Hercules (emulator)
| Hercules
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| developer | Jay Maynard |
| Current version | 3.13 (September 30, 2017) |
| operating system | Linux , Windows , FreeBSD , Solaris , Mac OS X |
| programming language | C. |
| category | emulator |
| License | QPL |
| hercules-390.eu | |
Hercules is an open source emulator that makes it possible to emulate IBM mainframes System / 360 , System / 370 , System / 390 or System z on different systems. All operating systems that were written for these processors are running.
The emulator has nothing to do with HGC ( Hercules Graphics Card ), a graphics card from the 1980s.
In practical use, the latest (commercial) operating system that amateurs can use on Hercules is MVS 3.8 from the 1980s. Later versions of the operating system are licensed for certain processors and may therefore not be installed on Hercules. However, it is known that IBM internally uses “ThinkPad” notebooks with z / OS installed . Furthermore, there are now free alternatives, such as Linux on System z and OpenSolaris for System Z.
The company IBM has also published so-called Redbooks , which describe the installation of mainframe operating systems on notebooks using the FLEX-ES program from Fundamental Software, Inc. This is a commercial product that is also able to emulate IBM mainframe systems on PCs.
Restrictions: Since various internals for parallel Sysplex and Coupling Facility are not published, the corresponding functionalities cannot be implemented.
Hercules is freely available and subject to the Q Public License . A distribution with a pre-generated system (Tur (n) key system) with JES2 and TSO is available for beginners . RPF is installed to replace the licensed ISPF .
In addition to the documentation supplied, there is now also documentation and scripts that make daily work with Hercules easier. Many users also use Hercules with current IBM operating systems to evaluate various scenarios .
A Telnet Tn3270 program (included in newer Windows versions) and numerous libraries are required for emulation on a Windows system . Cygwin is no longer required in the current version. The emulation takes place in two windows. Different GUI versions are also available.
XMIT is often used as the file exchange format .
Web links
- Hercules Homepage (English)
- MVS-Tur (n) key u. a. OS (English)
- Link catalog about Hercules (emulator) at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )