Ref:  Your note of 2 March 2017, 11:17:08 -0600

I think the clue is in the corresponding restriction for both
forms of Prefetch Data when the code is 6 or 7.  STCMH with a
mask of zero clearly doesn't have any functional use, but I
presume it was used as an interim form of Prefetch Data which
allowed new machines to use it while remaining a no-operation on
machines which did not. This is supported by the fact that Google
finds "STCMH" mentioned in a Share presentation "What's new in
z/OS performance" from 2011.  If it uses the same conventions as
Prefetch Data, then codes 6 and 7 would cause a cache line to be
explicitly released from exclusive control, which sounds very
likely to be incompatible with transactional execution.

Jonathan Scott
IBM Hursley, UK

John McKown wrote:
> This is just curious to me, not a problem. Especially seeing as how I'm
> stuck on a z9BC. But on page 5-98 of DZ9ZR010.PDF (version ?? of the PoPS),
> it says that certain general purpose instructions are restricted in
> transaction mode. Most I can get an understand of, like PLO. But I am
> really curious as to why the "store characters under mask high" is
> restricted when, and only when, the M3 field is B'000' and the register
> value in 6 or 7 (B'0110' or B'0111'). Why specifically registers 6 & 7????
> "Inquiring minds what to know!"

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