Radoslaw Skorupka wrote:
>Semantics. Yes, there is (was) a controller between host and device.
>Control Unit ;-) It was A06, A60, J70, C07, etc.
>But it was a controller, not virtualisation engine. No data was stored
>on CU disks, MVS wrote (in)directly to real drive, number of devices was
>a number of physical drives. Capacity od MVS volume was a capacity of
>real tape cart (with compression of course).

Not *exactly*. The libraries do their own thing (often virtualized), the
drives have buffered for a long time (and now there's a bigger and much
more sophisticated buffer), and starting with the TS1120 the drives do
their own onboard cryptographic enciphering/deciphering, all of which the
operating systems don't especially know about or have to know about.

Over time certain application functions become middleware, certain
middleware functions become part of the operating system, certain operating
system functions become part of the firmware, and certain firmware
functions become part of the physical hardware. Everything gets pushed
down, compressed inward, for robustness and richer functionality that's
easier to consume, manage, and share across more use cases. It's a long
running story that has been underway for decades, and I'm confident it will
continue.

>TS7700 is VTS. Different animal. A lot of differences. It can work even
>without physical tapes.

Stipulated, and thank goodness for that! "Y'all" would be very upset with
IBM if IBM weren't constantly raising the bar and delivering more value for
money. The TS7720 is your much smarter controller.

....But if you want a less talented controller for some reason(s), then
please let your friendly IBM representative know. As far as I know there
haven't been any use cases taken away or diminished. Quite the opposite.
But if I'm wrong, and if there's something you can't do with the TS7720
plus TS1150 at least as well as you did with the old controller, let IBM
know the details officially, please.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy Sipples
IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM z Systems, AP/GCG/MEA
E-Mail: [email protected]

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