Robert R. Rogers

Development and attributes of z/Architecture

The IBM z/Architecture™ instruction set architecture (ISA) is an extension of the IBM Enterprise Systems Architecture/390® (ESA/390) ISA and features 64-bit general registers, 64-bit operations, and 64-bit virtual and real addressing. In addition, z/Architecture includes new instructions to optimize the handling of modern multi-byte character encodings and to improve the performance of programs written in high-level languages. It provides compatibility for ESA/390 application programs and increases the ease of development of new application programs. This paper presents an overview of the interesting aspects of z/Architecture and some of the associated decisions and tradeoffs made in its development.

zAAPs and zIIPs: increasing the strategic value of System z

With the addition of IBM System zTM application assist processors (zAAPs) and integrated information processors (zIIPs) to the portfolio of special-purpose IBM System z processors, the reinvention of the IBM mainframe continues. Jointly, zAAPs and zIIPs provide significant IBM System z9TM integrated and cost-effective processing cycles for todays strategic JavaTM and DB2® for z/OS® programming platforms which are increasingly fundamental to enterprise-class business environments. Overviews of zAAPs and zIIPs are presented that describe their functionality, design, and use by the z/OS operating system to achieve the execution of both Java and z/OS DB2 programming, functions.