Background - our support

LBH Consulting Pty Ltd staff have been actively involved in the OpenVMS operating system since its release in 1978 on the VAX-11/780 hardware.

We have designed, managed and supported systems as well as trained thousands of IT staff across the world in the last 26 years.

The topics to the left contain more details about the types of services we supply.
 

Background - OpenVMS.

OpenVMS, originally called VMS (Virtual Memory System), was first conceived in 1976 as a new operating system for the then-new, 32-bit, virtual memory line of computers, eventually named VAX (Virtual Address eXtension).

The first VAX model, the 11/780, was code-named ‘‘Star’’, hence the code name for the VMS operating system, ‘‘Starlet’’, a name that remains to this day as the name for the system library files (STARLET.OLB, etc.).

VMS version X0.5 was the first released to customers, in support of the hardware beta test of the VAX-11/780, in 1977. VAX/VMS Version V1.0 shipped in 1978, along with the first revenue-ship 11/780s.

OpenVMS was designed entirely within HP and specifically within the former Digital Equipment Corporation (DIGITAL). Two of the principal designers were Dave Cutler and Dick Hustvedt, though with a wide variety of other contributors.

OpenVMS was conceived as a 32-bit, virtual memory successor to the RSX-11M operating system for the PDP-11.Many of the original designers and programmers of OpenVMS had worked previously on RSX-11M, and many concepts from RSX-11M were carried over to OpenVMS.

OpenVMS VAX is a 32-bit, multitasking, multiprocessing virtual memory operating system. Current implementations run on VAX systems from HP and other vendors.

OpenVMS Alpha is a 64-bit multitasking, multiprocessing virtual memory operating system. Current implementations run on Alpha systems from HP, and other vendors.

Work to port OpenVMS to systems based on the Intel IA-64 architecture and specifically to the Itanium Processor Family is presently underway.

For more details on OpenVMS and its features, please read the OpenVMS Software Product Description at: • http://www.compaq.com/info/spd/

OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx and/or SPD 41.87.xx. 2–1

General Information

Additional information on the general features of various OpenVMS releases, release dates, as well as the development project code names of specific releases, is available at:

• http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/os/openvms-releasehistory.html

Additional historical information—as well as pictures and a variety of other trivia is available in the VAX 20th anniversary book:

• http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/20th/vmsbook.pdf