AIX/370 to be upgraded to AIX/ESA version 2.X

The current version of AIX/370 will be replaced with AIX/ESA in 
January 1994.  The sooner we are able to upgrade the better, from a 
vendor support view, as we are currently running on an unsupported 
level of the AIX/370 operating system.  As a result we will be making 
every effort to have AIX/ESA available at the beginning of Fall 
Quarter.

The BAD NEWS

Now for the bad news.  At this point there is no guarantee that 
AIX/370 executables will run under AIX/ESA version 2.2.  What this 
means is that any program currently being run on the AIX/370 site 
named "zeus", must be converted to run under either AIX 3.2 on the 
RISC/System 6000 sites, converted to run under AIX/ESA version 2.2 on 
the replacement site for "zeus" (we currently plan to name this new 
site "piano" in keeping with the musical theme), or converted to run 
on a non-AIX platform.

At this point, the worst possible language to convert is FORTRAN 66.  
AIX version 3.2 on the RISCs supports FORTRAN 77 and above; it does 
NOT support FORTRAN 66.

The replacement FORTRAN on AIX/ESA will still be a VS-FORTRAN compiler 
similar to the compiler on the site "zeus".  This means that FORTRAN 
66 code will still be usable, but may require some changes and may not 
be usable during the first few weeks of Fall Quarter.

The GOOD NEWS

All of the test results we have seen show that AIX/ESA is much more 
reliable than AIX/370 has been.  The Office of Academic Computing at 
UCLA has run their AIX/ESA in an environment similar to ours for up to 
a month without a hitch (they took it down at that point on purpose).  
They also indicate that the compilers generate more efficient code and 
that the system seems to perform better than the old AIX/370 system.

For assistance when porting your code contact Academic Computing 
Services at x-2516.  Our time will be limited as we will also be 
converting programs to run under the RISCs or AIX/ESA; as a result, 
the assistance may be limited to helping debug problems and pointing 
to possible alternatives or on an as available basis.