| History of IBM mainframe operating systems |
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On early mainframe computers: On S/360 and successors: |
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Operating System/Virtual Storage 1, or OS/VS1, was an IBM mainframe computer operating system designed to be run on IBM System/370 hardware. It was the successor to the Multiprogramming with a Fixed number of Tasks (MFT) option of System/360's operating system OS/360. OS/VS1, in comparison to its predecessor, supported virtual memory (then called virtual storage).[1] OS/VS1 was generally available during the 1970s and 1980s, and it is no longer supported by IBM.
OS/VS1 was OS/360 MFT II with a single virtual address space; by comparison, OS/VS2 SVS was OS/360 MVT with a single virtual address space. OS/VS1 was often installed on mid-range IBM mainframe systems, such as the System/370 Model 148.[2]
OS/VS1 was intended to manage a medium-sized work load (for the 1970s) consisting only of batch processing applications, running within a fixed number of operating system partitions via the batch job management system Job Entry Subsystem 1 (JES1). This was in contrast to OS/VS2 which was intended to handle larger work loads consisting of batch applications, online interactive users (using the Time Sharing Option, or TSO), or a combination of both. However, OS/VS1 could, and often did, support interactive applications and users by running IBM's CICS transaction processing monitor as a job within one of its partitions.[3]
Installation and modification of OS/VS1 was accomplished via IBM's cumbersome System Generation (SYSGEN) process.
OS/VS1 went through seven product releases. OS/VS1 Release 7 was enhanced by fourth release of the IBM OS/VS1 Basic Programming Extensions (BPE) product. BPE provided support for new 1980s hardware, such as 3380 DASD (disk).
The last OS/VS1 product release, OS/VS1 Basic Programming Extensions (BPE) Release 4, was announced by IBM in 1983 for general availability in March 1984 (product 5662-257, announcement letter 283-266, 15 September 1983).
IBM announced the end of functional enhancements to OS/VS1 in 1984.[4] IBM recommended OS/VS1 installations migrate to MVS/370 or MVS/XA. To assist with the migration to MVS/XA, IBM made the VM/XA Migration Aid. It allowed installations to run OS/VS1 and MVS/XA simultaneously on the same machine, as guests of a third system - VM/XA. This way, the new MVS/XA system could be tested while the old production OS/VS1 system was still in use.