gtpc3m07Concepts and Structures


About This Book

This book is a comprehensive technical overview of the Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) system. The book can also be used in an initial technical evaluation of the TPF system as a solution to a high-performance, transaction-driven, communications-based business system.

The Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) system is an Enterprise Systems Architecture (ESA) operating system that provides a responsive solution to online processing required in many business enterprises. In a TPF system, transactions are characterized by short messages that cause the instantaneous retrieval and usual modification of information related to business activity. The system has wide acceptance within the airlines industry for making seat reservations, but is also used for non-airline applications that require the use of terminals and workstations to access and modify information necessary to conduct a business or run an enterprise.

The TPF system emphasizes maximum performance. Performance means a response to the end user, who is an agent or customer of the business, within a few seconds or less. The unique system software is designed to accept very large transaction volumes from large populations of terminals and workstations attached through communication networks.

In this book, abbreviations are often used instead of spelled-out terms. Every term is spelled out at first mention followed by the all-caps abbreviation enclosed in parentheses; for example, Systems Network Architecture (SNA). Abbreviations are defined again at various intervals throughout the book. In addition, the majority of abbreviations and their definitions are listed in the master glossary in the TPF Library Guide.

Before You Begin

The reader needs a minimum of prerequisite knowledge but is presumed to have some experience with operating systems. The following list of terms is given to suggest the type of background that is assumed (however, you are not expected to know everything):

multiprogramming multiprocessing
SVC channel
start subchannel (SSCH) linkage editor
interrupts operating system
batch job load module
source code CSECT
DSECT data declaration
object code macro
virtual memory dynamic address translation.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is intended for:

How This Book is Organized

The organization of this book is such that an overview of the system is presented first, followed by chapters that provide additional detail for the concepts and functions introduced in the overview. Moreover, the attempt is to highlight how the TPF system differs from other transaction processing oriented operating systems. It is suggested that all readers start with Introduction to the TPF System.

The relationship of the different chapters in this book is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Relationship of Chapters in Concepts and Structures


Conventions Used in the TPF Library

The TPF library uses the following conventions:

Conventions Examples of Usage
italic

Used for important words and phrases. For example:

A database is a collection of data.

Used to represent variable information. For example:

Enter ZFRST STATUS MODULE mod, where mod is the module for which you want status.


bold Used to represent text that you type. For example:

Enter ZNALS HELP to obtain help information for the ZNALS command.

Used to represent variable information in C language. For example:

level

monospaced Used for messages and information that displays on a screen. For example:
    PROCESSING COMPLETED

Used for C language functions. For example:

    maskc

Used for examples. For example:

    maskc(MASKC_ENABLE, MASKC_IO);
bold italic Used for emphasis. For example:

You must type this command exactly as shown.

Bold underscore Used to indicate the default in a list of options. For example:

Keyword=OPTION1 | DEFAULT

Vertical bar | Used to separate options in a list. (Also referred to as the OR symbol.) For example:

Keyword=Option1 | Option2

Note:
Sometimes the vertical bar is used as a pipe (which allows you to pass the output of one process as input to another process). The library information will clearly explain whenever the vertical bar is used for this reason.
CAPital LETters Used to indicate valid abbreviations for keywords. For example:

KEYWord=option

Scale Used to indicate the column location of input. The scale begins at column position 1. The plus sign (+) represents increments of 5 and the numerals represent increments of 10 on the scale. The first plus sign (+) represents column position 5; numeral 1 shows column position 10; numeral 2 shows column position 20 and so on. The following example shows the required text and column position for the image clear card.
|...+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7...
 
LOADER   IMAGE CLEAR
 

Notes:

  1. The word LOADER must begin in column 1.

  2. The word IMAGE must begin in column 10.

  3. The word CLEAR must begin in column 16.

Related Information

A list of related information follows. For information on how to order or access any of this information, call your IBM representative.

IBM Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) 4.1 Books

IBM Enterprise Systems Architecture/370 (ESA/370) Books

IBM Enterprise Systems Architecture/390 (ESA/390) Books

Miscellaneous IBM Books

Online Information

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