The talk will consist of a technical overview of the sybase open server. there will also be a discussion of how the open server fits into the overall sybase client/server architecture. examples of open server usage will be included as well as a description of the sybase CICS gateway which is built on top of open server. The open server is a programming library which is the server-side component of the sybase client/server distributed architecture that allows users to write custom servers. the open server consists of a server consists of a server component which makes the application look like a sybase server in terms of communication and protocol. it also provides multi-threading services such as thread creation,scheduling,inter-thread communication and shared resource management. The open server is used by sybase customers to provide gateways to dbms data, proprietary file-based data, and shared memory data. it is also used to provide a gateway to external services such as ancryption, extended mathematical computation, and applications, e.g., e-mail. these services can be included in a sybase SQL server trigger or stored procedure. included will be a technical description of how sybase remote procedure calls used to implement these applications. the sybase CICS gateway is a product built on top of the open server library. it allows any sybase client or SQL server to execute static CICS transactions and dynamic DB2 SQL on the IBM mainframe. the talk will include an overview of the network components, including LU6.2, as well as the client and server components that make up gateway.