News - Press Release - August 2004

COLE SOFTWARE^® ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF z/XDC^® z1.6

Major Features

High Level Assembler R1.5 ADATA Support

ALRF Support

AFTON, Va. , August 30, 2004/ -- The beta version of z/XDC z1.6 is now available!

Cole Software LLC of Afton VA is pleased to announce the availability of a beta test program for release z1.6 of z/XDC. Existing z/XDC customers who wish to participate may do so simply by sending a request to dbcole@colesoft.com.

This new release of z/XDC features the following major changes:

• ADATA Support: This past July, IBM published their R1.5 release of the High Level Assembler that (among other things) features a major restructuring of their ADATA output. z/XDC z1.6 now fully supports the new ADATA record formats.
  
  z/XDC remains backwards compatible with all older ADATA formats.




• ALRF Support: "ALRF" stands for "Address Space Number (ASN) and Linkage Index (LX) Reuse Facility". This is a major change to both the hardware and software architectures that permit ASIDs to be reused for PC routine server address spaces that go down. (Previously, when an address space that provided PC routines for use by other spaces went down, the ASID for that space was marked non-reusable until the next IPL. With some products at some shops, such server spaces were created for temporary use, then destroyed, then recreated. This led to the potential for ASID shortages. ALRF addresses that shortage.)
  
  In September, IBM will publish z/OS R1.6. In support of ALRF, R1.6 contains many system control block changes that are not compatible with prior releases of the system. The z1.6 release of z/XDC has been recoded to work correctly with these changes.
  
  The ALRF support changes in z/OS R1.6 exist, of course, regardless of whether or not the hardware being used actually offers ARLF. As a consequence, all older releases of z/XDC fail in all instances of z/OS R1.6 regardless of whether or not ALRF is present. Therefore, z/XDC customers, when they migrate to z/OS R1.6, must also upgrade to release z1.6 of z/XDC.
  
  z/XDC z1.6, of course, remains backwards compatible with all older z/OS's.

David expects the final version of z/XDC z1.6 to be generally available in September.

z/XDC z1.6 is the latest release in a long line of comprehensive debugging tools developed by David Cole starting in 1978. z/XDC z1.6 is designed for programmers who work in the most demanding z/OS (and OS/390) environments. z/XDC dramatically reduces the amount of time programmers spend finding and fixing bugs in low-level object code, no matter how complex.

Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cole Software^® is a small, solely owned, software development company, focused on the continued development of superior debugging products for advanced systems-level programmers. Our customers are among the foremost of the world's software development houses and Fortune 500 companies. Users of the z/XDC product are some of the brightest programmers in the software development industry. Their dedication and enthusiasm influence and contribute to the continued enhancement and expansion of the Cole Software^® product line.

For more information about Cole Software^® or z/XDC z1.6, please contact Robert W. Shimizu at (800) XDC-5150 or sales@colesoft.com.