Common Programming Interface for Communications

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Common Programming Interface for Communications (CPI-C) is an application programming interface (API) developed by IBM in 1987 to provide a platform-independent communications interface for the IBM Systems Application Architecture based network, and to standardise programming access to SNA LU 6.2. [1] CPI-C was part of IBM Systems Application Architecture (SAA), an attempt to standardise APIs across all IBM platforms.

In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, communication protocols, and tools for building software. In general terms, it is a set of clearly defined methods of communication among various components. A good API makes it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer.

IBM American multinational technology and consulting corporation

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924.

Systems Application Architecture (SAA), introduced in 1987, is a set of standards for computer software developed by IBM. The SAA initiative was started in 1987 under the leadership of Earl Wheeler, the "Father of SAA". The intent was to implement SAA in IBM operating systems including MVS, OS/400 and OS/2. AIX, IBM's version of the UNIX operating system, was not a target of SAA, but does have interoperability with the SAA family.

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It was adopted in 1992 by X/Open as an open systems standard, identified as standard C210, and documented in X/Open Developers Specification: CPI-C. [2] [3]

X/Open Company, Ltd., originally the Open Group for Unix Systems, was a consortium founded by several European UNIX systems manufacturers in 1984 to identify and promote open standards in the field of information technology. More specifically, the original aim was to define a single specification for operating systems derived from UNIX, to increase the interoperability of applications and reduce the cost of porting software. Its original members were Bull, ICL, Siemens, Olivetti, and Nixdorf—a group sometimes referred to as BISON. Philips and Ericsson joined soon afterwards, at which point the name X/Open was adopted.

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References

  1. Systems application architecture: common programming interface C reference. IBM. 1988.
  2. Michael Cooney (6 December 1993). "New features for CPI-C spec set for approval". Network World .
  3. X/Open Document Number: XO/DEV/90/050. ISBN   1-872630-02-2.

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