Hardware configuration framework for the IBM eServer z900
IBM Journal of Research and Development
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About 5 years ago one group in IBM's high-end server system started a redesign of its hardware access layer. Flexibility for any kind of configuration and hardware was the main goal for the design, to allow for rapid bring up changes and changing hardware packaging. Object-oriented design was the obvious choice.About 2 years ago another group in IBM's middle and low end server systems started a redesign of their hardware access layer. The same basic objectives as the high-end systems applied. Additionally the middle and low-end systems group was continuing the consolidation of its servers to one eServer with a common service processor.Both hardware platforms are multi-processor systems supporting terabytes of I/O and a multitude of operating systems from z/OS and OS/400 to AIX and Linux.Everything cried for reuse.This paper is not so much about the final design as it is the challenges of a major object-oriented design affecting many components and attempting code reuse between different projects on different hardware in different organizations and different development sites including different countries. We will list the goals we had, what we ended up with, what proved to be good concepts and what the roadblocks were. The paper ends with an outlook on what we will approach next.