>My system is from the old school. I am running a series 70 with MPE/V.
>In a month or two we are planning to bring in a 939KS running MPE/IX.
>Has anyone done this kind of conversion before?
 
Yes. :-)
 
>I have been reading the
>Interact magazines and can only find CASE studies from 1989.
 
That's because the typical conversion is so boring that the magazines
started rejecting the articles :-). Seriously, if you're running only
nonprivileged software and you're not using any products that aren't
supported on MPE iX (e.g., DEL), you're extremely unlikely to have
problems.
 
>        Is the migration service that HP provides worth the $10,000?
 
In the one recent conversion I know about -- within the last 12 months --
the company bought this service. The DP manager says in retrospect that it
was a mistake; the service wasn't worth nearly that much. They're a
manufacturing company running COBOL/IMAGE applications with a proprietary
screen handler.
 
>        How differant is MPE/IX?
 
Very different, inside. Nearly identical outside from a user perspective,
unless you look for differences. This you are advised to do -- the new
commands and facilities can make your life considerably easier, and you'll
need to learn about the new compilers and so on in order to take maximum
advantage of your new system. But essentially all your old techniques will
still work. Some operational differences exist in backup techniques, system
configuration and the like; you can take the system management and system
operation courses to learn about these.
 
>        What major problems should I expect?
 
Finding a better act to follow this one :-). Users will complain that
things aren't working because they're not used to the computer doing in
half a second what used to take 10 or 15 seconds. But again, unless you're
doing something exotic, you should have no problems.
 
-- Bruce
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Toback    Tel: (602) 996-8601    | Here lies the spec of program P.
OPT, Inc.            (800) 858-4507    | The task of coding fell on me
11801 N. Tatum Blvd. Ste. 142          | Who ('til I'd done) revealed to none
Phoenix AZ 85028                       | Its noncomputability.
[log in to unmask]                     | -- D.Diamond "The Programmer's
ABCs"