International Business Machines Corporation

Mark Arnold Boegel

Harvey Gene Kiel

Thomas Edwin Murphy, Jr

Paul Francis Rieth

Stephen A Knight

Kenneth Dale Aaker

Pamela A Wright

Robert Russell Nelson

Anthony P Vinski

Douglas O Bolstad

Provided are a method and system for replacing terminals, linked in a client server relationship with a central server, interacting with hardware specific programs within the central server, and wherein each terminal is identified by hardware specific programs within said central server via specific hardware attributes, and where the specific hardware attributes include at least a port identification and an I/O processor identification associated with the port identification. The method and system achieve the foregoing via the following. A processor is substituted for a selected terminal. Particular hardware attributes of the selected terminal are identified. The identified particular hardware attributes of the selected terminal are emulated using communications software. And, the processor is coupled to the central server via the communications software such that the processor interacts with hardware specific programs within the central server such that the substituted processor interacts with the hardware specific programs in a fashion indistinguishable from the selected terminal.

Method and system for replacing physical terminals interacting with

A computer system comprises a CPU, a main memory, and plurality of I/O Processors (IOPs), coupled to each other by a system I/O bus. The IOPs perform slave processing functions relating to I/O devices. A simulation protocol is defined for the IOPs, whereby the host CPU can command an IOP to execute a simulation script. The simulation script defines one or more I/O devices to be simulated, and specifies a simulated workload associated with the devices. The IOP executes the simulation script by sending simulated input streams to the host and receiving output destined for the simulated I/O devices from the host on the system I/O bus. An IOP may simulate multiple I/O devices, and may simulate I/O devices concurrently with servicing real I/O devices. In typical use, one or more applications programs will execute on the CPU concurrently with the execution of one or more simulation scripts in the IOPs attacked to the system I/O bus. The behavior of the system under such conditions can be used for capacity planning forecasts, for developing and debugging the application software, for reproducing and diagnosing intermittent error conditions, or for performing other tasks in which it is necessary to determine the characteristics of the system under hypothetical conditions.

Method and apparatus for simulating I/O devices

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Rochester, MN, United States of America

Mark Arnold Boegel