IBM Data Conversion Services
Disc Interchange Service Company, Inc.
DISC converts data from IBM mainframe & AS/400 tapes
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IBM Data Conversion Services
Disc Interchange Service Company, Inc. DISC converts data from IBM mainframe & AS/400 tapes |
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IBM
Mainframe Tape to PC Conversions
(See our Complete Media List.) |
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We will be leaving this web site up for the technical articles it contains. We sincerely hope you find them useful.
For more information about the law and how it affected us, please see our page: The Massachusetts Data Security Law
DISC has converted billions of records from tens of thousands of IBM mainframe tapes since we opened in 1984. This has given us extensive experience with most tape, file, and data types, and we know how to manipulate mainframe data to make it usable on your PC or UNIX computer.
Data conversion is 100% of our business, and we give it our full attention. We don't dilute our focus on conversions by trying to do everything -- we concentrate on doing one thing exceedingly well. We have invested heavily in supporting most of the tape drives on the market, including the new IBM 3590B, 3590E, and 3590H drives, IBM 3592, and StorageTek 9840 and 9940 drives.
IBM mainframe to PC data conversion
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We will be leaving this web site up for the technical articles it contains. We sincerely hope you find them useful.
For more information about the law and how it affected us, please see our page: The Massachusetts Data Security Law
DISC has extensive experience converting mainframe COBOL files to PCs. From the simplest mailing list to the most complex financial data, we have the tools and knowledge to properly convert and Q.C. your files efficiently and accurately. We have the expertise to catch problems with the data before they cause you grief.
There is much more information about converting mainframe and AS/400 tape files to PC or UNIX files on our IBM Mainframe and AS/400 Tape Conversions page, and in our library of conversion articles, listed below.
Important: Please read our article on the new Massachusetts Data Security Law before using our service.
For more information:
DISC is very proficient at automating
conversions from mainframe tapes to PC files for daily, weekly, or monthly transaction
processing. DISC can read hundreds of different tape and file formats
and convert the data to the PC file type of your choice. In the conversion
process we can extract specific fields, perform record selection, and reformat
the data to your file specifications. If the file contains multiple
COBOL record types, we can split it into relational PC files. Of
course we perform all the common field conversions, and if you need the
data altered, such as converting Julian dates to Gregorian dates, we can
do that, too.
We build Quality-Control
checks into our programs, and it's standard procedure for us to generate
summary and Q.C. reports of the processing. The converted files can be
delivered via email, ftp, or on CD or floppy. And our service is
fast; we commonly process the data the day we receive the tapes.
There is more information on our page Automated Transaction
Processing, and descriptions of many common conversions on the page
Common Conversions DISC Performs
For more information:
Let DISC handle your data distribution. Our fast and efficient service accepts all
your distribution data on a single tape and converts it to multiple files and formats
for distribution to many recipients. You just give us one database file and we handle the
rest. The data can be distributed in many file types, via disk, CD, email, or ftp.
These services are discussed
on our page Automated Transaction
Processing.
For more information:
Identify Media
| Title | Description |
| Identify Computer Tapes | Photographs to help you identify a tape. Specifications of tapes. |
Data Conversion Articles and Tutorials
| Title | Description |
| Simple Data Conversion Tutorial | A simple overview of what data conversion is. (Also see our Intermediate Data Conversion Tutorial, below.) |
| Intermediate Data Conversion Tutorial | An intermediate-level data conversion tutorial. Discusses some details specific to each OS. |
| Data Recovery vs Data Conversion | Do you need Data Recovery or Data Conversion? This article discusses the difference. |
| Terminology of mainframe tapes | |
| Physical & logical recording formats on mainframe tapes | |
| Data representations commonly found on mainframes | |
| Media specifications for 3.5", 5.25", and 8" floppy disks | |
| Character, BCD, and Binary Fields | Explains the differences between character, BCD, and binary numeric fields in a data file |
| Understanding Record Size and Record Delimiters | How to measure record size on mainframes and PCs, and the use of record delimiters. |
| What is a Gigabyte? | Explains the difference between binary and decimal gigabytes. |
| PC Large File Limitations | Explains the four factors that determine how large a file a PC can access. |
| EBCDIC & ASCII codes | |
| Problems caused by binary values in a file, and how to deal with them | |
| Importing Mainframe Files into dBASE or FoxPro | Step-by-step instructions for importing fixed-field files into dBASE. |
| Importing Fixed Field Files into Access | Step-by-step instructions for importing fixed-field files into Access. |
| Importing Variable Data Files into Access | This Tech-Talk article deals with importing a file that has a varying number of fields |
| Converting IBM Mainframe Tape Files to PC Files | Details of mainframe tape formats and files
Also lists what information we need to do your conversion |
| Mainframe to PC Data Conversion Issues | Discusses how data is stored on a mainframe and issues you may encounter when converting that data to a PC. |
| Converting PC files to mainframe tapes | Discusses the process of creating a mainframe tape
and lists what information we will need. |
| Converting files to the PC platform | Brief discussion of PC file types. |
| How to write a tape on as/400 | Notes on how to write an IBM SL tape under OS/400. |
COBOL Conversion Articles
| Title | Description |
| How to read COBOL layouts. A 7 part article. | |
| Introduces you to the elements of a COBOL record layout. | |
| Presents some simple COBOL layouts and introduces the concept of groups. | |
| Discusses what redefined fields are and how they are used. | |
| Discusses several types of character and binary numeric fields, and the handling of signs and decimal points. | |
| Introduces tables and the OCCURS and OCCURS DEPENDING ON clauses. | |
| Discusses redefined records and multiple record types in a file. | |
| Conclusion, and notes from the author. | |
| Explanation of IBM Signed fields and options for dealing with them | |
| Describes several COBOL computational (binary) data types on various machine architectures | |
| Describes the COBOL Computational-3 packed data type | |
| Brief example of redefined fields and redefined records | |
| Description of implied vs real decimal in numeric fields | |
| COBOL OCCURS...DEPENDING ON | COBOL files can have fields or tables that can occur a varying number of times. This article discusses this COBOL feature. |
Disc Interchange Service
Company, DISC, is a data conversion and media conversion service bureau
specializing in IBM mainframe and iSeries - AS/400 media conversions and data conversions.
DISC transfers files from IBM 3420 9-track tape, 3480, 3490, 3490E,
3570 Magstar, 3590 Magstar, and 3592 Jaguar IBM mainframe tapes, and from StorageTek 9840 and StorageTek 9940 mainframe tapes, plus DLT, SDLT, LTO,
QIC, SLR and other cartridge tapes, to UNIX and PC format data files. We write files to Microsoft
Windows or MSDOS format on CD, (CDR), DVD, DVD RAM, floppy disk, optical disc, or tape.
Or we can transfer directly to SCSI, USB, or 1394 Firewire hard drives.
Or we can ftp or email your encrypted data via the Internet.
DISC does more than just IBM conversions. For complete information on all our data conversion services, please
see DISC's
Data Conversion Services.
Disc Interchange Service
Company, Inc.
Data Conversion Specialists
15 Stony Brook Road
Westford, MA 01886
