Others have already covered some of the points and there is more about the history of z/TPF here - (I won't repeat what's already mentioned Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_Processing_Facility [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/IBM_logo.svg/1200px-IBM_logo.svg.png]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_Processing_Facility> Transaction Processing Facility - Wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_Processing_Facility> Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) is an IBM real-time operating system for mainframe computers descended from the IBM System/360 family, including zSeries and System z9. TPF delivers fast, high-volume, high-throughput transaction processing, handling large, continuous loads of essentially simple transactions across large, geographically dispersed networks. en.wikipedia.org The key points about TPF were very high availability (Tightly and Loosely Coupled systems - Parallel Sysplex came many years after 'TPF' in its various guises and used the same 'timing' technology used by TPF), very high transaction rates, very fast IPL - over a minute was too long, ability to share data records with the multi-path locking facility in the early IBM DASD sub-systems. At the risk of starting more discussion/debate, some general points not covered by Wikipedia: 1. TPF workloads requiring very high I/O rates , there has always been an option to get more than the standard number of I/O processors (SAPs). I believe, with today's cycle time and capacity of processing units, this is less of a concern. 2. CPSIME was a 'mini' version of the Airlines Control Program (ACP) specially developed for small airlines and ran on DOS/VSE. It then transitioned to ALCS running on 'MSV' or z/OS, as we know it today 3. During the late 80's TPF sysprogs and application developers (mainly assembler) were in very high demand and some managed to get eye-watering salaries đŸ™‚. This was basically due to lack of skills and the high demand for these were driven by the new players in the Global Distribution Systems (GDS. to you and me, commonly known as reservation systems). The key players at that time were Amadeus, Galileo and a large European railway company. 4. Over time, due to consolidations etc. the number of TPF sites have not increased and a lot of airlines have 'outsourced' their reservation and departure control systems to the major GDSes. Some of the 'fares' component has been off loaded to alternative platforms. 5. With the concept of 'good enough' computing, high availability and 'sub-second' response times with associated costs are not attractive to today's budget airlines who are using other platforms for reservations. Regards Parwez Hamid​ ________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Radoslaw Skorupka <[email protected]> Sent: 20 March 2021 00:03 To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: z/TPF questions I know the IBM-MAIN forum is mostly about z/OS, but I wanted to ask about about z/TPF - it seems to be on topic. z/TPF TPF is the system I have never seen. I'm pretty sure there is no TPF installation in Poland. However I'm curious about the following: 1. What is typical size of TPF system? I mean MIPS sizing. Is it huge or rather small? 2. Does TPF typically run in bare LPAR or it is usually run under z/VM, like z/VSE is? 3. What is the pricing of TPF? 3.1 Is it just single price per system, I mean no paid optional features like in z/OS? 3.2 Is it expensive? I heard, it is much more expensive, when compared to z/OS running on the same MIPS base. 4. Any special settings in LPAR definitions? I remember about specia LPAR mode - ESA/TPF or so. However I don't know any explanation of the difference. 5. Does it use regular CP's only? Or maybe there are some workloads applicable to zIIP or even other processors? 6. Does it use SAP processors more extensively than other OSes? I heard about it. 7. Does exist any z/TPF forum like IBM-MAIN? 8. What are known customers? I'm not asking about company secrets, but I know (knowledge publicly available) about Citi, Marriott, VISA, BofA, American Airlines, BA, Sabre, Amadeus and some more. Any other known notable customers? Banks? ATMs? Reservations? Hotels? Anything else? Any clue will be appreciated. I have to secret plan, I just want to learn about it. Just curiosity. -- Radoslaw Skorupka (looking for new job) Lodz, Poland ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
