Ivan,
VF has been deprecated (in its current form anyway) for quite some
time.. To a point where the op codes for the VF have been reused for
some z/Arch specific instructions.
**--> I know full well. It poses a problem, but there are various ways
around it. One would be to use an 'architecture bit' in the object
module and load module headers respecively. That would allow the
z390 emulator module to distinguish vector opcodes from non-vector
opcodes. Disadvantage: Cannot mix Vector and Halfword Immediate
instructions.
Another solution would be to assign an (as yet) unused code
(e.g. A1 or AB) tro replace A5, which is the only first-byte
that has actually been reused. See www.bixoft.com\english\opcd00.htm
where you can see X'A5' to be the only vector subset first-byte reused.
Advantage: can mix with Halfword Immediate instructions.
Disadvantage: not compatible with mainframe, and deviation from
Vector-PoP documentation.
Risk: IBM might choose to reuse other first-bytes we use for
vector instructions.
It should not be too difficult to tackle this part of the issue.
Most of the work would go into testing and verifying proper operation,
hence my request for testcases.
Cheers,
Abe Kornelis.
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