CHARON Emulator
VAX & Alpha Virtualization
Preserving Your Mission Critical VAX & Alpha Applications Through Virtualization
Aging Hardware ?
Putting an End to Your VAX and Alpha Hardware Troubles!
- Aging VAX or Alpha hardware leaves you vulnerable to disk, CPU, memory, or other hardware failures that could bring your systems to a grinding halt costing you thousands of dollars in downtime.
- Using eBay as your VAX or Alpha replacements parts depot costs more for inferior technology and insufficient capacity and performance.
- Expensive VAX and Alpha maintenance contracts can break your budget. Worse yet, HP has stopped renewing VAX support on your system, leaving you to fend for yourself for maintenance services.
- Are you challenged with the task of finding a replacement system and application for your aging VAX or Alpha that provides the same functionality as your current system?
CHARON Virtualization - The Answer to Your VAX and Alpha Hardware Problems!
Preserve your software investments across hardware generations by extending the life cycle of your mission-critical VAX and Alpha applications.
Software Concepts International (SCI) has partnered with Stromasys to provide Alpha and VAX virtualization products.
Stromasys is the original and leading provider of enterprise-class cross-platform virtualization solutions, including PDP-11, Digital VAX, and Alpha servers.
The CHARON-VAX/AXP suite of products allows you to run your VAX or AXP applications unchanged on modern, high-performance, industry-standard (X86) hardware.
SCI can install your existing OpenVMS operating system, on the virtual Alpha created by CHARON-AXP, directly from a system disk image from the original Alpha or from the original distribution kit. The applications and LMF license keys can be copied in binary format via the network or tape. Due to the fact that the Alpha hardware is replaced and not the Alpha operating system, all original software functionality is maintained.
- The CHARON-AXP family of products are Alpha replacement systems, running as a software application on industry-standard systems, such as an HP ProLiant server.
- CHARON-AXP presents an exact copy of Alpha hardware to the Alpha operating system and will run unmodified Alpha operating systems, layered software, and applications. CHARON emulators eliminate the need to implement new applications or re-educate employees.
- Developers and end-users are unaware of the transition to the emulator, except that their applications will run considerably faster!
Benefits of CHARON-VAX/AXP
- HP provides extension licenses that provide a continuation of your existing HP software warranty agreements when running on CHARON-VAX/AXP environment.
- Oracle Corporation supports Oracle Rdb and Oracle CODASYL DBMS and their related products running on CHARON virtualized hardware. Oracle performs all of its VAX and Alpha development on Charon emulators. In most cases, Oracle license and service agreements are transferred to the same number of CHARON virtualized processors at no charge.
CHARON-virtualization works on systems that utilize technologies as:
DELL EMC / HPE 3PAR / NetApp / Hitachi / IBM and most major storage vendors
- HPE 3PAR
- DELL EMC
- NetApp
- Hitachi
- IBM
- and most other major storage vendors…
Replace with new commodity hardware with a manufacturer’s warranty.
Save floor space, electricity consumption, and cooling requirements by replacing your existing cabinets of VAX and Alpha hardware with as little as 1U of rack space.
SCI has extensive experience in all phases of the implementation.
- Hardware selection/buildout/installation
- Base operating system installation and optimization
- Migration planning and implementation
Simple upgrade path as new, faster x86 platforms become available.
than on the original VAX hardware.
All applications continue to run exactly as they did on the physical hardware.
No changes to operational skills or retraining are required.
CHARON virtualization products emulate many VAX and Alpha hardware models – chose the model that matches your current requirements.
The CHARON products were certified using the original AXE hardware verification test suite of Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX and AXP engineering group.
At a price you can afford with flexible support, licensing, and pricing conditions to satisfy the defense industry, OEMs, or high-volume end-user needs.
With CHARON Emulators, you can run your existing VMS operating system, layered software, and applications unmodified!
Utilizing today’s server technologies, the CHARON family of products emulates your existing VAX or Alpha hardware through the use of virtualization, allowing you to run your existing VMS operating system, layered software, and applications unmodified! The transition is seamless, and users are unaware of the change except that their applications run considerably faster in the new CHARON environment. Better yet, your existing licenses can be transferred to the new system.
Worldwide Support
Supporting customers throughout the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia.
Real Experts
All SCI team members are full-time employees based in the US with over 20 years of hands-on experience managing the most complex OpenVMS systems and databases.
Robust Products
SCI’s software and service products are continually enhanced based on our experiences managing hundreds of OpenVMS systems and databases for over 30 years.
Security/Confidence
SCI is ISO 27001 certified, providing confidence that our ISMS policies and procedures meet or exceed international standards.