Year 2000 Product Readiness

IBM's currently marketed ERPBridge software products and legacy hardware products specified below are Year 2000 ready within the confines of the following definitions.

IBM considers a product "Year 2000 ready" if the product, when used in accordance with its associated documentation, is capable of correctly processing, providing, and/or receiving date data within and between the 20th and 21st centuries, provided that all products (for example, hardware, software and firmware) used with the product properly exchange accurate date data with it.

IBM's assessment of Year 2000 readiness is an ongoing effort, and the information regarding Year 2000 is changing rapidly. The information provided here may not be exhaustive. It is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute a certification or warranty, expressed or implied, of any kind. IBM obligations, regarding its products, are set forth in the IBM Customer Agreement, the IBM Program License Agreement or the IBM Statement of Limited Warranty (as applicable).

The Year 2000 challenge occurs when a product that processes date data cannot or does not correctly distinguish between dates in the 20th and 21st centuries. In most cases, this is because date data contains 2-digit years and no explicit indication of the century.

Unfortunately, because of the widespread use of dates in existing hardware, software, and databases, it is far from simple in practice to correct Year 2000 issues. The situation is made particularly complex because of interdependencies between hardware and/or software components that exchange date data -- if one component is changed, so must the other, and the interfaces must match. Further, expansion of date data from 2-digit years to 4-digit years forces changes in database record formats, screen and report formats, etc. These changes force still other changes in other products and in customer applications.

In order to reduce the number of changes and the complexity of the overall problem, a solution other than expansion of date data to 4-digit years is to define a 100 year window, say 1950 to 2049, and interpret the dates with their 2-digit years using this window. Thus, 50, 75, and 99 would be interpreted as 1950, 1975, and 1999, while 00, 25, and 49 would be interpreted as 2000, 2025, and 2049. Database formats and most existing data can remain unchanged. This technique is called windowing and there are several variations on it using fixed, movable, and sliding windows. IBM's ERPBridge and other data collection software products use the fixed window technique, with dates after 70 being prefixed with 19 and dates prior to 70 being prefixed with 20. Dates before 1970 and after 2069 are not supported.

The following list of hardware and software are Year 2000 ready:

   Hardware: (all withdrawn)
        7524 (all models)
        7525 (all models)
        7526 (all models)
        7527 (all models)

   Older Software:
        5601-399  3270 & COPICS Data Services
        5601-398  5250 & MAPICS Data Services
      * 5696-977  7524 Interface Support for OS/2 and Windows/NT
        5756-146  7527 Extended Terminal Services (withdrawn)
      * 5799-RCD  752x Emulator for DOS
        5799-QNP  Data Collection Transaction Building Tool
        5601-299  Data Collector (DOS)
      * 5639-A06  DCConnect Server for OS/2
      * 5639-A05  DCConnect Server for Windows/NT
      * 5639-A04  DCConnect Toolkit for OS/2
      * 5639-A07  DCConnect Toolkit for Windows/NT
      * 5799-QTA  ERPBridge for J.D. Edwards for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 5639-A02  ERPBridge for MAPICS for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 5639-A03  Terminal Services for DOS and Windows
      * 5799-RCZ  Transaction Connection for OS/2 and NT (must apply Y2K PTF)

   Latest Software:
      * 41L2166   ERPBridge for MAPICS 1.4.0 for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 41L2179   DCConnect Server 1.4.0 for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 41L2160   DCConnect Development Toolkit 1.4.0 for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 41L2209   DCConnect Transaction Connection 1.4.0 for OS/2 and Windows/NT
                  (must install at least Fix Pack B which includes Y2K fix)
      * 41L2203   DCConnect Transaction Building Tool 1.4.0 for OS/2 and Windows/NT
      * 41L2189   DCConnect 752x Emulator 1.4.0 for DOS
      * 41L2179   DCConnect Terminal Services 1.4.0 for DOS and Windows
      * 5799-C64  ERPBridge for J.D. Edwards, Version 2 (Windows/NT)

   All product numbers above that are preceded by an asterisk (*) have an
   end-of-service date of at least January 31, 2001.  Year 2000 support will
   therefore be available for these products.  For all of the other products,
   the end-of-service date was prior to July 1, 1998; therefore these products
   will not be eligible for Year 2000 support.

   The following licensed programs are not Year 2000 ready:
        5756-144  DCC/2 (withdrawn)
        5756-145  Data Collector for DAE (withdrawn)
        5799-QPL  DCC/2 Runtime (withdrawn I-listed product)
        5799-RDB  ERPBridge for SAP

DCConnect is the latest in IBM's ERPBridge family of solutions. It features an improved graphical user interface, support for OS/2 and Windows/NT, support for IBM data collection terminals as well as selected 3rd party data collection terminals, and modular packaging.

Since DCConnect ships with a migration utility, transaction programs and configurations can be migrated from DCC/2 to DCConnect on OS/2 or Windows/NT. DCConnect on OS/2 and Windows/NT also supports the same APIs that the DCC/2 32-bit runtime provided.

Please refer to our notes on upgrading from DCC/2 to DCConnect for more information about what DCConnect products are needed to replace the various DCC/2 components.