VSE
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This page is about the z/VSE operating system. For other uses see VSE (disambiguation).
z/VSE (Virtual Storage Extended) is an operating system for IBM mainframe computers. Primary development occurs in IBM's Böblingen, Germany, labs. It is less common than z/OS and is mostly used on smaller machines. It is the successor to VSE/ESA, VSE/SP, DOS/VSE, DOS/VS and DOS/360. Thus, z/VSE traces its roots back to the mid-1960s System/360.
z/VSE originally supported 24-bit addressing. As the underlying hardware evolved, z/VSE acquired support for 31-bit addressing. IBM previewed z/VSE Version 4 with expected availability in 2007. z/VSE Version 4 will better exploit z/Architecture's 64-bit design.
IBM still recommends that z/VSE customers run Linux on zSeries alongside, on the same physical system, to provide another 64-bit application environment that can access and extend z/VSE applications and data via Hipersockets using a wide variety of middleware.
JCS (Job Control Statements) are z/VSE's batch processing interfaces. There is also a special interface used by system console operators. CICS, one of the most popular enterprise transaction processing systems, is extremely popular among z/VSE users and now supports recent innovations such as Web services. DB2 is also available and popular.
z/VSE, like z/OS systems, has traditionally supported 3270 terminal user interfaces. However, most z/VSE users have at least begun to add Web browser access to z/VSE applications. z/VSE's TCP/IP is a separately priced option for historic reasons and is available in two different versions from two vendors, including through IBM sales. Most z/VSE sites do add TCP/IP.
z/VSE celebrated its 41st birthday in March, 2006. The latest shipping release (as of June, 2006) is z/VSE 3.1. z/VSE 3.1 added support for more affordable SCSI storage devices. z/VSE 3.1 is still compatible with 31-bit mainframes and does not require a z/Architecture server, but z/VSE Version 4 will require a 64-bit mainframe.
