The New VS -- the VS22000

[Thomas Junker]

The biggest news in the 30+ year history of the Wang VS is the New VS, also known as the VS22000.

The New VS is a faithful virtualization of the VS machine and its principal IOCs and devices. It frees VS users from considerations of aging, proprietary hardware by utilizing modern server hardware from Dell and others.

The New VS also breaks the performance barriers of legacy hardware, offering more than 2.4 times the performance of the VS18950, the top of the legacy line. While the legacy line tops out at FAST 6300, the New VS presently tops out at more than 15,000.

The New VS is 100% seamlessly binary software compatible with the legacy VS line. That means that it runs the VS OS, VS utilities, VS language translators, PACE, WIIS, and all user applications, all with zero modifications and zero workarounds. The New VS is a true Wang VS, but freed of Wang hardware, with greater fault tolerance, faster storage and file I/O at comparable peformance tiers, and fully viable for ongoing and new data processing functions.

[Thomas Junker]

Q: Is there a place for the VS anymore except for prolonging the life of old installations?

A: Yes, there is still a place for the VS. While we have some archival, retrieval-only sites, most of our sites are full production ones where the VS runs the entire company or runs the core applications.

Working with the surviving Getronics VS group in Tewksbury we have installed about 65 New VS systems in ten countries, ranging from small systems with a dozen or two users to large ones with 500 users. The first ones are now completing their three-year initial license/support period and are up for renewal.

The New VS is a 100% faithful virtualization of the VS machine, able to run the VS OS and all utilities, language processors and applications with zero conversion, zero workarounds, and virtually no retraining. Some key features that go beyond the legacy VS while remaining 100% compatible are:

o Virtualized Universal Serial IOC with TCP ports instead of coax/TP
o Virtualized SCSI IOC supporting virtual VS disk vols and physical ones
o Seamless support of advanced tape technologies... DLT, SDLT, LTO
o Integrated virtual Lightspeed gateway -- no more gateway PCs
o Full support of Lightspeed NVS, which is now our product
o Virtualized RSF over TCP/IP
o Virtualized TCB1/WSN over TCP/IP
o Virtualized TCB1/Async using LAN-based MOXA RS-232 devices
o Integrated Virtual Tape Library, redirecting tape operations to/from files
o Virtual VS device supporting VS-Linux data transfer
o Oracle interface supporting Oracle access by VS applications
o Full featured virtual SCU with full Control Mode plus enhancements
o PCI USIOC for attachment of legacy 928 devices... workstations,
printers, WACS, PIBs, TCB. We have sites running SNA and we can
support X.25 and LU 6.2 as well as legacy WSN links.
o Significantly greater fault tolerance than legacy VS systems, with RAID,
mirrored memory, multiple gigabit network interfaces and dual hot-swap
power supplies.

We don't yet support VS/VM because it is easy to split VM guests out into separate New VS instances in the same or different machines.

As we work our way through the surviving legacy VS sites, upgrading them to the New VS, our challenge is to make the New VS attractive to prospects who have never had a VS at all. We're trying to find and revive some of the VS vertical apps and to find a way to market PACE-based New VS systems to completely new customers.

[Thomas Junker]

The New VS sales count is now at 76 systems sold in 11 countries. Many more are already in the pipeline and more still remain to be found.

I have been informed by an employee of Information Builders just in recent days that FOCUS, one of the major 4GL / database products that used to be offered for the VS platform, is still maintained and supported for the VS. I am attempting to get in touch with them and pursue this, as they may be encouraged by the success and forward viability of the New VS, and I have heard there are still FOCUS sites around the world, sites who must be informed about the New VS if they are to remain in operation for very long.