Design and development of a data transmission link between mainframe computer and a microcomputer

Abstract

Transmission of data between mainframe and personal computer plays a very important role in modern data processtng. In an attempt to establish a data transmission link from mainframe computer to personal computer the present work studied the 3270 Information Display System, its communication protocol specially from the downloading point of view, the information content of the signal transmitted from Control Unit and display device and designed a data acquisition hardware and a software. The experimental set up developed was used at the Computer Centre of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to download data from IBM System/370 to personal computer. The hardware was designed to work with the 3270 l Information Display System and since the 3270 System is attachable to System/370, 30XX and 4300 processors of IBM, the hardware and software will be able to download data from all these mainframe computers operating in any environment to personal computers.