OS/2 Shareware BBS: 14 Text/14-Text.zip/techsem2.zip/TECHSEM2.TXT

Text File | 1991-06-20 | 34KB | 746 lines

  This text was written by Peter Fitzsimmons on June 16, 1991 and
  posted as a series of seven messages in the Fidonet OS2PROG echo
  conference.  The text is collected and posted here in this text
  file for a wider distribution.  Pete Norloff 6/19/91

_____________________________________________________________________

  What follows is a summary of the IBM OS/2 1991 Technical Seminar,
  for an audience I define as  "myself"  (what I would want to read
  if someone else attended in my place).

  This  seminar  is  to be repeated two more times (I think) in the
  USA,   so you can sign up for it yourself if you want.   Included
  with the seminar (to follow later in the summer) is a pre-release
  version of OS/2 2.00,   the IBM Programmer's Workbench,  SoftTerm
  (an asynch terminal program),    and  a  set of 32bit programming
  tools (including IBMs 32bit  C  compiler).    The price is approx
  $1595US.

  If your company will pick up the tab,  go for it.  If you're like
  me and have to fork out these dollars yourself (and  perhaps even
  more significantly: take time off of your current job to attend),
  I'm not sure I would recommend you attend.

  Notes
  -----

  Novel (3.2?) on AIX & OS/2 2.00 will ship sometime late 1992.

  ES/LS (Extended Services/Lan Server) will  run  on  other vendors
  OS/2 1.3/2.0.

  A new copy of OS/2 1.3 is US$150.  To upgrade  from  IBM  PC DOS,
  the cost is US$127 (and you KEEP your DOS license).

  The version of OS/2 2.00 they  had  at the seminar (for demos and
  for us to play with) was 6.140,  released 91/06/02.  It no longer
  has a Microsoft (c) copyright.

  OS/2  2.00  (hereafter  called  "V2")  will  "boot"  an arbitrary
  version of DOS  (such  as  DR  DOS  5.00 or CP/M) from a diskette
  image stored on your hard disk.  The VM (virtual machine) created
  for it thinks  it is booting from drive A:,  so you loose the use
  of physical A: for that session.

  If  you use the supplied DOS,  you get in excess of 647,000 bytes
  of free ram,   with XMS/EMS/MOUSE/NETWORK/CACHE/VDISK all drivers
  present.

  The current release TARGET for V2 is October.    This  is  only a
  target and is not an official release date.

  The ICON Editor comes with the base operating system.

  The FAT file system has been improved (coined "Super FAT"  by the
  presenter):
        - Lazy Writes.
        - Read Ahead Caching.

  V2  can  be  configured with "sticky keys",  so that a one handed
  operator can simulate multiple simultaneous key presses.

  The  session  manager  API is completely documented,  so that you
  can write your own shell program if you want.  You'll be told how
  to init PM and SPOOL.  The  example  given  for  this  was  for a
  customer wishing  to have a very controlled user workstation (one
  where users could not launch applications themselves).  I was not
  able to get the microphone to ask,  but this sounds like it might
  be a way to  boot  V2  without  PM  (I'm  not  sure  if  this  is
  desirable;    since  there is no such thing as a pure 32bit "full
  screen" program. ie: pure 32bit apps are always PM apps.).

  DosQProcStatus() will not be documented.   Mike Kogan (one of the
  better  speakers  at  the  seminar)  was quite amused that I  and
  others were able  to  find  and  use this undocumented API.  He's
  going to take the thought back with him as a user requirement. He
  said DosQProcStatus()  itself  will  never  be  documented,   but
  clearly we do want an API in there so that  we  can enumerate the
  running  processes.       He  told  me  to  use  DosQProcStatus()
  carefully, since it basically  stops  OS/2  while it collects the
  info it returns.   I brought the whole topic up when I discovered
  that the info  returned  from  it  is different from OS/2 1.3 ---
  another very good reason not to use it.

  WinAllocMem(), etc,  are  gone.   You're supposed to use the base
  OS memory functions,  such as DosAllocMem().

  There are some new PM Controls.  A CONTAINER control looks like a
  Windows 3.00 "Program group".   It supports icons,  bitmaps, text
  and date/time.

  A NOTEBOOK control looks like a spiral-binder with little plastic
  tabs  sticking out as bookmarks;  except that  the  tabs  can  be
  sticking out of any edge of the binder.

  The  SLIDER Control looks like something you'd  find  used  as  a
  "balance  control"  on your home stereo.   It is to  be  used  in
  place of a scroll bar which some people were using as a selection
  control,  rather than a scroll control.

  Palette Manager:  This new GPI feature allows a PM application to
  change the PM palette.  PM decides when to  change  the  palette,
  based on which application has the largest portion visible on the
  desktop,  and on which app is in the foreground.     Dithering is
  done for apps farther down in the z-order.  Simple  animation can
  be done by changing the palette.


  Popup Menus are menus that are not  tied  to  a  menu  bar.   For
  example,    a  user can go up to a menu bar,  and "drag" the Edit
  menu down to the middle of  their  document,  where it will stay,
  so that it is "within reach".

  The Font Driver Interface is documented.  This  is  the interface
  that  ATM  (Adobe  Type Manager; included with V2 and V1.3) uses.
  Therefore,  new font  engines  (such as TrueType) can be added to
  work with the font drivers supplied with V2.

  You can change the default font.

  There is a GpiQueryLocicalFont() API  (thank God!  You could only
  GpiSet...() it before).

  More VIO fonts.   128  character  wide  host session supported on
  VGA.

  Future Directions for PM:
       - 32bit PMWIN.DLL.
       - Distributed PM apps (32bit PM apps available  to  286 dos-
       windows workstations,  or non-intel platforms  such  as unix
       via X.11 protocol).

  If OS/2 and/or PM is ported to a new platform or technology (such
  as "NT"),  the 32bit API will remain the same.

  The  toolkit is going to come with  more  (and  better)  samples.
  (I'll believe  it  when  I  see it <g>).  The source code for the
  games included with V2 (for  example, an IBM developed version of
  Solitaire) will come with the toolkit.

  The 32bit C compiler was developed in house by IBM (in Toronto):

       - Full ANSI C compiler.
       - Re-entrant libraries.
       - Consistent across SAA platforms.
       - "lint like" options.
       - DLL support.
       - Optimizing.
       - Asynchronous and in-memory file i/o.
       - floating point libs.
       - Improved memory management.

       After I get  it  (Mid-July  time  frame) I'll tell you if it
       works or not <g>.

  V2 supports 16 bit apps using "LDT Tiling",  where  the 286-style
  pmode segments are mapped onto 386-style flat pages.  Thus the 16
  bit  apps are (ultimately) paging,  not  swapping.    The  entire
  16bit API is present in V2,  and is mapped onto the new 32bit API
  on the fly.

  Much of V2  is  still  written  in  16 bits (more on this later),
  even though the interface to it is the new 32 bit api.

  These  last two points lead to a discussion  of  "THUNKING".    A
  Thunk is a routine that translates a 16  bit  segment:offset pair
  into a 32bit flat offset,  or vice versa.   V2  relies heavily on
  thunking to support the old 16 bit apps,  and to interface 32 bit
  apps  with the portions of V2 which are  still  16  bits  (device
  drivers,  for example).

  Much thought was  put  into  this,   and thunking has very little
  overhead.  The 16bit selectors are assigned so that  a  simple  4
  instruction algorithm can be used to convert it to 32 bits,   and
  back again.  The  conversion  happens at ring 3 (ie: no privilege
  switch is req'd).

  Each  application  space  is 512MB.  This limit is not arbitrary;
  the LDT tiling and Thunking techniques limit it.

  Some Mixed model programs (programs that use both 32bit and 16bit
  APIS) may have to supply their own Thunks.  For  example,   a set
  of PM apps (one 16bit,  the other 32bit) that  want  to send each
  other      WM_USER     messages     will     have     to      use
  WinSetWindowThunkProc(hwnd,  pThunkProc)  to  establish  a  thunk
  procedure to covert any pointers  that are passed back and forth.
  (All system WM_* messages are autoThunked).


  I mentioned that V2 is still  made  up  of some 16bit code.  Here
  are some particulars,  as Mike Kogan told us:

       - The entire kernel is 32bits,  except for the file system.
       - There is  no  32bit DDI (device driver interface) defined,
       therefore all of the  device  drivers  use a 16bit interface
       (but may use 32bit logic internally).
       - Queues are still 16bit.
       - Window Manager (Win...() is still 16bit).
       - GPI/GRE is currently 16bit,  but will be 32bit by the time
       V2 ships.  (This is the  workhorse  of PM,  not the Win...()
       calls).

  GPI is currently coded in 286 asm,  and is being coded in 32bit C
  for portability (and performance).

  The XGA  driver  is  32bit,    exploits  bus mastering,  built in
  windowing support,  hardware managed pointer,  and can operate on
  system memory bitmaps.  (wow -- I can hardly wait  to  see one of
  those new 50MHZ 486 PS/2's running V2).


  Every  thread  now  has an exception handler  (something  like  a
  signal handler).  Thread 1 is a special case;  it handles process
  signals  and  the  Exit  List.     Killing  thread  1  kills  the
  application.

  Only two rings are used now,  ring 0 and ring 3.

  32bit apps can (optionally) let the operating  system dynamically
  grow  the  stack  of a thread,  thus very large  stacks  (in  the
  megabytes) are supported.

  Each VDM (virtual dos machine)  uses 4MB of linear address space.
  A  task switch from one to another is as simple as a register set
  switch, and a page-context switch (ie: it is very fast,  and does
  not require switching the CPU to real mode  as  is  done  in OS/2
  1.x).   The upper 3MB is defined as the "VDM workspace";  I don't
  specifically know what  it  is  used  for;  screen images and the
  like, I would guess.

  Each  VDM  has  access to 16MB of XMS memory, 32MB of EMS memory,
  and 512MB (508 actually) if it is a DPMI app (such as the Windows
  3.0 kernel that is included with V2).

  They assured me that the new semaphore API (for private/anonymous
  semaphores)  are  just  as fast (if  not  faster)  than  the  RAM
  SEMAPHORES that OS/2 1.x supplied.  The reason why  they  can  be
  (sometimes significantly) faster than the old RAM sems is because
  of a brain-damaged  DosClearSem()  in  OS/2  1.x.    I'll  try to
  explain;    if  several threads were blocked on a mutex semaphore
  under 1.x,  DosClearSem() would release ALL of the threads,   the
  scheduler  would  post  them all for execution,  figure out which
  thread had the highest priority,  then re-freeze all of the other
  threads.    OS/2  2.00 will only unblock one thread when a sem is
  cleared.     Apologies  to  Kent  Cedola  who  figured  out  that
  DosEnterCritSec(),  although not  as  elegant,  was,  much of the
  time,  faster than RAM sems.  Now we know why.

  16bit system semaphores are not compatible with any of the new 32
  bit  semaphores.    If a 32bit semaphore needs to use an app that
  uses  an  old  syssem,   it will have to be a mixed 32/16 bit app
  that uses the old API to access that particular sem.

  Named-shared  memory,    because  of  the 386 hardware,  is  much
  faster  than  OS/2  1.x,  since the kernel does not  need  to  be
  involved with memory transfers.

  Standard Dialogs are now  supplied  (thank  God!).  They actually
  look good too.  File Open,  File  Save,  and  Font  Selection are
  supplied.  They are customizable (no details given).

  OS/2 1.x had a separate thread (and process) for swapping;   thus
  swapping required a task switch.  V2 does not.

  There are four types of programs:

   link16-|      Pure 16 bit   |
   link32---|    Mixed 16 bit  |--- 16 bit runtime
            |    Mixed 32 bit   |
            |    Pure 32 bit    |--- 32 bit runtime

  If  you  take  a 16bit application,  and do nothing more than re-
  link  it,    it will become a "mixed 16 bit" EXE,  and will see a
  performance will increase.

  The new 32bit API is "c like" in  the  sense  that  arguments are
  placed on the  stack  from  right  to  left,  and the caller (not
  callee) cleans up the stack.   This  allows the api to be changed
  in the future  (by  adding  new  arguments  at  the  end) without
  breaking existing code (source or binary).

  MOSS  (I  think  this  stands  for   Multiple   Operating  System
  Selection) allows you to boot several operating systems from your
  hard disk.   It is an integral part of FDISK (FDISK,  by the way,
  now has a full screen version  as  well  as a PM version).  There
  are two ways  you  can use it:  1)  have more than one drive "C:"
  on your hard disk,  such that booting  one  of  them  "hides" the
  others.  This is  useful  for  something  that insists on booting
  from C:.  2) Boot from another partition,  such as D:.  OS/2 2.00
  will boot from D: (yiiiiiiippppppppeeeeeeee).  This  later method
  lets  you access the partitions (such as  C:)  that  may  contain
  other bootable operating systems.

  V2 install allows arbitrary source and destination drives.
  It will install over a LAN.
  It has a graphical install program.
  It uses PKZIP technology to speed up installation.
  You can jump to a command prompt at any time during Install.

  CSDs:  Graphical interface,   Lan  support,  Progress indicators,
  Backout procedure.

  Recommended Minimum Configuration:

                      1.2       1.3       2.0
                      -----------------------
       SE             3-5mb     2-4mb     3-5mb
       LAN Requestor  4-7mb     3-6mb     4-7mb

  Applets: Calender and Diary,  Address Book,  Mini-spreadsheet and
  Database,  Calculator,  Alarm Clock,  Business Graphics charting.

  The next beta will have "32bit protected DLLs".  Currently (under
  1.x),   a DLL that has SHARED data per instance can have parts of
  its  dataspace corrupted by a separate  processes.  (It  may  not
  happen often,  but it IS possible).   This  can  even  crash OS/2
  itself.   These new 32bit protected DLLs  will  be  able  to have
  shared data (and/or  be  of  the  "init  global"  flavor)  and be
  uncorruptable.


  A little more about MVDMs
  -------------------------

  Migrate data to/from via  PM  clipboard  (for  win and normal dos
  text apps).

  Named pipe support.

  Bimodal device drivers (real/protected)  are  no  longer required
  (This makes the job of writing an OS/2 DD a lot easier).

  All but 10k of the  640k is available for a DOS app.  This 10k is
  primarily used to support many of  DOS's  undocumented structures
  and features.  (note: The device driver chain  is  not supported;
  not many programs use this --  some  network programs do.  If you
  want this level of compatibility,  simply boot a real  version of
  dos in a VDM).

  Hardware  is  simulated.    The  following  VDDs  (Virtual Device
  Drivers) are supplied:
       - BIOS
       - PIC (interrupt controller)
       - EMS
       - XMS
       - DMA (allows copy protected programs with a  "key  disk" to
       work,  as well as programs like FASTBACK).
       - Virtual CMOS
       - NPX (80x87).

  Some  of  us  speculated that V2  would  contain  a  BCL  (Binary
  compatibility layer).  Apparently  this  was  coded,   but it ran
  like a dog.  Since IBM has a full cross-license for  Windows 3.00
  source,   they simply included it with V2.    They  have  removed
  large chunks of it  (dealing  with  "386  enhanced mode"),  since
  these features are now supplied by V2 itself.   They  also turned
  Windows 3 into a  DPMI  (Dos Protect Mode Interface) client,  and
  it is run  as any other DPMI client is under V2;  except there is
  a few hooks in there to support cut/paste for the clipboard.

  Win 3 runs in "standard mode" under V2.  You can  therefore start
  more than one winapp in a win  3  session,    and  they  will use
  "cooperative muktitasking" <giggle>,  and crash  each  other just
  like they do under real Windows  today.    Or,  you can start one
  winapp per Windows 3 MVDM,   and get pre-emptive multitasking and
  full memory protection.

  Ron Cadima did a side by side V2/Win3 demo for  us.   The Windows
  machine had twice as much memory installed (16mb vs  8mb  on  the
  OS/2 2.00 machine).    The  Win3  machine was configured to be as
  fast as possible (large  smartdrv,  himem,  enhanced  mode, etc).
  The V2 machine  was  using  the  new  SUPER FAT (not hpfs or lazy
  write),  so  as  not to make Win look too bad <g>.   Two programs
  were used for this demo;  a Win3 "disk write" program that writes
  data out to disk a few  hundred  times,   and a Win3 program that
  draws a MAP about a dozen times.   Both  programs  time their own
  execution.

                                Windows   OS/2
                                --------------
       DISK WRITE               28        10
       DRAW MAP                 4         8
       DRAW MAP/DISK WRITE      26        8   (time for map)

  (time in seconds).

  You'll notice that the win machine did one thing  faster  --  the
  drawing of the  map  while  no  other programs were running.  But
  look  at  the  difference when the same program was running while
  the disk write program was running!.

  REXX
  ----

  Not much new here,    except for performance.  When they coverted
  it to 32bit,  they saw a significant (60%?) performance increase.

  There will be an online REXX reference.

  IBM  really  wants  this to be the next "basica",  and spent more
  time talking about it than I wanted to hear. <g>.

  Programmer's Workbench
  ----------------------

  This is a PM program that is extensible.  It reminds me very much
  of Microsoft's PWB program  (which  is NOT a PM program),  except
  that it  does  not  have  a  built  in editor.   There was a demo
  given,  but  it  is  hard  to  judge such things without using it
  yourself.   I saw nothing revolutionary about it.

  Actually,  I found IBMs hyping of this tool  a  little  arrogant.
  They  describe  it  as  the  last  IDE   (integrated  development
  environment)  you'll  ever  use,    and  "of  course" all  future
  compiler vendors will  support  it.      Ten  minutes  later they
  touched on Borland C++,    which will ship with it's own Borland-
  standard  IDE  (but  will probably plug into IBMs workbench as an
  option).

  Except for the  possible  interface to IBMs workbench,  Borland's
  C++/TASM for  OS/2  has  nothing  to do with IBM.  It will not be
  licensed or marketed by IBM.

  Oddly enough,  Zortech  was  one of the guest participants at the
  seminar,  yet they  were  not mentioned in the slides during this
  presentation.  One  of  the attendees (obviously an angry Zortech
  C++ fan) pointed this  out  to the presenter during Q&A.  Zortech
  ships a C++  compiler  for  OS/2  today.  Borland's has a planned
  (but not announced) ship date of 2H92.   Go figure.

  The Borland slide  had  "PM Debugger, PM Profiler, OOP Assembler,
  Resource editor and compiler" listed as features.  Could be good!

  IBM, by the way, will be shipping a PM debugger with  their 32bit
  C compiler.      It  will have a built in PM queue debugger (like
  PMSPY).


  IPF
  ---
  The Information Presentation Facility will have author-controlled
  fonts and horizontal scroll bars.

  Multi-view  support  (for mixed text/graphics  and  motion  video
  support, etc.).

  Extended Services.
  ------------------

  A lot of time  was  spent  talking  about DBM (database manager).
  The most significant new feature is "roll forward".  All and all,
  DBM is still not as good as SQL Server in  my  opinion --- unless
  you are planning to interface to other SAA platforms.  (There are
  ways to do  this  with  SQL  Server  too,    though.  Not all SAA
  platforms,  but you never know).

  There are no plans for an SQL API; we're stuck with  the embedded
  sql  ---  although  the presenter I  asked  about  this  said  he
  recognized the requirement and  the  "mind  set" (like mine) that
  wanted a clean C api.

  A few interesting things  about  CM  (communications manager).  A
  new  feature,    called  LOC  (Lan  Over  Coax)  is a very clever
  feature.      As a result of  embracing  NDIS  (Microsoft/3comm's
  Network Device Interface Standard),   CM/LS  have  gained  a lot.
  This new LOC  feature  allows  you  to  run a LAN using your 3270
  connection card,  over standard coax cabling.  It is not  as fast
  as  a 4mbps token ring,  but it is very good news to people  that
  have a lot of this cable buried in the walls.

  CM  now comes with a real ASCII terminal program.  It is a subset
  of  Softerm  Modular,   from Softronics.  It has a whole bunch of
  terminal emulation modes and file transfer protocols,   including
  IND$FILE (zmodem to arrive  in  late  91).   Softronics has look-
  alike programs for DOS/Windows.  It is not a PM program.

  It looks like we are  still  stuck  with  C:\MUGLIB,    so  it is
  possible that MS Lan Manager will not coexist with ES.

  Network Services/2
  ------------------
  This  is  a new product that will  probably  be  merged  into  ES
  (Extended services).  It may  even  be  part  of  ES  when  it is
  released later this year.  However,  NS/2 is  available  now  (it
  was  just announced recently) for about us$200  (for  EE  1.2  or
  1.3).

  NS/2 is a complete rewrite of APPC,  and much more.

  Bob Trower and I bumped into the presenter,  Steve Joyce,  in the
  demo room the day before his presentation.   As  soon  as he said
  "I've  got  a better APPC",  an alarm went off in  my  head  (Run
  away!    Run  Away!  Run Away!),  and I ditched him as quick as I
  could.   Anyone who has used APPC under EE OS/2 knows how I feel.
  Just configuring it can turn your hair gray.  From  a programming
  viewpoint,    a  mature man can be brought to tears trying to get
  those first few bytes across the  lan.   Named pipes look so much
  better you'll consider  waiting  for them to implement them under
  TSO and/or VM <g>.

  After  Steve's  presentation,    I  had to go back and  apologize
  profusely.    Besides  encapsulating an exciting idea called APPN
  (Advanced Peer to Peer Networking),  NS/2  will install/configure
  over top of CM with three parameters --- you never have to wander
  aimlessly around the CM config screens.

  APPN  is  a  concept  where  you  don't  have to  rigidly  define
  everything.  It is part of SNA/SAA.  It dynamically finds  LUs on
  the  network  and picks the best route,    rather  than  the  way
  something like VTAM works today.

  NS/2  also  has  a new APPC programming  interface  called  CPI-C
  (Common programming interface),   which  supplies  a  100% source
  compatible  APPC  interface   across  all  SAA  platforms  (3090,
  AS/400,etc).   CPI-C is still  not  as  nice as Named Pipes,  but
  Steve  said  they  were  working  in  an   Open/Close  Read/Write
  interface that  most  micro  programmers  can  wrap  their brains
  around.

  APPC has DRASTICALLY improved performance (double),  with reduced
  CPU  usage (50%).  All current OS/2 APPC  apps  gain  from  these
  benefits.    Faster  than Named pipes.  Sends at about 7mbps on a
  16mpbs TRN (under os/2 1.3).

  NS/2 comes with REAL sample programs.

  Besides the simple config (you don't even have to define  the TPs
  if you don't want to!) NS/2 makes the APPC programmer's life much
  easier with better  error  codes.    Before,    if  your ALLOCATE
  failed,  you weren't told WHY.  (It could have been any number of
  things,  like  a  screwed  up  CM config,  bad wiring, programmer
  error,  etc).  NS/2 will tell you why your ALLOCATE failed.  This
  one little  feature  can  potentially  save  days  of programming
  hours.

  NS/2   has  "local-remote  transparency".    This  improves   its
  performance,    but  more  importantly,   lets you write an  APPC
  program with only one computer (one machine debug).

  NS/2 comes with some  utilities  that you may have seen before as
  IBM IUO (Internal  Use  Only)  utilities,   such as an APPC TRACE
  file analyzer.

  I don't plan on rushing out and writing  a  bunch  of  APPC apps,
  but you can tell I liked  NS/2.   I'll perfectly happy with Named
  Pipes most of the time,  and as long as the app is running solely
  on  a lan (no host interaction) I'll continue to use them.  But I
  think NS/2 has drastically  removed  my  fear of programming APPC
  again --- especially when the host programmers and I will be able
  to talk the same language (CPI-C).


  NDIS
  ----
  They went on and on about this.  It was not why I went to an OS/2
  seminar.  If I plan on writing an NDIS driver,  I'll download the
  spec and read it,  thank you very much.

  It was nice to know that 100mbps token ring lans are on their way
  though.

  Further to a  Ethernet/Token  ring argument I've been having with
  some people,  IBM  had  a good real-world example where TR shines
  over  Ethernet.  In their full motion video  (DVI)  work,    they
  found that they could only  have one station running video across
  a  10mbps  Ethernet,   since Ethernet is  a  collision-based  bus
  network.  If they added another workstation,  the video and audio
  would go  out  of  sync,    or  become too choppy to watch.  A 15
  station TR (16mbps) lan had no problem running the same s/w.

  Lan Server (LS) 2.00
  --------------------

  Almost the same as Lan Manager 2.00 <g>.

  The  largest  differences  are in the user  interface  (not  even
  remotely similar) and the fact that LS 2.00 does  NOT  HAVE  PEER
  SERVICES.  (You should have seen me standing there with  my mouth
  open  in disbelief).   They did not even mention it --- I had  to
  ask them the question point blank during Q&A.   They said the way
  MS  implemented  peer  services  was  not  good  enough  for  IBM
  customers.  (So IBM customers get nothing --- go figure).

  For  those  who  don't  know,    Peer  Services  allows  an  OS/2
  workstation  to  become  a  limited  server.  It can server  disk
  resources (one user at a time),  or print  resources  (more  than
  one person at  a  time).  You can't do this with LS 2.00,  so you
  will have to buy the full  blown  server software just to share a
  printer.

  There are some good things to say  about  LS.    The  Net  API is
  allegedly 100% compatible with Lan Manager 2.00 now.

  Since it uses NDIS drivers,  dozens of third party  network cards
  will work with LS now.

  LS has HPFS386 (available with LM about a year ago).   This gives
  much better remote performance,   and has new features like Local
  Security.

  HPFS386, CACHE.EXE,   and the "ring 0 server" (netwksta.sys) have
  an  intimate  relationship.      When  a  request  comes  from  a
  workstation,    the  request has a good chance of being satisfied
  completely in ring 0.  This can drastically improves performance,
  because before it would have taken a round-about route up to ring
  3 (to the main server code)  and  than through the OS/2 kernel to
  the  file  system (at ring 0) and then back up to  ring  3,  etc.
  HPFS386 never even goes through the OS/2 kernel.     Since  local
  applications  run  at  ring 3,  and go though the kernel for file
  system access,  running HPFS386 has no (or very little) effect on
  local application performance.

  Unfortunately,  this  makes  LS 2.00 incompatible with OS/2 2.00!
  After drilling the speaker about it,  she finally agreed  that if
  I used the default HPFS.IFS that  ships  with V2,  there would be
  a  good chance that it will work;  but I'll have to wait till  LS
  2.00 is released to know for sure.

  MS shipped a mutli-processor version of Lan Man to Compaq,  which
  will run on their SystemPro (I'm not sure if it is released yet).
  IBM's multi-processor  version looks better.  Not only is HPFS386
  on the second CPU (as with  the  Compaq  version),  but so is the
  ring  0 server, netbois and the NDIS drivers.    Coupled  with  a
  busmaster Token Ring  card,    it  is possible that a remote data
  request could be satisfied  without  ever using the main cpu.  If
  the data is located on disk (not cached),  then the main CPU will
  be  needed.    However,    since  Microchanel  supports  peer-bus
  masters,  it would be possible  for  the TR card to talk directly
  to something like a bus master SCSI card for the data --- this is
  in the future though.  (is  this  sort  of thing even in the EISA
  spec?).

  LS 2.00 comes  with  all of the disk mirroring/duplexing software
  than LM 2.00 has.  UPS support too.

  One unique feature to LS is "dynamic sharing".  A server does not
  SHARE a device until the first user tries to USE it.

  LS will run on OS/2 SE,  including OEM OS/2 and hardware (Compaq,
  Olivetti, Siemens, Tandy and Zenith were given as examples).

  RIPL (Remote Initial Program Load) is supported for  OS/2.   Each
  RIPL client can have a separate subset of files (config.sys,  for
  example).

  Novel support to be released in  3  phases.  Even after the final
  phase,  netware clients  will  not  have  access to LS/LM servers
  (unless they load two requestors).

  IBM is setting up  a  LS  application certification program (like
  Novel has,  except that IBMs is free).

  A busmaster TR driver will be available for OS/2.    A  benchtest
  showed that with this driver the CPU utilization dropped from 70%
  to 15% on a particular test.


  SPM/2 (System Performance Monitor/2)
  ====================================

  This tool is available now in the US,  and on June 28 in Canada.


  SPM/2 is a combination  of  some separate tools we have seen from
  IBM and elsewhere.   It has a CPU Usage  Monitor,   Physical Disk
  Access meter (by  monitoring  the  disk  DD),  and a Memory Usage
  Monitor.  These three  run  as separate child windows in the same
  PM app.

  The  last  one  looked the most interesting (since we've all seen
  many CPU monitors).   The  Memory  monitor shows many things in a
  combined graph,  so you can clearly see the relationship each has
  with each other.  For example,  the system  will  start  swapping
  the  moment the "working set" of  memory  exceeds  your  physical
  storage.

  SPM/2 receives  its  data  via  a  named  pipe from the DCF (Data
  Collection Facility).  Since it uses a named pipe,   the computer
  you are monitoring can be a remote computer.  The pieces are sold
  separately (SPM/2 with DCF is us$245,  and DCF alone is $75).

  THESEUS is included too (They plan to clean up the user interface
  of it soon).

  The data  can  also  be  dumped to a log or spreadsheet file,  so
  that a remote operator (using something like Netview/DM) can grab
  the data off of the remote servers and analyze it centrally.

  The named pipe data  is  completely documented;  so you can write
  your own real-time apps using the data if you want.

  Since the Disk Activity monitor has a close relationship with the
  disk device driver (disk0?.sys/base0?.sys),  this feature may not
  work with OEM versions of OS/2,    if  the OEM changes the DD and
  does not leave the proper hooks  in.    IBM OS/2 1.2 and 1.3 have
  these hooks today;  someone like Compaq may not have them.

  Multimedia (MM)
  ---------------

  IBM will be shipping beta OS/2 Multimedia extensions this year.

  IBM does not see DOS as a good environment for MM,    so  it will
  not be supported very much.  They will be concentrating on OS/2.

  Since 1991 seems to be the  year  everyone is defining MM,  there
  is  not too much to tell you.  The demonstrations IBM did for use
  were impressive though.

  One thing that caught  my  attention was a 16bit ACPA card (Audio
  Capture and  Playback  Adapter)  which  will  be  compatible with
  SoundBlaster cards.  (Isn't  Compact Disk technology  based  on a
  16bit DAC?  This card will sound awesome).

  MISC
  ----

  OS/2 1.3 contains 1500 source code changes to fix problems in 1.2
  (the last 1.2 CSD fixed 1000 of them).

  IBM is working with the following companies to test ES and/or V2:


       AST      Siemens  Acer          Everex
       Netframe CompuAdd Hewlett       Packard
       Dell     Olivetti Tandy/Grid    Compaq
       AT&T     Epson    Tandon        Reply
       Trichord NEC      NCR           Apricot

  Some new toys were recently announced by IBM:

       - 128MB optical diskette.
       - 8516 Touch screen.    This  monitor  uses a new technology
       called a "Strain Gage" which is built right into the monitor
       glass.  If you look at  an  8516,   it looks EXACTLY like an
       8515.     The  strain  gage  is  NOT based on capacitance or
       resistance,   therefore you can press  on  the  screen  with
       anything you want (pen, gloves,  hammer <g>, etc),  not just
       a human finger.  There are 256 pressure levels.


--- Maximus-CBCS v1.02-OS/2-R5
 * Origin: Fellow with closed mind often has open mouth. (1:250/628.1)