South Africa
Varied career encompassing programming, systems programming, OS design, micro-computing, Network design and implementation, network consultancy, Stratus Fault Tolerant systems and associated software.
From 2005 until 31st December 2016 I was employed on the Stratus ON/2 support team for Standard Bank. The Bank's online system operated over 3000 ATMs and over 50,000 POS terminals as well as many other switches and remote devices. During this period I facilitated the upgrade of Stratus hardware/software to the Continuum Stratus system. This was a very successful project that took over a year to complete. I was also instrumental in developing a TCP/IP to X25 protocol conversion for communication between a Unix sub-system on the mainframe and the Stratus. The Continuum system does not support X25. Standard Bank have migrated to a new system. As mentioned previously, I am very proficient in the PL/1 programming language. In addition, for testing of communications protocols that I have developed I will use PC based Delphi for simulating the environment.
I left FNB in 1989 and have concentrated primarily on the design, programming and development of Stratus Fault Tolerant systems using, in most cases the ON/2 Banking package. I was involved in the implementation of most of these system installed in South Africa. These included:- First National Bank Standard Bank of South Africa ABSA Bank Nedbank Zimswitch (Harare, Zimbabwe) MedKredit Abbey National Bank (UK). To this endeavour I concentrated mainly on the system side which involved an in-depth knowledge of the Stratus OS as well as the ON/2 internals. The system programming language on Stratus is PL/1. As these systems are deployed as front-end-processors they are required to accommodate multiple comms protocols in order to provide connectivity to the various terminal types. These protocols included TCP/IP; X25; SNA; Asynchronous; X29; Bisync. In all cases, my primary, most important function was to ensure the reliable connectivity between the Stratus system and the online terminals. In many instances protocol conversion between two protocols (i.e X25 to TCP/IP and vice versa) was be required. I have single handedly completed the following development projects on Stratus:- 1. A complete re-write of the X25 modules for ON/2. This was originally initiated for the FNB project but since then ON/2 adopted it and it is still in use on most ON/2 systems around the world. 2. Design of an asynchronous (over X29), secure and efficient packet protocol for the transmission/reception of point-of-sale data between some 40,000+ POS terminals and the Stratus system. This was developed for ABSA Bank and although the Stratus is no longer deployed there, the terminals still deploy that same protocol over TCP/IP. 3. Similar to the above, but for the MediKredit system. 4. A complete re-write of the TCP/IP modules for ON/2. This was originally initiated for Abbey National (UK) but since then ON/2 adopted it and it is still in use on most ON/2 systems around the world.
At FNB I was in charge of the online networks for the banking systems. Initially the bank was running off in ICL mainframe system using X25 as the transmission protocol. The Bank subsequently migrated to IBM (Hogan) technology whereafter we deployed SNA as well as X25 as the data delivery mechanism. At that time I was responsible for the design and implementation of a X25 wide area network (using Micom X25 switches) to cater for the surge in point-of-sale traffic from some 30,000 POS terminals. This network transpired to be the largest private X25 network in South Africa. It also required the conversion of X25 traffic to/from SNA for mainframe processing. During this period I personally developed a network management system for monitoring, management and billing purposes.
In the early part of my career, programming, systems engineering, OS design and development. Throughout the 70s I was heavily involved in Mini-Computer systems and then bespoke development in the engineering industry in micro-computer system (Zilog and Intel). This was very much state-of -the-art technology at the time. In fact, I was one of the early pioneers in the UK, in the micro-computer industry. In the late 70s I was on the development team at Philips Telecommunications for the 1st computerised Telex system in the world, using Zilog technology. Moved to South Africa in 1982.