"We're improving a mature operating system with an eye toward continued high performance," said Kriss Rant, product manager for HP's Commercial Systems Division (CSY). "We're making sure that HP 3000 users are well-positioned for the 21st century."

According to Rant, that means more than just readiness for year 2000issues. "MPE/iX 6.0 is year 2000 compliant, of course. It will support a whole new set of date manipulation intrinsics, allowing users to manipulate dates in different formats, add and subtract dates, compare dates, and more."

But Rant focused beyond the turnover of the clock. "Customers continue to tell us that the HP 3000 is one of the best platforms for deploying mission-critical business applications where performance, scalability, high reliability, and ease of use are important. Both established and new customers are making it the bedrock of their IT plans ó in part because the MPE/iX operating system is offering the robust functionality they need."

"It's not always easy to forecast future needs," Rant said, "but we are betting that enhanced functionality in networking, interoperability, and the Internet will make MPE/iX 6.0 an instant favorite with HP 3000 users."

Rant ticked off the enhanced features: "The new ftp component conforms more closely with open standards. Support for 100-BaseT and 100 VG AnyLAN is now available. There's also formal support for Samba/iX and new support for BIND DNS/iX." Some new Internet offerings will be available shortly, including a port of the Netscape FastTrack server. (A demo of the FastTrack server is currently running at HPWorld.)

In addition, 6.0 extends HP's commitment to an important component of Internet computing ó Java-based applications. The Java Virtual Machine, HP's own Just-in-Time compiler, and the Java Development Kit are all bundled into MPE/iX 6.0.

"The Java technology enhancements are important for Internet-related activities, but they are just one part of our enhanced database and application development environment," Rant asserted.

Bundled into 6.0 is support for the 32-bit ODBC driver from M.B. Foster & Associates. This middleware allows sophisticated client-server access to IMAGE/SQL or ALLBASE/SQL from Windows 95 or NT desktops. (Rant noted that additional features for HP 3000 users are available in M.B. Foster's DataExpress product.)

For IMAGE/SQL, a new feature supports indexed sequential access searches, allowing users in client/server environments to look up partial names.

Another new feature allows master datasets to be expanded dynamically in real time. This helps users reconfigure and expand their database capacities without having to take down their system.

Release 6.0 also integrates indexed sequential access with QUERY andTRANSACT, as well as a number of COBOL II enhancements. For ALLBASE/SQL, it adds new functions to make string manipulation easier.

"We're also improving system management by allowing creation of multiple, independent job queues," said Rant. "Previously, all jobs were managed with one job queue. With 6.0, system managers are able to create separate queues for payroll, accounting, manufacturing, and so on. That translates into additional system throughput."

In addition, system managers can now see who's accessing a file using an enhanced version of the LISTF command.

All these enhancements in system management, database/application development, networking, interoperability, and the Internet add up to one thing: easier, more powerful computing on the HP 3000.

"With 64-bit computing on the immediate horizon," concluded Rant, "the functionality and power of MPE/iX will continue to make it the platform of choice."

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