Century Enabled VS™ Software
Overview
The Century Server™ product, commonly called the CSP, is Wang's VS Operating Environment for the Year 2000 and beyond. The CSP includes a Year 2000 compliant version of the VS Operating System (OS) plus additional tools to facilitate administration and operation of systems and Wang's Server software to facilitate integration of PC desktop clients with the VS. This common core of year 2000 compliant software will help Wang's VS customers operate their VS systems well into the next century.

The CSP will totally replace the traditional VS Operating System by January 1, 2000. Wang recommends that customers transition to the CSP, and year 2000 compliant versions of other Wang products, as early as possible in order to allow sufficient time to convert any customer applications that need enabling.

Wang will continue to provide limited support for current VS OS baselines and will continue to support these products through 1999. While limited bug fixes will be made on an as needed basis to the current 7.2X, 7.4X and 7.5X OS baselines, the bulk of the development effort will be focused on VS OS 7.53 and its successor versions. OS 7.53 is the key component in the CSP.

CSP Objectives

The CSP, focused on the needs of the VS customer past year 2000, has the following general objectives:


CSP Content

The VS CSP includes the following component items:

This OS includes all of the features, tools and utilities traditionally associated with the VS OS plus year 2000 compliance features.






The initial release of CSP includes these products as discrete components. By having a common base structure for future VS Operating Systems, Wang will be able, over time, to better integrate each of these key applications into the VS Operating System.

The VS CSP is implemented as a new set of products due to the bundling of multiple components. This product must be licensed on all systems. Licenses are controlled and locked to specific VS processors.

Year 2000 features in VS OS Release 7.53

The heart of the CSP is OS release 7.53. This release provides a full set of year 2000 features, including proper management of file creation, update and expiration dates. It includes a full range of year 2000 services.

Although there are several thousand internal changes in this OS in order to achieve year 2000 compliance, few will be readily or directly visible to the user. Existing applications should run without problems, although the applications themselves may need to be updated to properly deal with 4 digit years. The primary concern would be those rare cases where the customer uses applications to directly access and/or manipulate control block structures.

The most important change is in the definition of file creation/update and delete dates in disk VTOCs. Restructuring the disk VTOC to incorporate century in the dates would have a profound impact on operations. It would mean that every disk would need to be reformatted, and almost every program recompiled. The impact of such a change would greatly complicate year 2000 transitions. Wang chose a practical alternate approach which assumes that when a year greater than 50 is found on the VTOC, it will be treated as 1900 plus the year. If the year is less than 50 it will be treated as 2000 plus the year. Most application access to this structure is invisible. Operator console screens display the full 4-digit year.

This approach may have an impact upon some customer procedures, especially where a file expiration date is set to 12/31/99 implying "keep forever". In fact, after January 1, 2000 such files will be eligible for deletion.

Acquiring the VS CSP

Wang will provide an upgrade for any properly licensed VS system which can be upgraded to be year 2000 enabled in accordance with Wang's policies. If the system is covered under an existing, valid and current Wang Software Support Contract, the customer may be able to obtain a copy of the software at no additional charge as a benefit of the contract. Contract customers should contact the VS Support Center to arrange for delivery of the CSP. This upgrade offer will expire on June 30, 1998.

Other customers may purchase a per-incident update. Wang is also offering special promotional pricing on upgrades to VS systems when the customer purchases a two-year non-cancelable hardware and software support contract. Customers in this category should contact Wang Telesales at 1-800-639-9264 for ordering assistance.

Supported VS Models

VS OS release 7.53 has certain internal hardware requirements including the ability to support virtual address space above 16MB. This means that some of Wang's oldest processors can not support this VS OS release and thus will not be Year 2000 compliant.
Supported Models include:

VS 16000 Models 750 and 850
VS 12000 Models 450 and 650
VS 10000 Models 50, 75 and 100 And VS 12550
VS 300, 7000, 8000 and 9000 all models

The above high-end models provide unrestricted configuration up to the limits of the OS. Actual performance of the CPU may dictate a lower user population.

VS 6000 and 6230 including VS 6230 Turbo
VS 5000 all models

VS 6000 models support configuration of a maximum of 256 logical workstations, however many installed VS 6000 systems may have hardware keys that limit their OS usage to a lower level.

VS 5000 systems are hardware limited to 128 or fewer workstations depending upon the processor model.

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