Software Announcements

IBM has announced the following program features for TPF.

Transaction Processing Facility Database Facility Distributed Data Access Feature

IBM has announced a new feature, Distributed Data Access (DDA) for TPFDF. DDA is designed to facilitate the coexistence of a TPFDF hierarchical database with the relational technology of DATABASE 2 (DB2). TPFDF/DDA provides the ability to propagate data selectively from TPFDF to DB2 which is a key component in IBM's System Application Architecture (SAA) data strategy.

DDA enables changes made by an application program to a TPFDF database to be applied simultaneously or asynchronously to a DB2 table. Instructions for mapping and applying the changes are provided by the database administrator and are transparent to the application. The replicated data can then be accessed using structured query language (SQL) statements. DDA facilitates the coexistence of TPFDF and DB2 by allowing DB2 technology to be used for applications which need access to data which resides in a TPFDF database and where it is not sufficient to extract data periodically and create a DB2 table. Coexistence is important for the following reasons:

• Having a separate copy of the data in DB2 tables allows business users to access operational data without impairing the performance of the operational system.
• Existing TPFDF customers can take advantage of relational DB2 technology for new decision-support applications using source data from TPFDF.
• Customers can now decide on the most appropriate system for new operational and decision-support applications based on their business system strategy and not on the limitations of access to existing data.
• Provides a path for the migration of TPFDF data to an SAA platform.

Planned availability date for the feature is July 31, 1992. Contact your local IBM marketing representative for additional details and information on TPFDF/DDA.

Transaction Processing Facility Application Requester

IBM has announced a new feature the Transaction Processing Facility Application Requester. TPFAR allows users to share data between a DATABASE 2 (DB2) relational database and a TPF application using the common structured query language (SQL) interface. With TPFAR, a TPF application can directly access and update information residing on the remote DB2 system. TPFAR conforms to IBM's Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA).

The competitive advantage of making decisions based on timely and flexible access to information is critical to profitability. TPFAR is a key step towards satisfying the customer requirement for obtaining flexibility in the usage of relational type data and provides the customer with improved TPF and MVS/ESA coexistence.

TPFAR allows the user to combine the performance characteristics of TPF with the enterprise-wide information capability of timely DB2 database access for decision making. Customers that have implemented connectivity from TPF to MVS/ESA no longer have to develop, maintain, or migrate this costly software, and can concentrate information systems development on business functions that yield higher profitability.

Planned availability date for the feature is July 31, 1992. Contact your local IBM marketing representative for additional details and information on TPFAR.