Unix System Laboratories Inc will announce some significant enhancements to its Tuxedo transaction processing monitor on February 15. Transaction processing watchers expect the new release to include greater interoperability features, such as links with IBM Corp’s CICS/6000 transaction processing environment, which is based on Transarc Corp’s Encina transaction processing monitor technology. Ways of providing higher levels of co-existence between Tuxedo and CICS/6000 have already been outlined in a Unix International guide prepared by Raytheon Co’s UK firm Data Logic Ltd called Open Enterprise Transaction Processing: integrating the Tuxedo system with mainframe CICS. The London-based software company was responsible for melding Encina with CICS. At present, transaction processing systems and monitors can only swap files – new capabilities in Tuxedo will likely address the ability to process transactions and even parts of a transaction in a CICS/6000 environment. Such functionality requires a set of application programming interfaces enabling Tuxedo and CICS/6000-based systems to acknowledge each others’ transaction requests. Indeed, transaction processing watchers say that a range of interfaces are urgently needed to unify disparate OEM Tuxedo implementations, along with a fourth generation language tool. Other things Unix Labs could usefully address, they say, are a systems management solution and a distributed security environment for Tuxedo.
