MTCS
Encyclopedia
MTCS was a transaction processor
Transaction processing
In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it cannot remain in an intermediate state...

 that ran on IBM mainframe
IBM mainframe
IBM mainframes are large computer systems produced by IBM from 1952 to the present. During the 1960s and 1970s, the term mainframe computer was almost synonymous with IBM products due to their marketshare...

 systems under OS/VS1
OS/VS1
Operating System/Virtual Storage 1, or OS/VS1,was an IBM mainframe computer operating system designed to be run on IBM System/370 hardware....

.

MTCS was available from IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 and designed for rapid, low to medium volume online processing. This process was entirely interactive (screen-oriented using 3270 display terminals).

The 'official' version of MTCS was single thread
Thread (computer science)
In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process...

 only and was a forerunner of CICS
CICS
Customer Information Control System is a transaction server that runs primarily on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and z/VSE.CICS is a transaction manager designed for rapid, high-volume online processing. This processing is mostly interactive , but background transactions are possible...

 before it was released.
An unofficial and multi-threaded version of MTCS was developed by Littlewoods Pools, UK at the same time as a multi-threaded "MTCS bridge" (middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...

 MTCS simulator) became available for running MTCS transactions directly under CICS. This version was also used by other customers including Granada Productions
Granada Productions
Granada Productions was a British commercial television production and distribution company. The company took its name from the successful ITV franchise, Granada Television....

 under a license agreement.

Transactions

An MTCS transaction is a set of operations which together perform a task. Usually, the majority of transactions are relatively simple tasks such as updating the balance of an account.

MTCS applications comprise transactions which were written in IBM Basic Assembly Language
Basic assembly language
BAL is a low-level language used on IBM mainframes from the earliest 360 series, through systems 370, 390 and z/Series, as well as the Univac 90/60, 90/70 and 90/80 mainframes made by Sperry Corporation. The earliest version was provided with the System/360 in 1964; the latest version is known as...

 and interfaced with 3270 terminals.

Each MTCS program was initiated using a transaction identifier. MTCS screens were sent as native 3270 datastreams to the terminal.

History

The first release of MTCS was made available prior to the first release of CICS
CICS
Customer Information Control System is a transaction server that runs primarily on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and z/VSE.CICS is a transaction manager designed for rapid, high-volume online processing. This processing is mostly interactive , but background transactions are possible...

 in the late 1960s.
A forerunner of MTCS was known as "FASTER" and was a higher level BTAM based product that controlled IBM 2260
IBM 2260
The text-only 960-character monochrome IBM 2260 cathode ray tube video display terminal plus computer keyboard was a 1964 predecessor to the more-powerful color text-and-graphics IBM 3270. The 2260 screen image was normally configured with 12 lines of 80 characters each, which corresponded to IBM...

display terminals
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