MVS - Closely Related Operating Systems

Closely Related Operating Systems

Japanese mainframe manufacturers Fujitsu and Hitachi both repeatedly and illegally obtained IBM's MVS source code and internal documentation in one of the 20th century's most famous cases of industrial espionage. Fujitsu relied heavily on IBM's code in its MSP mainframe operating system, and likewise Hitachi did the same for its VOS3 operating system. MSP and VOS3 were heavily marketed in Japan, where they still hold a substantial share of the mainframe installed base, but also to some degree in other countries, notably Australia. Even IBM's bugs and documentation misspellings were faithfully copied. IBM cooperated with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in a sting operation, reluctantly supplying Fujitsu and Hitachi with proprietary MVS and mainframe hardware technologies during the course of multi-year investigations culminating in the early 1980s—investigations which implicated senior company managers and even some Japanese government officials. Amdahl, however, was not involved in Fujitsu's theft of IBM's intellectual property. Any communications from Amdahl to Fujitsu were through "Amdahl Only Specifications" which were scrupulously cleansed of any IBM IP or any references to IBM's IP.

Subsequent to the investigations, IBM reached multi-million dollar settlements with both Fujitsu and Hitachi, collecting substantial fractions of both companies' profits for many years. Reliable reports indicate that the settlements exceeded US$ 500,000,000. The three companies have long since amicably agreed to many joint business ventures. For example, in 2002 IBM and Hitachi collaborated on developing the IBM z800 mainframe model.

Because of this historical copying, MSP and VOS3 are properly classified as "forks" of MVS, and many third party software vendors with MVS-compatible products were able to produce MSP- and VOS3-compatible versions with little or no modification.

When IBM introduced its 64-bit z/Architecture mainframes in the year 2000, IBM also introduced the 64-bit z/OS operating system, the direct successor to OS/390 and MVS. Fujitsu and Hitachi opted not to license IBM's z/Architecture for their quasi-MVS operating systems and hardware systems, and so MSP and VOS3, while still nominally supported by their vendors, maintain most of MVS's 1980s architectural limitations to the present day. Since z/OS still supports MVS-era applications and technologies—indeed, z/OS still contains most of MVS's code, albeit greatly enhanced and improved over decades of evolution—applications (and operational procedures) running on MSP and VOS3 can move to z/OS much more easily than to other operating systems.

Read more about this topic:  MVS

Famous quotes containing the words closely related, closely, related, operating and/or systems:

    Lust and self-mutilation are closely related impulses. There are also self-mutilators among knowers: they do not want to be creators under any circumstances.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    The content of a thought depends on its external relations; on the way that the thought is related to the world, not on the way that it is related to other thoughts.
    Jerry Alan Fodor (b. 1935)

    ... the modern drama, operating through the double channel of dramatist and interpreter, affecting as it does both mind and heart, is the strongest force in developing social discontent, swelling the powerful tide of unrest that sweeps onward and over the dam of ignorance, prejudice, and superstition.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    The only people who treasure systems are those whom the whole truth evades, who want to catch it by the tail. A system is just like truth’s tail, but the truth is like a lizard. It will leave the tail in your hand and escape; it knows that it will soon grow another tail.
    Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)