Industrial Technology Systems Ltd's (ITS) legacy system replacement service is the solution for companies with obsolete DEC PDP-11 and VAX equipment facing difficulties in maintaining operational effectiveness.
To secure a cost-effective ongoing system, emulation technology is used to migrate to modern hardware, dismissing the threat of catastrophic unrecoverable failure and solving the headache of sourcing scarce spares from a rapidly diminishing stock.
ITS offers three options: re-implementation of the system using contemporary technology; replacing DEC PDP-11 hardware using a PC-based solution containing an onboard hardware emulation card, and replacing the obsolete DEC VAX system with a software emulation running on a Windows platform.
Option One The advantages of re-implementing the system using contemporary technology are:
- Guaranteed continuity path
- Modern widely available technology
- Use of popular technology with available experience
Option Two Replacing DEC PDP-11 hardware using a PC-based solution containing an onboard hardware emulation card, results in a transparent system emulation. The advantages are:
- No software modification required, just software load and run
- No need to revalidate the application
- Hardware emulation transparent to the underlying process
- Short hardware changeover time - minimises loss of service
- Can be deployed as a rack-mounted solution for installation into existing enclosures
ITS has recently used migration to the Osprey hardware emulator from Strobe Data for this option.
Option Three The advantages of replacing the obsolete DEC VAX systems with a software emulation running on a Windows platform are:
- No application software modification required
- Convert the system image to run in the software emulator and map the virtual VAX devices to the Windows hardware
- No need to revalidate the application
- The operation of the emulated system is transparent to the users and the process
- Short system changeover time - minimises downtime
ITS has recently used migration to the CHARON software emulation package from Stromasys for this option.
