WVNET in the Early '80s

January 2, 1980

WVNET replaced the Nasco AS/5 with an Amdahl V/7A computer. This was a major upgrade in WVNET computing resources. The V/7A was almost five times more powerful than the AS/5. Originally the V/7A was used to run VM and VS1. Planning was started to migrate MVT from the 360/75 to the V/7A. WVNET intended to run both VS1 and MVT under VM. The AS/5 was retired from service at this time, but was to be seen again. The V/7A was a 4.5 MIPS (Millions of Instructions Per Second) machine with eight megabytes of main storage.

March 1980

The IBM 360/75 was finally retired from service. MVT was moved under VM on the Amdahl V/7A. The passing of an era had occurred and many people could look back fondly on the long period of time when the 360/75 had served WVNET well.

September 1980

WVNET replaced the NIH Wylbur text-editing system with OBS WYLBUR from Online Business Systems. This conversion resulted in improved reliability, enhanced function, and better response time. The improved reliability was the result of fewer modifications to the operating system. OBS WYLBUR was faster than NIH Wylbur, and supported Partitioned Datasets (PDSs).

October 1980

WVNET began a major timesharing upgrade:

• all DEC PDP 11/40s minicomputers throughout the network were converted to PDP 11/44s running the RSTS/E operating system (a PDP 11/44 was also installed at the central site to be used for support and development of the software run at the institutional sites);
• two DEC VAX 11/780 super-minicomputers (designated VAXA and VAXB) running the VAX/VMS operating system, were installed at the central site to provide the capacity for a large number of concurrent users from all institutions;
• an additional VAX 11/780 (to be known as VAXC), also running VAX/VMS, was scheduled to be installed at Marshall University.

The upgrades at network institutions were to provide the capacity for each site to support at least sixteen concurrent timesharing users running a combination of BASIC, WATFIV, WATBOL, and RPG. The conversion to PDP 11/44s required several man-months of systems programming effort. Both RT-11 and DOS/BATCH were modified to run on new RK07 disk drives which replaced the RK05 drives at the institutions. The VAX and PDP vendor, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), also contracted to install communication equipment to allow users at remote sites to log on to any of the facilities at the central site.

February 1981

WVNET had begun to investigate phasing out MVT and replacing it with two copies of VS1 running HASP. By this time, MVT was an outdated operating system no longer supported by IBM. MVT did not support 3350 DASD and other new hardware that was becoming available. During the week of February 9, 1981, WVNET attempted to run two copies of VS1. The result was severe performance problems. MVT with the Executor and other local modifications which made it run well under VM was able to perform about twice the work of VS1. This was not acceptable, and WVNET went back to running one VS1 and one MVT operating system.

July 1981

At the beginning of 1981, WVNET had created an MVS Conversion Committee to evaluate implementing this operating system. In June, this committee recommended that WVNET convert to the MVS operating system. In July, a group of consultants were hired to review the hardware and software at WVNET and to make recommendations on future directions for WVNET. Based on the recommendations of its own committee and of these consultants, WVNET decided that it was time to make a great leap into the modern world. Even though there would be significant user impact, it was time to convert from MVT and VS1 to the MVS operating system. As part of this effort, the AS/5 was reinstalled so it could be used as a test machine for MVS.

August 1981

WVNET converted the communications devices for most central site timesharing to DCA equipment. This allowed users at any network institution access to any computer at the other institutions. The prime contractor for this communications equipment was DEC. Many problems developed: months were to pass and some hardware replacements were to be made before this became a satisfactory service. In the end the DCA equipment would provide excellent service to the users, but only after a great many problems were resolved.

October 1981

WVNET upgraded its VM operating system to VM Release 6/BSEPP. Most CMS users, however, were still running CMS Release 4, because of problems in converting the CMS File Manager so it would run in a BSEPP environment.

December 1981

WVNET upgraded its VM operating system to VM/SP 1. As part of this upgrade, the CMS File Manager was replaced with DIRMAINT. The old CMS Perkin-Elmer Editor was replaced with IBM's XEDIT, and many other software packages running on VM were updated or replaced. The new version of VM contained support for EXEC2 and other packages. One of the new software packages installed with VM/SP 1 was RSCS, which provides support to CMS users for RJE. This new software allowed CMS users to route their printed output back to their virtual reader. DCA 150 communication devices were also replaced by DCA 355 equipment.

January 1982

A task force was created at the central site to begin the conversion to MVS. Users were informed that in the forthcoming summer, VS1 and MVT would be replaced by MVS, and that this conversion would NOT be transparent but would require some effort on the part of every user. The decision was made to "phase in" most of the changes over the next six months: a gradual sequence of JCL changes, program changes, and changes in data set naming conventions would be easier on the users.

August 23, 1982

MVS SP 1.3.1 replaced VS1 and MVT as the operating system running on the Amdahl V/7A. The conversion went smoothly and resulted in a more reliable operating environment, though many minor user problems showed up over the next few months. These problems were resolved in various ways. VM/SP 1 and CMS were moved to the AS/5.

September 1982

The 2400 7-track tape drive was removed from the machine room. The fact that WVNET had previously replaced its Calcomp plotter with a Zeta plotter made this possible, as the Calcomp plotter had required the 7-track tape drive. WVNET would no longer support the 7-track format.

October 1982

The VAX/VMS V3.0 operating system was installed on the central site VAXen (VAXA and VAXB). This resulted in improved performance, reliability, and functionality.

November 1982

WVNET began running the "Customer Information and Communications System" (CICS) 1.5. off This software was installed for administrative use at each member institution. It would be used to support purchased applications and to access a Data Base Management System (DBMS) that WVNET hoped to install for administrative services. WVNET also began running VTAM ( Virtual Telecommunications Access Method) under MVS and the NCP ( Network Control Program) operating system on our 3705 and 4705 communication controllers.

March 1983

Almost from the beginning WVNET had experienced performance problems with VAX service. The demand for VAX service was just too large to be supported on the two VAXen at the central site. In March, WVNET installed a third VAX super-mini, called VAXD, at the central site. This provided a major improvement in VAX timesharing services.

May 1983

The IBM 2314 disk drives and 2400 tape drives were retired. These devices were removed since the use of them had dropped dramatically and newer releases of IBM operating systems did not support these older devices.

June 1983

VM/SP 2 became the production version of VM/CMS. The new release of this operating system provided significant new functions: (1) CMS electronic mail, (2) SENDFILE and RECEIVE, (3) FILELIST, and (4) RDRLIST. The new version of VM ran on the AS/5.

July 1983

WVNET installed the ADABAS data base management system from Software AG on its MVS system. ADABAS was restricted to administrative use at each campus. ADABAS utilizes the fourth generation language Natural as a data base language and CICS for data communications. At the same time, the "Stanford Public Information Retrieval System" (SPIRES) was installed on CMS. This data base product was made available to all CMS users.

February 1984

An increased time sharing load had made it obvious that WVNET needed another VAX. A fourth VAX 11/780, known as VAXE, was installed at the central site.

March 1984

An IBM 3081D mainframe was installed at WVNET and the Nasco AS/5 was retired from service. The 3081D was a 10 MIPS CPU with 16 megabytes of storage. MVS was moved to the 3081D and VM was moved to the Amdahl V/7A. At the same time, MVS was upgraded to version MVS/SP 1.3.3 to provide improved communication between VM and MVS, and the last 3330 disk pack was converted to 3350 format.

June 1984

WVNET became a member of BITNET ( Because It's Time NETwork) an informal inter-university electronic network composed of educational and research computer centers linked to one another via leased telephone lines. At this time BITNET provided communications with over 60 member institutions and gateways to other networks including ARPANET, CSNET, CCNET, USENET, and EDUCOM's MAILNET. At first the only available access was from a CMS account. WVNET's BITNET node name was WVNVM. BITNET would begin to grow at a phenomenal rate and by 1986 would have over 2000 nodes worldwide. Also during this month, RSTS/E V8.0 was distributed to the institutional PDP 11/44s.

August 1984

WVNET extended its IBM service hours to a 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week schedule. On some mornings IBM service would be down from 5:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. for routine hardware and software maintenance. Also during the month, VM was upgraded to VM/SP 3.1. This release provided several new functions, including REXX, Globalv, and the Programmable Operator.

September 1984

VAXC at Marshall University became a member of BITNET with a node name of MUVMS1. This had been accomplished using the Jnet software package. The central site staff began to explore installing this software at the central site to allow the four central site VAXen access to BITNET.