From: STAR::REL_MGMT "19-Dec-1996 1101 -0500" 19-DEC-1996 11:22:22.73 To: @DISTRIBUTION.DIS CC: Subj: Release Newsletter December 19, 1996 Welcome to the OpenVMS Release Management Newsletter! Our aim is to keep you informed about OpenVMS releases. Please send questions or comments to STAR::REL_MGMT, which forwards mail to the entire OpenVMS release management staff. This newsletter contains the following updates: Summary of Planned Releases Gryphon Release Status Raven Release Status Layered Product Updates Year 2000 Ready Status *NEW* ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION PACKAGE(EIP)-formerly known as "AFFINITY PACKAGE" The Release Management Newsletter is now available on the Web. You can access the Release Management Newsletter via the URL: http://tsavo.zko.dec.com/release_news.html or by selecting it from the Release Management Home Page http://tsavo.zko.dec.com/ ============================ Summary of Planned Releases: ============================ GRYPHON - OpenVMS V7.1 - Q2 FY97 SSB Submission RAVEN - OpenVMS V?.? - 1st half CY1998 NOTE: In general, we will plan for a separate Hardware release every quarter. To maximize revenue potential for that quarter, we will aim to support H/W by the middle of the quarter, unless otherwise directed. There is currently no planned Q2 H/W release, however. ====================== Gryphon (OpenVMS V7.1) ====================== GENERAL: Gryphon is in Qualification! Qualification is over 60% complete, and we've had a fairly uneventful qualification so far. The Readiness Review will be held on 12/19/96. Our greatest risk so far has been the weather. If we continue to have an uneventful qualification, then we should submit to the SSB prior to the Christmas holidays If we need to extend qualification through the holidays, then we will go forward on a task-by-task basis, depending on the availability of resources and support. Gryphon represents roughly 1.5 years of momentous effort Neither rain, nor snow, nor ice, nor any of that stuff stopped us -- and we all get to be proud of what we've done NEXT MAJOR MILESTONE: SSB Submit on 12/20/96. SCHEDULE: SSB Submit on 12/20/96. CONTACTS: Project Manager: CJ Coppersmith (STAR::COPPERSMITH) Project Leader: Karen Marion (EVMS::MARION) Product Manager: Mary Jane Vazquez (STAR::VAZQUEZ) LP Coordinator: Sue Avery (EVMS::AVERY) ====================== RAVEN Update ====================== GENERAL: A series of meetings have been held to try to examine the P0 requirements and to determine a schedule for Raven. The result of this effort was to re-affirm that the affinity infrastructure projects and DCOM are the highest priority deliverable for Raven. HFS (with its pathworks support), and the storage server products are also P0 deliverables. An examination of the schedule of the infrastructure components reveals that it is not likely that full infrastructure support is possible by the 12/97 release target ship date. At a meeting of Rich Marcello's staff, it was agreed that a reasonably complete infrastructure deliverable was more important than the target 12/97 schedule. In this case "reasonably complete" seems to be defined as enough infrastructure to support DCOM, an NT accessible registry and a complete HFS implementation (including Pathworks). There is also a strong desire to complete a set of Pathworks enhancements collectively known as V6.1. It should be noted that whatever happens to the Raven schedule that we do intend to support EV-6 systems when they are available and they we are committed to delivering a Year 2000 solution before the end of CY97. Efforts continue to identify all likely projects for Raven. Below is a list of potential projects. If you have a potential project not listed, please make it known to the release team ASAP. Projects will not be eligible for check-in until a project plan is written and reviewed. Please remember to place your project documentation in. STAR::DOCD$:[EVMS.PROJECT_DOCUMENTS] The letter preceding each project name indicates its current status... r = red = this project is still undefined in terms of technical content and schedule. y = yellow = we've got a pretty good idea where we're headed technically, but we still don't have a complete design or a schedule. g = green = we know most of the answers, coding is under way and the schedule is understood. r NT Infrastructure r Authenicated RPC y DCOM (NetOLE) y Registry y Single Signon (part 2) y Services y Events y NT Tactical Security g Per Thread Security r Pathworks V6.1 r DCE r Bristol Wind/U y HFS y Delete / Purge Enhancements y Directory Enhancements y Backup Support y QIO Interface Changes y DCL Support y RMS Support y F11XQP Modifications r Storage Server r Snap Capable Disk y Write-Back Disk Cache y NT Block Server y Exec support for VDC y Year 2000 Readiness r DECthreads Enhancements r Wildfire Support r Enhanced Wildfire Support y FiberChannel Support r EV-6 Systems Support g Deferred Memory Testing y Multiple Tape Density g APB Firmware Rev Check y Intra-Cluster Communications y Clusterwide Logical Names r Lock Manager Performance Improvement r Lock Manager Code Cleanup y Discrete Event Timer r OPdriver re-write y ATM Phase 2 y Shared Interrupts r OM y VLM global buffer objects g Sharable Linkage r AMDS Server for WNT r Level 4 Page Tables g Kernel Threads Enhancements r PCSI Enhancements r Cluster-wide Intrusion Support y QIO Server y Debug Enhancements y Windows Debug Extension (WinDEX) r Debug Semantics for SDA r SDA Extensions r Hypersort Extensions CONTACTS: Project Manager: Brian Allison (STAR::BALLISON) Project Leader: Dan Marshall (EVMS::MARSHALL) Product Manager: Mary Jane Vazquez (STAR::VAZQUEZ) Documentation PL: Jim Parker (JARETH::PARKER) LP Coordinator: Sue Avery (EVMS::AVERY) Acting Verification PL: Mick Konrad (STAR::KONRAD) ================ LAYERED PRODUCTS ================ GRYPHON GENERAL INFO/HIGHLIGHTS: Gryphon's SSB date is rapidly approaching; we're hoping to submit the kit this week. Layered products are still encouraged to test with recent baselevels, with the understanding that if problems are found at this late date there's little we can do in the way of either fixes or release notes. We'll make the SSB kit available to you as soon as it's submitted. Locations of kits: BULOVA::ALPHA$KITS:[GRYPHON.SSB.H071] for the Alpha kit BULOVA::SYS$KITS:[GRYPHON.SSB.H071] for the VAX kit GENERAL INFO/HIGHLIGHTS: REMINDER: Tables that show the layered products that are compatible with OpenVMS releases are located here: http://www.openvms.digital.com From the OpenVMS home page, click on Product Literature and then look for the Software Public Rollout Reports. Separate reports are published for the VAX and Alpha platforms. The reports are updated monthly to reflect new and revised product submissions. Please take a look at these tables to verify that the information about your product is accurate. If it's incorrect, please contact Susan Scholes HYLNDR::SCHOLES for any needed amendments. We're expanding this listing for Gryphon SSB time to include tables of products that support the following operating system versions: OpenVMS V6.2 only OpenVMS V6.2 and higher OpenVMS releases up to and including V7.1 This is being done in order to help customers who are pondering an upgrade from OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2, so that they can easily identify the products that are supported on the target OS version (where the target OS version can be V6.2 or V7.0.) This information is included in the current rollout reports, but is scattered throughout the existing tables. We'd like to cut the data differently in order to make the information easier to find. ====================== Year 2000 Ready Status ====================== GENERAL: Year 2000 refers to the challenge of properly and as smoothly as possible carrying IT environments through and beyond the year 2000. OSSG aims to be Year 2000 Ready before the end of 1997. The initial goal of OSSG's effort will be to complete the investigation and analysis on OpenVMS and OSSG's layered products source code. This investigation is expected to begin in earnest in January. Work is in progress to scope and bound the effort, put into place the resources needed and to assemble a core team. The results of the investigation will be used as a basis of a knowledge database and will indicate the actions needed to satisfy OpenVMS customers' requirements for Year 2000 readiness. Depending on the scope of enhancements and required modifications will determine the release vehicle and schedule. CONTACTS: Project Manager: Susan Lindeberg (STAR::SLINDEBERG) Program Manager: Vittorio Mezzano (STAR::MEZZANO) Verification PL: Curt Spacht (STAR::SPACHT) Documentation PL: Pat Nelson (JARETH::NELSON) =========================================================================== ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION PACKAGE (EIP) - formerly known as "AFFINITY PACKAGE" =========================================================================== The Enterprise Integration Package is a project that is on a fast-track schedule to deliver a set of client and server software and documentation (along with a new licensing scheme) to provide customers with capabilities that fulfill the themes for Affinity. This package will FRS in February 1997. We are nearly completed on the final qualification of the server part of this package. The Enterprise Integration Server will be the first phase of this project that will be completed for a January 8th submission date. Full completion of the 'package' will occur when we complete both the OMT kit and the Enterprise Integration Client, both which are scheduled to submit to the SSB on February 3, 1997. We are currently on target for meeting the January 8th submission for the Enterprise Integration Server. There will be a two-phase Readiness Review scheduled for this product. The first, focused on the Enterprise Integration Server will occur on Monday, January 8th. The second, focused on the Enterprise Integration Client and OMT, will occur on January 27th. Stay tuned for notices on these meetings. The EIP is being offered on Alpha server systems that support OpenVMS V7.1. The client software (the Enterprise Integration Client - EIC) is supported on WNT V4.0 and W95. This effort is a critical deliverable for the organization and is tied to hardware deliverables and announcements in February, as well as tied to our overall Wave 3 deliverable. For documentation on what is included in this kit, please refer to: BULOVA::PUBLIC2$:[NT_AFFINITY.PKGS]EIS_CONTENTS.PS The latest versions of the Engineering Plan, Qualification Plan and Documentation Plan are also located in this directory. For more information on this project, please contact any of the following contacts: Linda Benson - EIP Engineering Manager John Gorczyca - EIP Product Manager Rob Emsley - EIP Project Manager