DPCX (Distributed Processing Control eXecutive) was an
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
for the
IBM 8100 small computer system.
IBM hoped it would help their installed base of
IBM 3790 customers migrate to the 8100 and the
DPPX operating system. It was mainly deployed to support a
word processing
A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...
system, ''Distributed Office Support Facility'' (DOSF) which was derived from the earlier
IBM 3730 word processing system.
Like DPPX, it was written in the
PL/S-like PL/DS language. The applications, including much of DOSF, however, were written an interpreted language that was "compiled" using the
System/370
The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...
assembler macro facility.
The 8100/DPCX/DOSF system was the first type of distributed system to connect to the
IBM Distributed Office Support System (DISOSS) running on data host.
[IBM Red Book DISOSS] Later versions of DISOSS relied on SNA Distribution System (
SNADS) and eventually became
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
communication of documents which complied with
Document Interchange Architecture
A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
(DIA) and
Document Content Architecture
Document Content Architecture, or DCA for short, is a standard developed by IBM for text documents in the early 1980s. DCA was used on mainframe and IBM i systems, and formed the basis of DisplayWrite's file format. DCA was later extended as MO ...
(DCA) as other types of distributed system gained DISOSS support –
Scanmaster,
Displaywriter, and
5520 Office System.
References
8100 DPCX
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