Mike Cowlishaw - Hursley projects

During my career in IBM I was based at the IBM UK Hursley Laboratories (including an assignment to IBM Yorktown Heights in 1980/81 and a secondment to the Oxford University Press in 1985). Here is a list of the main Hursley projects and products that I was involved in; see also the Hursley Park Museum website.

Year Code Name Product name Description
1977 PADAS – Product Assurance Design Automation System
1978 MicroLink – Bipolar-microprocessor-based test tool, attached to mainframe via ANR; used for testing display controllers etc.
1979 REX – Internal version of Rexx programming language
1982 Rexx System Product Interpreter First REXX product, part of VM/System product; this was followed by dozens of other IBM REXX products and non-IBM implementations – see speleotrove.com/rexxhist/ for lists of REXX books, products, announcement letters, etc.
2 million+ Rexx programmers over the years
1987 LEXX Live Parsing Editor Syntax-colouring text editor written for the Oxford English Dictionary in 1985, released as a UK Country Programming Offering in 1987 and also as a VM PRPQ
1987 IAX IAX Image Processing Image processing system for VM, released as a Program Offering
1988 TOOLSRUN VM/DSNX File and data management software developed at Hursley, product released by Endicott
1988 LPEX LPEX for OS/2 OS/2 product implementation of LEXX, later transferred to Endicott and released for Windows, Java, etc., and used in Eclipse
1988 Oryx IBM Object REXX Object-oriented REXX for OS/2, later also released for Windows 95 and NT in 1997
1993 GoServe (component) Web server for OS/2 and later for Windows and Linux; first fully compliant HTTP 1.0 server (1996), used as a component in a number of products
1996 JTC Java VM for OS/2 Port of Java to OS/2 (and later to other IBM OSs) – Java Technology Centre
1997 NetRexx NetRexx A dialect of REXX for the Java platform included with the VM operating system product; also available as a free compiler
2001 decNumber (component) Decimal floating point reference implementation (and testcases for hardware) now included in dozens of IBM and non-IBM products, GCC, etc.; core proof-of-concept for the decimal floating-point arithmetic in the IEEE 754-2008 Standard
2007 decFloats (component) High-speed decimal floating point package based on Densely Packed Decimal encoding and emulating System/z and POWER decimal hardware; also used in dozens of products and by SAP, CA, etc.

Year	Code Name	Product name	Description
1977	PADAS	–	Product Assurance Design Automation System
1978	MicroLink	–	Bipolar-microprocessor-based test tool, attached to mainframe via ANR; used for testing display controllers etc.
1979	REX	–	Internal version of Rexx programming language
1982	Rexx	System Product Interpreter	First REXX product, part of VM/System product; this was followed by dozens of other IBM REXX products and non-IBM implementations – see `speleotrove.com/rexxhist/` for lists of REXX books, products, announcement letters, etc. 2 million+ Rexx programmers over the years
1987	LEXX	Live Parsing Editor	Syntax-colouring text editor written for the Oxford English Dictionary in 1985, released as a UK Country Programming Offering in 1987 and also as a VM PRPQ
1987	IAX	IAX Image Processing	Image processing system for VM, released as a Program Offering
1988	TOOLSRUN	VM/DSNX	File and data management software developed at Hursley, product released by Endicott
1988	LPEX	LPEX for OS/2	OS/2 product implementation of LEXX, later transferred to Endicott and released for Windows, Java, etc., and used in Eclipse
1988	Oryx	IBM Object REXX	Object-oriented REXX for OS/2, later also released for Windows 95 and NT in 1997
1993	GoServe	(component)	Web server for OS/2 and later for Windows and Linux; first fully compliant HTTP 1.0 server (1996), used as a component in a number of products
1996	JTC	Java VM for OS/2	Port of Java to OS/2 (and later to other IBM OSs) – Java Technology Centre
1997	NetRexx	NetRexx	A dialect of REXX for the Java platform included with the VM operating system product; also available as a free compiler
2001	decNumber	(component)	Decimal floating point reference implementation (and testcases for hardware) now included in dozens of IBM and non-IBM products, GCC, etc.; core proof-of-concept for the decimal floating-point arithmetic in the IEEE 754-2008 Standard
2007	decFloats	(component)	High-speed decimal floating point package based on Densely Packed Decimal encoding and emulating System/z and POWER decimal hardware; also used in dozens of products and by SAP, CA, etc.

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This page was last edited on 2013-09-17 by mfc.