[89] in Open-Software-Foundation-News
OSF Flash - Request for Input
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (OSF Corporate Communications)
Wed Nov 16 19:00:50 1994
Resent-From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
Resent-To: osf-news-mtg@menelaus.LOCAL
To: newsnug@osf.org
Reply-To: newsnug@osf.org
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 16:53:20 -0500
From: OSF Corporate Communications <corpcom@osf.org>
Date: November 16, 1994
To: OSF Members
From: corpcom@osf.org (OSF Corporate Communications)
Open Software Foundation
****************************************************
OSF ELECTRONIC FLASH
****************************************************
An electronic mail news flash for OSF Members from
the Open Software Foundation
November 16, 1994
Call for Input on Potential
Transaction Processing PST
A group of OSF members is considering a transaction
processing PST (TP-PST). The initiative for this
potential PST comes indirectly from end-user
requirements (e.g., SPIRIT). Briefly, the TP-PST
provides a communications environment for supporting the
ACID guarantees (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and
Durability) of distributed transaction processing --
this means either the transaction completes successfully
or it rolls-back so it appears as though nothing ever
happened (no inconsistent states or data remain to be
dealt with manually).
A short description of this potential PST is attached.
The PST comprises a XAP-TP stack which provides
interoperability across the Internet. However, it will
also run over virtually any connection-oriented network
(e.g., SNA, DECnet or OSI). The PST provides the
middleware needed by the industry to support TP
monitors, distributed data bases, and the X/Open TP
interfaces (XATMI, Open-CPI-C, and TxRPC -- see the
attachment for how the XAP-TP stack fits with the X/Open
Model). All components of the PST are implementations
of X/Open, ISO or Internet standards.
The reasons for doing this PST are
a) accelerate the widespread use of standardized
distributed transaction processing (DTP) by putting a
common DTP reference implementation into the open
arena, i.e., make DTP ubiquitous,
b) promote interoperability through the existence of a
common reference implementation,
c) provide a foundation for future PSTs implementing
X/Open's standardized TP interfaces,
d) reduce the cost of this common foundation by sharing
the cost of testing and maintaining this reference
implementation among the PST sponsors,
e) establish a base for future shared implementation of
the TP Commit Optimizations and Subtransactions.
The purpose of this letter is to request feedback to
determine whether the OSF membership believes this is a
worthwhile PST and how many vendor and/or ISV members
would be interested in licensing this technology if it
were to be made available in a reasonable time frame.
The group considering this PST are not looking for a
hard commitment at this time. However, a meaningful
indication of how many potential licensees might be
expected is essential to deciding whether the group will
go ahead with the PST or not. As the group would like to
make a decision before the end of the year, please
respond to the following question by the end of
November:
If there is a TP PST, would your company be
likely to license this technology?
Send responses or requests for further information to:
Henry Lowe
Open Software Foundation Tel: +1-617-621-8783
11 Cambridge Center FAX: +1-617-621-7324
Cambridge, MA 02142 E-mail: lowe@osf.org
USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Draft Proposal for a TP PST
V 3.0, 12 October 1994
This is a brief description of a PST intended to bring
Transaction Processing (TP) into the OSF set of
offerings. The PST consists of:
a) X/Open's XAP-TP interface;
b) an OSI TP stack (with the commit functional unit);
and
c) an RFC 1006 mapping to the Internet.
Figure 1 below shows this interface and stack in the
context of the X/Open TP model.
+----------------+
| |
| AP |
| |
+----------------+
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
E.g., SQL / | TX \E.g.,TxRPC (IDL)
+--------------+ +-------------+ +--------------+
| | | | | |
| RM |----| TM |-----| CRM |
| | XA | | XA+ | (U-ASE) |
+--------------+ +-------------+ +--------------+
|
|
XAP-TP |
+--------------------+
| Functionality of |
| OSI TP with Commit,|
| OSI Upper Layers |
| and RFC 1006 |
+--------------------+
TCP |
|
Connection
Oriented
Network
Figure 1
This PST is for middleware, i.e., it does not interface
to users' TP programs (the box labeled AP in the
figure). The PST provides a standardized interface
(XAP-TP) for TP Monitors and will operate over any
connection oriented (CO) network (e.g., TCP/IP networks)
offering the usual CO guarantees. The TP stack is based
on ISO standards with the single exception of RFC 1006
which is an Internet standard. Thus, the PST provides
interoperable, portable, standards based TP
functionality. The base technology for this PST exists
today.
While not being proposed at the moment, if this TP PST
goes forward, this PST would from an excellent basis for
other PSTs for TP technology (i.e.,X/Open's three TP
interfaces and further work in this area such as
Queuing).
