sam On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 4:00 PM, Ken Porowski <[email protected]> wrote: > <snip> > > HP managers are reaping the harvest of their deep cost-cutting at EDS, > in the form of a massive mainframe failure that crippled some very large > clients, including the taxpayer-owned bank RBS. > > An IBM Z10 at EDS's Stockley Park site, west of London, fell over this > week after vital microcode fixes had not been applied, because all the > qualified staff had been fired. > > Previously the updates would have been applied by the Stockley park > hardware team, who have all been made redundant. > > When EDS' disaster recovery plan kicked in, switching processes to > another Z10 at Mitcheldean in Gloucestershire, a similar lack of > maintenance scuppered the stand-in machine. > > <snip> > > They perform their own microcode updates? > I would have thought there were IBM CE's for that as part of 'normal' > maintenance charges. > Or maybe they just didn't give IBM the machine time? > > What sort of microcode fix (if not applied) causes an otherwise working > machine to crash? > > The way this was written kid of negates the 'Mainframes never crash' > (from a hardware perspective) idea. > > > -----Original Message----- > McKown, John > > From The Register (Vulture Central). > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/17/eds_mainframe/ > > > > Two z10s crashed in the UK due to lack of microcode maintenance. The > first one crashed. This caused a DR roll over to the second one, which > then also crashed. I don't know how an application can cause a microcode > problem. Likely a misstatement due to lack to knowledge. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
