Guardian Application Conversion Guide

Glossary
Glossary–2 096047 Tandem Computers Incorporated
advantage of the extended system limits. Applications must be converted to make use
of this interface.
D-series process file name. A variable-length string that identifies a process by name or
CPU, PIN and can also include the node name, sequence number, and one or two
qualifiers.
D-series system. A system that is running a D-series version of the operating system.
device. An addressable I/O device, independent of its physical environment (for
example, a terminal or printer).
Distributed Systems Management (DSM). A set of software tools that are used in the
management of systems and networks. These tools include the ViewPoint console
application, the Subsystem Control Facility (SCF), the Subsystem Programmatic
Interface (SPI), the Event Management Service (EMS), the Distributed Name Service
(DNS), and the token-oriented programmatic interfaces to the management processes
for various Tandem subsystems.
Distributed Systems Management (DSM) application. An application that issues DSM tools
to issue programmatic commands to a subsystem or retrieve event messages from a
subsystem (or both) to assist in managing a system or network. In the requester-server
approach, a management application is the requester and a subsystem is the server.
DSM. See “Distributed Systems Management (DSM).”
EMS. See “Event Management Service (EMS).”
Event Management Service (EMS). A set of software tools that provide event-message
collection, logging, and distribution for the operating system. EMS provides different
descriptions of events for operators and management applications and allows an
operator or application to select specific event messages using EMS filters. EMS has
programmatic interfaces based on SPI for both event reporting and event retrieval.
event message. In Distributed Systems Management (DSM), a special type of
Subsystem Programmatic Interface (SPI) message that describes an event occurring in
the system or network.
extended data segment. One or more consecutive absolute segments that are
dynamically allocated by a process.
FCB. See “file control block (FCB).”
file. An entity that can be a disk file (all or part of a disk volume), an I/O device (such
as a printer or terminal), or a process (an executing program).
file control block (FCB). (1) A data structure automatically created and managed by the
file system that contains a collection of information about an open file. (2) A data
structure on the user’s data stack used by sequential I/O (SIO) to access SIO files.
These FCBs contain information in addition to the information kept in the FCB
automatically created and managed by the file system.
file number. An integer that represents a particular instance of an open of a file. A file
number is returned by an open procedure and is used in subsequent I/O procedures
to access the file.