The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator

A mainframe emulator for PCs:
http://www.hercules-390.org/

The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator: 
https://hercules-390.github.io/html/

"Hercules is a computer emulator allowing software written for IBM mainframe computers (System/370, System/390, and zSeries/System z) and for plug compatible mainframes (such as Amdahl machines) to run on other types of computer hardware, notably on low-cost personal computers."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator) 

"Hercules runs under multiple parent operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and macOS and is released under the open source software license QPL.^"

^"Hercules is technically compatible with all IBM mainframe operating systems, even older versions which no longer run on newer mainframes. However, many mainframe operating systems require vendor licenses to run legally. Newer licensed operating systems, such as OS/390, z/OS, VSE/ESA, z/VSE, VM/ESA, z/VM, TPF/ESA, and z/TPF are technically compatible but cannot legally run on the Hercules emulator ..." 

^"Due to the age of the earlier System/360 and System/370 hardware, it is a relatively safe assumption that Hercules will outperform them when running on moderately powerful hardware, despite the considerable overhead of emulating a computer architecture in software. However, newer, partially or fully configured System z machines outperform Hercules by a wide margin. A relatively fast dual processor X86 machine running Hercules is capable of sustaining about 50 to 60 MIPS for code that utilizes both processors in a realistic environment, with sustained rates rising to a reported 300 MIPS on leading-edge (early 2009) PC-class systems."

^{IBM MVS on the Hercules Mainframe emulator: 
 https://www.mslinn.com/mainframe/2000-hercules.html}

"Installing Hercules:  
Hercules is part of the standard Ubuntu distribution. To install it, simply type the following. Note that this also installs an X-windows emulation of an IBM 3270 terminal:"

yes | sudo apt install hercules x3270 

'If you want to find old IBM mainframe OSes, look for the term ADCD, which means "Application Developer Controlled Distribution". ^' 

^{Hercules - IBM S/370 and ESA/390 Emulator:
 https://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/index.html}

^"Hercules by itself only provides the implementation of the hardware instruction set of IBM mainframe architectures, S/370, ESA/390, and z/390.  In order to utilize Hercules, it is necessary to acquire either an operating system or a stand-alone program that has been designed to run on IBM mainframe hardware.  Like the hardware itself, the operating system software that runs mainframe computers is prohibitively expensive.  However, there are older versions of several of IBM's popular operating systems that are now classified as Public Domain, meaning that they may be obtained and utilized freely."

^{Installing MVS 3.8 - Gathering Prerequisite Materials (May, 2024): 
https://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/installMVS/iPREREQv8.htm} 

^{Installing BREXX370 on MVS 3.8j (October 2021): 
https://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/brexx370/index.htm} 

 

#MVS , #IBM, #REXX, #JCL, #TSO, #SPF