In this paper, the author investigates the feasibility of using COBOL on a PC-AT versus mainframe computers (370/158 and 3081). Two uses for PC COBOL are proposed: actual production execution, and initial program development/debug of programs that will be uploaded to a mainframe and run there.

The author ran a number of test cases, comparing elapsed time on the PC-AT with elapsed and CPU times on multi-user and single-user mainframe computers. His results are interesting and, in some cases, surprising. PC-AT COBOL comes out looking pretty good--sometimes even better than the mainframe--in an unexpected number of cases.

The details of the author’s results are well worth considering by anyone who may be thinking of using COBOL on a PC, but also by those whose mainframe computer is not giving them all the performance they want out of its COBOL environment.