a Dynamic file and paging disk space allocation Features with optional usage quotas. a a Efficient multipurpose, multiprogramming Comprehensive, easy-to-use commandline . processor and procedure language. a a Fully compatible across all Prime 50 Series Exception handling via an ANSI PL/I standard systems. condition mechanism. 5 a Utilizes the advanced architectural features of Per-userabbreviationfacility. Prime 50 Series systems. a a Inter-user messagefacility. Sophisticated virtualmemory mechanism a employing both segmentation and paging. Online HELPfacility. a a 32Mb maximumprogramsize. Advanced communications support. = a Embeddedre-entrant operating system. Indexed sequential access method and a CODASYL-compliant DBMS. Hardware memoryprotection system. a a Full complement ofutilities for disk Sharedtranslators, utilities and libraries. maintenance, system backupand program development. a Program developmentsupport andshared,

re-entrant, recursive program execution. I— r— a

Dynamic linking to operating system andshared PL/I Subset G FORTRAN77

libraries. ¢

a Upto 128 asynchronous terminals and 255 processes supported.

Pascal 66

a Upto 8 synchronouslines supported.

a

16Mb maximumphysical memory.

BASIC/VM | COBOL 74

a Over 10Gb maximum massstorage.

= | L_ Multilevel hierarchicalfile structure with

access controllist protection. CPL

RPG I Macro a Assembler Sequential anddirectfile access methods. (PMA) Description Compatibility

All Prime systems — from the small The PRIMOSoperating system runsonall Prime 2250 to the large virtual Prime 50 Series systems. This meansthat memory Prime 9950 that supports dozensof programsanddata files created on one Prime concurrent timeshared and queued tasks — use systemcanbe used on any other Prime system the multifunction PRIMOSoperating system. without modification. This compatibility holds Since each central processor providesa different true at both the source languagelevelandat the level of performance and functionality within object code and memory-imagelevels. Programs the Prime systems family, the PRIMOS running on a small Prime system can run operating system is designed to maximize the unchangedonlarger Prime systems with effectiveness of a processor’s resources while substantial speed improvement. This preserves minimizing operating system overhead. software investments and providesanattractive The PRIMOSoperating system further opti- upgrade and growthpotential. Large Prime mizes the high-speed computational ability and systemscanbeusedfor efficient software exceptionally large memory capacity of Prime development, creating programs and databases central processors by integrating both interactive that are easily transferred to smaller distributed and batch supervisory servicesinto a single processing systems. operating system. It is structured to take advantage of the advanced architectural features of Prime 50 Performance Series systems such as virtual memory, exchange, dynamic linking and hardware memory Prime's system architecture was developed ina protection. This means the PRIMOSoperating rather unique way — the software was designed systemprovides a productive and easy-to-use first. The hardware wasdesignedto support the environmentfor program development and software with manyofthe traditional operating an efficient, secure, reliable environmentfor system functions implemented in microcode programexecution. Furthermore, as the same andhardware. Examples include the process operating systemrunsonall Prime 50 Series exchange mechanism, the hardware procedure systems, this environmentis fully compatible call mechanismand support for dynamic across the productline. linking. This ‘softwarefirst’ design philosophy The PRIMOSoperating system supports a manifests itself in terms of performance. The wide range of communicationfacilitiesincluding microcode and hardwareassist allows the seven RemoteJob Entry (RJE) products; Prime’s PRIMOSoperating system to maximize system Distributed Processing Terminal Executive performance,particularly in a multiuser (DPTX) for IBM connectibility; and environment. PRIMENET™networking software. Also supported are MIDASPLUS™, an indexed sequential file access method; DBMS,a CODASYL-compliant database management Ease-of-Use sysem; and a variety of industry-standard languages. The PRIMOSoperating system The PRIMOSoperating system provides a productive, easy-to-use environmentfor the supports a wide rangeof peripherals including application developer. Advanced features such as over 10Gb of massstorage, eight tape drives, four commanditeration, wildcarding, treewalking, parallel line printers and multiple serial printers, card readers, paper tape and graphicsdevices. namegeneration, CommandProcedure Language and the abbreviation processorlet users customize command environments. The condition mechanism allows an application designer to ensure that users remain within the application. The PRIMOSoperating system provides an extensive HELPfacility for user assistance on all system commands. The PRIMOSoperating system is designed to be easy to configure and bring up. At start-up time, it automatically configuresitself according to the hardwareinstalled on the system. Simple commands,in a configuration file used at system start-up, control additional configurable options within the PRIMOS operating system. Security and Integrity Embedded Operating System Hardware,firmware (microprogrammedlogic} The PRIMOSoperating system is exceptionally and software components within the PRIMOS responsive and provides direct and immediate operating system monitor the complete control becauseit is effectively embeddedin the hardware/software system to ensurereliable virtual address space shared by all users. [tis an hardware operation and secure process integral part of each user’s process, and executes execution, System integrity is maintained by for all users at the same time. The shared, single-bit main memoryerror correction and re-entrant embeddeddesign of the PRIMOS microverification routines that test the central operating system allowsit to service user processor's logic and help determinethe cause of requests with minimumoverhead anddelay. any faulty operation. A hardware-implemented Users canaccess an operating system resource ring protection mechanism protects memory in no more timethanit takes a user programto from accidental or unauthorized access, call a subroutine. preserving the integrity of the operating system, its databases andshared code. File systems security is based on access controllists. These Procedure Sharing allow access rights to any directory or file to be specified on a per userbasis. User access to the Memoryutilizationis greatly improved with the system is controlled through a secure log-in PRIMOSoperating system because one user can mechanism. The operating system also includes write procedures that others can share. Prime file access integrity features such as forward and systems make maximumuseof procedure backward pointers, and utilities to repair damage sharing. That means a shared procedureexists or inconsistencies. no more than once on disk and once in memory A Source-Level Debuggeris available for most regardless of the numberof users accessingit. Prime languages, allowing users to step through Prime’s system architecture provides for their source-level code and exert interactive separation of “pure’’ re-entrant code, static control over all aspects of program execution. storage and dynamic storage. A stack Theycanset or clear breakpoints on any architecture providesa re-entrant recursive statement, examine or modify variables, environmentfor program execution. Prime’s evaluate expressions, execute single statements shared high-level language translators generate and trace executionat will. The generic re-entrant code. All high-level language libraries capabilities of the Source-Level Debuggerare are also shared. Programsare dynamically unique and promoteuser convenience ina linked to shared libraries and PRIMOSoperating multilanguage environment. system services at runtime.

Virtual Memory Data Communication/Networking

The advanced virtual memory managementin The PRIMOSoperating system handlesall data the PRIMOSoperating system supports communication betweena Prime system and multiple concurrent processes, each with its interactive terminals, other Prime central ownprivate virtual memory space. Additional processors and other mainframes. The PRIMOS virtual memory space is shared amongall operating system communicates directly with processes. This mechanism takes advantage of most currently available asynchronous ASCII both segmentation and pagingto provide users terminals operating at speeds up to 9600 baud. an extremely large address space, eliminating Communication between Prime systemsis concern over program size limitations. (A 32Mb handled via PRIMENET Node Controllers program can be run ina user’s private address (PNC's) for locally connected processors,or space.) Virtual memoryresourcesare available through high-speed synchronouslines or public on systemswith as little as 512Kb of main data networks, using the CCITT X.25 standard memory. Thesize of the user’s virtual address packet switching protocol. spaceis independentof physical memorysize. The PRIMOSoperating system automatically takes advantageof additional increments of main memory(up to 16Mb)to reduce paging as system loadincreases.

DPTX The Prime Distributed Processing Terminal Data Management Executive (DPTX) software product allows users to construct interactive communication networks with equipmentprovided by Prime Database Management System and IBM. DPTXproducts conform to IBM 3271/3277 Display System protocols, and can be Prime DBMS,Database ManagementSystem, conforms to CODASYLstandards andprovides integrated into new or existing networks all processes concurrent access to integrated containing IBM or IBM-compatible mainframes data. This capability is required by multiple and terminal controllers without changing application codeor access methods. usersat interactive terminals whoare simultaneously updating and retrieving commonfiles. Remote Job Entry (RJE) Prime DBMS meansreduced application programming expenses and shorter A Prime system canact as an RJE system by emu- development times. concentrate lating the protocols used by the IBM 2780/3780, on the logic of the application, not the details of IBM HASPII Workstation, CDC UT200, ICL data manipulationandfile design. 7020 and XBM,Univac 1004 and Honeywell GRTS. Whenused as an RJE system, programs and datafiles can be created interactively and Multikeyed Isam then queued ona disk for direct transmission to Prime MIDASPLUS, Multiple-Indexed Direct a host mainframe. Access System, is a data managementfacility that allows PRIMOSoperating system users PRIMENET to interactively create and maintain datafiles. Data can be accessed through 18 different key PRIMENETnetworking softwarelets a user or paths via any standard Prime programming process on one Prime system communicate with language. The multikeyed structure of any other Prime system in a network, without MIDASPLUSandits availability throughall concernfor any of the protocoldetails. A user programming languages provides users maxi- can log in to any computer in a network from mumflexibility in data retrieval with minimum any terminal in the network. With PRIMENET redundancyof data storage and coding. software, networking processes running concur-

rently on different systems can communicate interactively with one anothervia X.25 virtual Query andReport Writer circuits. It allows transparent accessto any sys- PRIME/POWER,based on an English-language tem in the network without burdening the user commandsystem,is a user-oriented data query with extra commands. and reporting language that runs on all Prime 50 Series systemsandis designed for both data processing and non-data processing personnel. Languages PRIME/POWERsupports standard datafiles — MIDASPLUS, ASCII, Direct Access and Binary The Primefamily of interactive systems — which are also accessible by programswritten provides a productive, easy-to-use environment in standard Prime languages. for program developmentin a widevariety of

languages. COBOL 74, BASIC/VM, FORTRAN 66, FORTRAN 77, PL/I Subset G, RPG II Forms Management V-Mode Compiler, Pascal, and Prime Macro Prime FORMS, Forms ManagementSystem, Assembler (PMA)are supported on all Prime is a set of software functions used to develop 50 Series systems. systemsfor interactive, multiterminal and on- Prime languages employ commoncall line processing. It permits formsto be designed conventions. That means programswritten in for a variety of CRT and hardcopy terminals one Prime language can call routines written in using the FORMSDescription Language (FDL) another, allowing program developmenttimeto with easy-to-use statements, or FED, the be savedby utilizing existing routines written in FORMSscreen painter. Application programs other Primelanguages. are created using the standard READ/WRITE statements. Office Automation Major Components

Prime’s Office Automation System software combines Word Processing, Management Communication and Support, and Data The PRIMOSoperating systemis optimized to Processing on one totally compatible system. make efficient use of the sophisticated virtual All of these components work to improve memory mechanism available on Prime 50 information handling andproductivity for Series systems. The mechanism takes advantage the managerandprofessional, as well as of both paging and segmentation techniques. administrative personnel. Demandpagingis used to achieveefficient The WordProcessing module includes memory utilization. Segmentation allows easy functionslike text creation andediting, list sharing and access control. These procedures are processing andaboilerplate library. The user-transparent. Management Communications and Support Whena programreferencesa locationin module combineselectronic mail; correspon- virtual memorynotcurrently in physical dence management,includingfiling andretrieval memory, a “page fault” occurs and the PRIMOS capabilities; and managementsupport, providing operating systembrings the referenced page electronic scheduling. (2Kbsection of virtual memory) into physical The software matches complete office memory. If a page has to be overwritten in order automation and communication functionality to do this, the least recently used page is chosen. withthe full data processing capabilities of a Referenced and modified page bits are Prime system. maintainedby the hardware andused by the software to reduce disk accesses caused by paging. Utilities Segmentation providesvariable length segmentsof virtual memory up to 128K bytes. Avery capable batch processing subsystem, Code and data modules can be loaded into whichis completely compatible with the different segments thus providing an easy interactive environment, is supplied as standard methodfor sharing of modules. Access to software. Commandand CPLfiles created for segmentsis controlled by per user segment executionin the interactive environment may access codes. It is therefore possible for different be run without modificationas batchjobs. users to have different access rights to shared Primeprovides, as a part of standard system data. software, a setof disk-to-disk or disk-to-tape Address translation is speeded up by use utilities which are among thebest in the of a high-speed buffer called the Segment industry. For system backup, a specialfeature Translation Lookaside Buffer (STLB). This buffer allows very fast disk-to-disk or disk-to-tape holds recently used virtual-to-physical page backup of complete disk volumes. translations. Prime processors include a cache Utilities to transfer or copy files to tape or memory with an access time as short as 40 disk are supplied as standard software. nanoseconds. Thecacheis an integral part of the Avery powerfulprint spooling package CPU and reduces memory access delaysfor data enablesusers to share both parallel and remote resident in the cache. Address translation is serial printers. With the versatile administrator overlapped with cache access tofurther reduce and operator controls provided, individual print total instruction execution time. jobs may be automatically routed either to any printer on the system or toany printer on any network node. This package is supplied as standard software.

Security Process Exchange/Scheduling The combinationof hardware and software in PRIMOSoperating system automatically trans- Prime 50 Series systemscreates a secure multi- fers the attention of the central processor from user environment. one user or process to another with minimum Security is addressed at the memory,file overhead and complete protection. The key systemand user log-in levels. Segment is a central processorfeature called Process Descriptor Words (SDWs) describe each segment Exchange, a firmware mechanismfor context

of a user’s virtual address space. Part of this switching. It includes a hardware implemented description is per-ring access rights. Rings are priority mechanism and makesuseof dual user levels of access privileges and are maintained by register sets. A takesaslittle the hardware. Ring 0 is the mostprivileged with as 9 microseconds. The combination of process full access rights and the ability to execute all exchange and demand paging meansthat instructions. Ring 3 is the least privileged with directing the central processor to run a new user noright to execute instructionsthat alter the is a very low overhead operation. The scheduler system’s modeof operation. The PRIMOS takes full advantageof this andis able to operating system enjoysring 0 privileges, maintain fast response for interactive users timeshared users run in ring 3. This ring as machineload increases. privilege is usedtovalidate all memory accesses. A hardware supported gate mechanism allowsring 3 users to temporarily gainring 0 CommandLine Processor privileges as they execute with the operating The PRIMOS commandline processor provides system. In this way data can be protected sothat facilities to improve the user’s productivity by it can be accessed only via a controlled gatedcall reducing the amount of typing necessary to into a moreprivileged ring. accomplish commonandrepetitive functions. PRIMOSprotects the systemagainst The abbreviation facility (ABBREV) allows unauthorizeduse. A user is identified with users to create their own synonymsfor a l- to 32-character user name and an optional commandsand arguments. Using abbreviations, password whichis stored in encrypted form and users can reduce common or lengthy command verified by the PRIMOSoperating system on lines to simple, possibly parameterized, log-in. Users are further registered as members abbreviations. The net result is less typing, of projects (an accounting designation) and fewer errors, and increased productivity. groups (users with commonaccessrights). Users can utilize global variables for passing The systemis designed to invoke an strings between commandlines and programs. installation-supplied log-in procedure which Global variables are created by the user and are cannotbe defeated. This feature allows system referenced by using their names in command administrators to add additional site-dependent lines or through subroutines in a program. log-in processing such as customized security Commandfunctions are available which checking or accounting. return system data asstrings for use in security is provided by Access commandlines. Thereare functions providing Control Lists (ACLs). ACLs are used to protect time and date in multiple formats, file system files and directories. An ACL is list of access information, and arithmetic calculations. pairs. Each access pair specifies a user name or The commandprocessor also supports group nameand the associated access rights. features which allow the application ofsingle ACLsare a passive mechanism wherebya user's commands to multiple operands. Command access to an object is determined solely by the iteration causes a single commandtoexecute access rights associated with the user or group oncefor eachofan explicit list of operands. name. Wildcarding allows a commandto operate on a Only users withProtect rights to a directory collection of file system objects selected via a can create ACLsfor objects in that directory. mask. Treewalking executes a command over Objects not explicitly protected by their own selected parts of a file system subtree. And name ACLare implicitly protected by the ACLprotect- generation providesfor the generation offile ing the directory in whichtheyreside. system namesfrom a given (possibly wildcard) An alternative methodoffile system pro- nameand pattern. In addition, qualifiers may tection utilizing directory passwordsis also be applied to selection criteria specifying for available for compatibility with older versions examplefile types or date selectors. of the PRIMOSoperating system. Finally, all of these PRIMOSfeatures — ' abbreviations, global variables, command | functions, and command processing — may i] be used together yielding commandsofextra- ordinary functionality.

search time required to retrieve any given data CommandProcedure Language record. Both files types contain redundant The CommandProcedure Language (CPL)is a pointers which canbe usedto repair the powerful programming languageavailable at structure in the event of damage. commandlevel. It is. a simple high-level language Security is ACL-based meaning user access with PRIMOSoperating system commands,asits rights tofiles and directories are a function of primitive statements, making it very powerful. user identification. Also, file system usage CPL allows sequencesof operating system quotasare available for limiting disk usage commandsand CPLdirectives to be built into by directory. commandprocedurefiles for execution. CPL All file I/Ois buffered in memory. The directives provide for parameter passing and PRIMOSoperating system maintains the most validation, for error handling andfor controlof recently accessed disk records in memory, statement execution order within the command reducing the effective time for repeated accesses file. CPL has many unique features which bring to the same disk record. the power of commandlevel programmingtothe The PRIMOSoperating system automatically user. Some of these are the position-independent assignslogical files to physical disk records. argument passing, the interface to the PRIMOS This feature permits auser tocreatefile struc- operating system condition mechanism, andthe tures without concernfor the characteristics of comprehensiveset of flow of control directives. the disk on whichtheyare stored. The use of CPL will significantly enhance user productivity and system ease-of-use. Batch Processing

Althoughit is primarily an interactive operating Condition Mechanism system,a very capable batchprocessing facility The PRIMOSoperating systemprovidesfull (BATCH) is provided. BATCHis designedfor support for the ANSI PL/I condition mecha- users whowantthe convenienceof sequential nism. A condition is an unexpected event that job scheduling. Withthis facility, data process- occurs during program execution, Examples are ing or computational programs may be submitted arithmetic overflow, a “break” from the user's for execution at alater time. Jobs submitted terminal, or a hardware detected event such as to the BATCH processing subsystem are com- access violation. The condition mechanism prised of standard PRIMOSoperating system allows a specific software module called an on- commands; sothere is no need for the BATCH unit to gain control when these events occur, userto learn a complicated jobcontrol language. irrespective of the execution state within the BATCHprovides extensive operator control currently running program. On-units can be features whichallow the operator to dynamically defined by users. When a conditionis detected, control the numberof job queues and the the PRIMOSoperating system “signals” that characteristics of each queue; thus, the operator condition andsearchesthe stack history of the has the capability to optimize the workload running program backwardin time for an on- balance. BATCHis provided as part of Prime's unit for that condition. If a user-defined on-unit standardsoftware. is found,it is invoked to perform a user-specified procedure. Users are thus able to trap system conditions and perform userspecified actions. System Backup and Recovery Users can also define, signal and trap their own The Backup/Recovery ManagementService conditions. (BRMS) is a set of utilities for full and incremental backup and archiving. BRMS

File Management System is comprised of the BACKUP, RECOVER, ARCHIVEand TRANSPORTutilities. The PRIMOSoperating systemfile structure is a The BACKUPand RECOVERutilities help hierarchical tree structure with a MasterFile to ensure that the file system is restored toits Directory (MFD) at the root of the structure. The state at the time of the last backup.Tofacilitate file system creates and maintains an MFD for recovery of backed-upfiles, on-line catalogs eachdisk or user-specified portion of a disk. The record information abouteachfile as it is saved. MEDcontains the namesand diskaddresses of In addition to backupand recovery, BRMS UserFile Directories (UFD), segmentdirectories also provides archiving capabilities. Archiving and files. UFDs contain nameddata files and is available toall users for savingfiles which will lower level UFDs. UFDscan be nested to 16 not be neededonline for an extendedperiod,or levels. Segmentdirectories contain pointers to for performing backupof personalfiles. As with files which are addressedby position in the BACKUP, the ARCHIVEutility catalogsfile directory rather than by name. They permit information as eachfile is saved. rapid accesstolarge collections of data that have The TRANSPORTcommandis provided to an established orderbut variable size. transfer files between systems. TRANSPORT File access is through sequential (SAM) or does not update catalogs nor does it save direct (DAM) access methods. In SAMfiles, each attributes that maybe specific to the system record containsa pointer to the next record in from whichthefile is saved. the file for efficient sequential access.n DAM files, pointerstoall data recordsin the file are stored in index records— thus reducing the U.S. Offices

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International Offices

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PRIME and PRIMOSare registered trademarks of Copyright © 1983, ,Inc. All rights reserved. Prime Computer,Inc., Natick, Massachusetts. Printed in the U.S.A. MIDASPLUSand PRIMENETare trademarksof Prime Computer, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts. The materials contained herein are summary in nature, subject to change and intended for general informationonly. Details andspecifications regarding specific Prime Computer software and equipmentare available in the appropriate technical manuals, available through local marketing Prime Computer, Inc. representatives. ® Prime Park PRIME Natick, Massachusetts 01760 11/83 PB 1415-192