Introduction to TRANSFER Delivery System

The TRANSFER Delivery System TRANSFER—Package Transport
Introduction to TRANSFER Delivery System—109426 1-17
TRANSFER—Package Transport
A Tandem network comprises processors, disks, terminals, and communication
equipment. The terminals might be gas pumps or other point-of-sale terminals; robots in
an automated warehouse; bar-code readers in an automated factory; hand-held inventory
devices; automated-teller machines (ATMs); or form-processing terminals handling
tasks as diverse as hospital data entry, police or ambulance dispatching, electronic mail,
and order entry and processing.
TRANSFER is the vehicle that provides a uniform way to build, maintain, and move
packages through the network, regardless of the content or internal structure of a
package. A package can include any data that can be represented in digital form.
As the delivery system, TRANSFER itself performs no interpretation or processing of
the contents of a package; it provides an envelope and lets you decide what you want to
put into it. This flexibility offers the following advantages:
■ You do not need data processing, facsimile, voice, and paper-mail networks. One
network, for instance, could handle transaction processing, facsimile transmission,
and electronic mail, with the facsimile machine becoming an extension of the
EXPAND network.
■ Your application developers can determine the package formats most useful for the
processes and applications that you want to transport.
Tandem has developed its PS MAIL applications to compose, transmit, and present text
data. You can develop software to compose and present other kinds of data such as
voice or facsimile images and distribute them among people, processes, and devices.
Figure 1-9 illustrates a TRANSFER delivery system that moves various kinds of text
and data entered from various kinds of input devices.