Batch processing
[6] Although timesharing did exist, its use was not robust enough for corporate data processing; none of this was related to the earlier unit record equipment, which was human-operated.
That includes UNIX-based computers, Microsoft Windows, macOS (whose foundation is the BSD Unix kernel), and even smartphones.
A running script, particularly one executed from an interactive login session, is often known as a job, but that term is used very ambiguously.
Perhaps the closest comparison is with processes run by an at or cron command in UNIX, although the differences are significant.
While online systems can also function when manual intervention is not desired, they are not typically optimized to perform high-volume, repetitive tasks.
Therefore, even new systems usually contain one or more batch applications for updating information at the end of the day, generating reports, printing documents, and other non-interactive tasks that must complete reliably within certain business deadlines.
In this case flow processing lowers latency for individual inputs, allowing them to be completed without waiting for the entire batch to finish.
High volume batch processing places particularly heavy demands on system and application architectures as well.
As requirements for online systems uptime expanded to support globalization, the Internet, and other business needs, the batch window shrank[12][13] and increasing emphasis was placed on techniques that would require online data to be available for a maximum amount of time.
Some examples are: The IBM mainframe z/OS operating system or platform has arguably the most highly refined and evolved set of batch processing facilities owing to its origins, long history, and continuing evolution.
Technologies that aid concurrent batch and online processing include Job Control Language (JCL), scripting languages such as REXX, Job Entry Subsystem (JES2 and JES3), Workload Manager (WLM), Automatic Restart Manager (ARM), Resource Recovery Services (RRS), IBM Db2 data sharing, Parallel Sysplex, unique performance optimizations such as HiperDispatch, I/O channel architecture, and several others.
