"IBM could totally rearchitect NIP" is a phrase that - I'm guessing - explains our reluctance to do it.
I DON'T speak for Development but I suspect touching IPL / NIP is something done with extreme caution. But it needs articulating in the usual manner why this is even worthwhile. Cheers, Martin Martin Packer, zChampion, Principal Systems Investigator, Worldwide Banking Center of Excellence, IBM +44-7802-245-584 email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker Blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/MartinPacker From: John McKown <john.archie.mck...@gmail.com> To: IBM-MAIN@listserv.ua.edu Date: 08/04/2014 02:27 Subject: Re: Logical Choices (was: ISPF dynamically allocating dataset with DISP=OLD?) Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@listserv.ua.edu> In case anybody is interested. I looked at the RedHat Fedora "initramfs" which is the "boot image" used by the GRUB boot loader to start up my Linux/Intel system at home. This is basically a compressed archive. The file itself is 41 meg compressed. It expands to 103 meg. The boot loader in Linux creates a RAM resident file system image and then extracts the files in the "boot image" into the RAM disk. It then runs a program in that system, passing it the "IPL parms". This RAM resident file system contains all the drivers necessary to boot the full Linux kernel and start up the system. This "boot image" is what I think of as being conceptually equivalent to NIP on z/OS. IBM could totally rearchitect NIP to do something similar. In the past, this would not have worked because the main memory was too small. Now, I would guess that the main hold up is not really technical, but marketing. Show of hands: Who is willing to increase the license cost of z/OS on their machine by 2% to rewrite IPL & NIP to do this? OK, now another show of hands for those willing to pay 5% more for FBA support (FICON attached). Good? What about another 5% to support iSCSI or SAN attached disk, like z/VM does? Note that none of these changes will result in your applications running faster. They may or may not, who knows? None of these changes will add any new functionality for user applications. So, any takers for about a 10% hike in fees _just_ to support FBA or SAN disk? On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 8:03 PM, Clark Morris <cfmpub...@ns.sympatico.ca>wrote: > On 7 Apr 2014 10:41:50 -0700, in bit.listserv.ibm-main you wrote: > > >>Why is it that SYS1.NUCLEUS can't be a PDSE? SYS1.LINKLIB? > >>SYS1.LPALIB, SYS1.PARMLIB? Could it be the short sighted and inadequate > implementation? > > > >Common Clark. You should already know that NIP is too early in the IPL > process to use PDSEs. > > I doubt that anyone would object to a 10 megabyte IPL text (and 1 > should be sufficient) that would know what to do with a PDSE. The > problem is the same shortsightedness that caused the MVS developers > not to support FBA devices for at least the FBA file types (VSAM, > PDSE, Unix, Linear, etc.). I find it ludicrous that the code that > runs a vital service is a started task. Even if it makes sense for > the full complement of PDSE functionality to be in a started task at > IPL time, it makes no sense to not have the code needed to read PDSEs > available at NIP and IPL time. > > For those who think 1 megabyte is a large amount of space in these > days, take a look at how many megabytes of solid state storage can be > bought for $100 in the consumer market, and how many more of portable > spinning storage. While z reliability needs would make that storage a > lot more expensive it still would probably be pennies per megabyte. > > Clark Morris > > > >Bob Shannon > >Rocket Software > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
