Record format emulation

Claim 3

A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stripped variable record data strings are written into a buffer store arranged into addressable units of a capacity equal to that of the fixed length block prior to their transfer a fixed length block formatted storage medium.

Claim 4

A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the variable length format logically comprises records, each having addressable first control fields and addressable first data fields including control and error related portions, with inter-record gaps containing no externally usable data, between adjacent one of the records and intra-record gaps between the control and data fields, an addressable location of the fields and gaps being identifiable by byte count from a beginning point - the local logical track origin - of the one format, the second format of the record member including addressable blocks each having a predetermined data storage capacity of a predetermined number of bytes and having associated address identification containing indicia; the stripping deleting the control and error related portions and the intra-record gaps from the one format, but not the inter-record gaps; the maintained displacement being in terms of byte count.

Claim 5

A method as claimed in claim 3, further including: reserving a first plurality of the predetermined number of bytes in each of the blocks and addressable units for a block header; and storing a pointer in each block header indicating the byte displacement from the beginning of the block of the addressable unit which is the beginning byte of the first control field stored in the respective block or the addressable unit, and if no first control field is stored in any of the blocks or addressable units then including an indication of no first control field in such block header.

Claim 6

A method as claimed in claim 4, further including: after arranging the buffer storage, reading from the record member blocks of data storing a copy of the data into the addressable units, and then storing the data to be stored from the data into the addressable units; and in a last one of the addressable units storing an indication in its last occurring first control field that such count field is the last control field of the data.

Claim 7

A method a claimed in claim 3, further including: in the data dividing the first control fields into count fields and key fields with gaps therebetween; and recording the count field, key field and first data field of each record as a continuum of data beginning at the byte count from the beginning of the data.

Claim 8

A method as claimed in claim 6, further including: assigning the data in the one format as one record track; calculating the number of the blocks to store the data on the record member in the second format; and emulating the calculated number of blocks to appear as the one track of the first format.

Claim 9

In a method of operating, by emulation, an information handling system which supplies data to be stored arranged in datas divided into numbered records, each of the records including a control field and a data field with a gap between the control and data fields, inter-record gaps between the records, error, padding and physical parameter data in the fields of the datas, a record member in the system which stores data in addressable fixed blocks, each block being capable of storing a predetermined number of bytes of data; the machine-executed steps of: before storing any data, stripping predetermined portions of the parameter data and intra-record gaps from the data to be stored; adding a last record indicator to the control field of the last record of the data to be stored; arranging the records of the data to be stored in the same sequence as in the supplied data and keeping inter-record gaps between adjacent ones of the records such that the beginning of each record is displaced in bytes from the beginning of the arranged data as such each record is displaced in bytes from the beginning of the supplied data; dividing the arranged data into fixed sized blocks of data irrespective of the supplied data format; in each of the fixed sized blocks inserting a block header having a pointer to the control field stored in such fixed size block and excluding the block header from the byte count of the stored arranged data measuring the number of bytes in the data to be stored; dividing the measured number of bytes by the predetermined number of bytes of each the block less the block header bytes to yield a number of the fixed size blocks for storing the data to be stored; allocating the yielded number of fixed size blocks to the data to be stored and logically addressing the allocated blocks as a logical track of the supplied data; and storing the arranged data onto the record member.

Claim 10

In a method of operating, by emulation, an information handling system which supplies data to be stored arranged in datas divided into numbered records, each of the records including a control field and a data field with a gap between the control and data fields, inter-record gaps between the records, error, padding and physical parameter data in the fields of the datas, a record member in the system which stores data in addressable fixed blocks, each block being capable of storing a predetermined number of bytes of data; the machine-executed steps of: before storing any data, stripping predetermined portions of the parameter data and intra-record gaps from the data to be stored; adding a last record indicator to the control field of the last record of the data to be stored; arranging the records of the data to be stored in the same sequence as in the supplied data and keeping inter-record gaps between adjacent ones of the records such that the beginning of each record is displaced in bytes from the beginning of the arranged data as such each record is displaced in bytes from the beginning of the supplied data; dividing the arranged data into fixed sized blocks of data irrespective of the supplied data format; in each of the fixed sized blocks inserting a block header having a pointer to the control field stored in such fixed size block and excluding the block header from the byte count of the stored arranged data measuring the number of bytes in the data to be stored; dividing the measured number of bytes by the predetermined number of bytes of each the block less the block header bytes to yield a number of the fixed size blocks for storing the data to be stored; allocating the yielded number of fixed size blocks to the data to be stored and logically addressing the allocated blocks as a logical track of the supplied data; and storing the arranged data onto the record member.

Claim 13

In an information handling system having a FBA DASD with a plurality of FBA blocks each of which have a given data storage capacity and a host processor using programs having a CKD data format, a channel processor interposed between the host processor the the FBA DASD and having a channel portion for issuing channel commands to the FBA DASD for effecting data transfers and related operations between the host processor and the FBA DASD; the improvement including, in combination: an emulator interposed between the channel processor channel portion for intercepting predetermined ones of the issued channel commands for emulating the CKD data format on the FBA DASD, including means for buffering CKD formatted data in buffer entries having the given data storage capacity and program means in the emulator for establishing a virtual track control wherein the CKD formatted data resides in predetermined ones of the FBA blocks such that the byte displacement from the beginning of the virtual track for the beginning of each and every CKD record is the same as the byte displacement on a CKD DASD when recorded thereon from a beginning of a CKD track on such DASD; and means in the emulator for recoding a header in each of the FBA blocks outside of the virtual track and including a displacement pointer to the beginning of a first CKD record in such FBA block, if one begins therein, and indicating when no CKD record begins in such block.

Claim 14

In an information handling system having a FBA DASD with a plurality of FBA blocks each of which have a given data storage capacity and a host processor using programs having a CKD data format, a channel processor interposed between the host processor the the FBA DASD and having a channel portion for issuing channel commands to the FBA DASD for effecting data transfers and related operations between the host processor and the FBA DASD; the improvement including, in combination: an emulator interposed between the channel processor channel portion for intercepting predetermined ones of the issued channel commands for emulating the CKD data format on the FBA DASD, including means for buffering CKD formatted data in buffer entries having the given data storage capacity and program means in the emulator for establishing a virtual track control wherein the CKD formatted data resides in predetermined ones of the FBA blocks such that the byte displacement from the beginning of the virtual track for the beginning of each and every CKD record is the same as the byte displacement on a CKD DASD when recorded thereon from a beginning of a CKD track on such DASD; and means in the emulator for recoding a header in each of the FBA blocks outside of the virtual track and including a displacement pointer to the beginning of a first CKD record in such FBA block, if one begins therein, and indicating when no CKD record begins in such block.