Overview of SLU P and Finance Communication

This topic and the topics below present an administrative overview of SLU P and Finance Communication Systems, and explains how IMS implements this architecture.

User-written application programs for IBM® Finance Communication Systems can be defined to operate in two different ways with IMS—as an IBM 3600/4700 Finance Communication Controller or as a secondary logical unit type P (SLU P). These systems are described as UNITYPE=FINANCE and UNITYPE=SLUTYPEP, respectively, on the TYPE macro statement.

Definitions:
  • The term SLU P is used in the following topics when describing support that is applicable to both system types.
  • The terms Finance and SLUTYPEP are used in the following topics when it is necessary to distinguish between the systems.
A major difference between SLU P and Finance systems is the level of MFS support available to workstations in the programmable control unit.
  • Finance—Workstations can be identified as displays, printers, passbook printers, and ATMs (automated teller machines), such as the 4730 systems. MFS can provide detailed support for display paging, printer page formatting, and ATMs.
  • SLU P—Each LU in the controller has a program name and its unique device characteristics are unknown to IMS. The programmable controller is responsible for device control and formatting. The MFS administrator and the program administrator for the remote controller need to establish data field structures for exchanged messages. MFS accepts the input structure and rearranges it as required for the IMS application program. At output, MFS accepts application program-provided data and converts it to the correct format for transmission to the controller. This MFS facility is called distributed presentation management (DPM).