CICS: CICS/6000 ISC data conversion

ITEM: RTA000036357



Q:  Question:                                                                   
                                                                                
    I have a user who is interested in co-hosting their                         
    mainframe using CICS/VSE with the RISC System/6000 using                    
    CICS/6000.  The facilities of CICS ISC can provide more                     
    processing power for their application and we plan to                       
    investigate the possibilities of "shadow files" on the                      
    RS6000 versus DFHCNV macro data conversion for performance                  
    considerations.                                                             
                                                                                
    Are there any benchmark studies that show how much                          
    processing is added to the mainframe, where the files                       
    currently reside, when VSAM data is converted from EBCIDIC                  
    to ASCII and back to EBCIDIC using ISC?                                     
                                                                               
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R:  Response:                                                                   
                                                                                
    I am not aware of any benchmarks done to show the time for                  
    data conversion using DFHCNV macros.  The time for                          
    conversion is normally small in relation to the path length                 
    of Function Shipping in CICS, the path length of SNA, and                   
    the time to transmit the data.  Data representation between                 
    the RISC System/6000 and ES/9000 for packed and binary data                 
    is the same, so the conversion necessary would be to turn                   
    the character data from EBCDIC to ASCII (and vise versa).                   
    The number of fields and their length would affect the                      
    conversion time also.                                                       
                                                                                
    When doing conversion in a CICS environment, the resource                  
    owner does the conversion.  In your environment, since you                  
    will be having CICS/VSE own the VSAM files, CICS/VSE will be                
    doing the conversion.  DFHCNV macros that specify how                       
    CICS/VSE, CICS/MVS, or CICS/ESA should do the conversion are                
    documented in SC33-0736 Communicating with CICS OS/2 or                     
    SC33-0616 CICS OS/2 System and Application Guide V1.20 (CICS                
    OS/2 was the first CICS that caused the need for DFHCNV                     
    macros so that is why they are documented in CICS OS/2                      
    manuals).                                                                   
                                                                                
    Conversion templates for CICS/6000 are also done with DFHCNV                
    macros.  DFHCNV macros are prepared differently on CICS/6000                
    than they are on the mainframe.  DFHCNV macros and their                    
    preparation for a CICS/6000 environment is documented in                    
    SC33-0931 AIX CICS/6000 Customization and Operation.  The                  
    CICS/6000 conversion process used the AIX iconv function.                   
                                                                                
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 DW ( upgrader: D73FA09                                                    
                                                                                
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This item was created from library item Q647324      CMXFR                      
                                                                                
Additional search words:                                                        
CICS CICS6000 CMXFR CONVERSION CONVERT DASYS DATA DEC93 DW ISC 6000            


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000036357 ITEM: RTA000036357
Dated: 11/1996 Category: KIX6000
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