>Does this mean that those of us who bought z9s in the past >two years are already obsolete?
I agree with the previous commenters. However, to be fair, an ALS declaration has in the past indicated that IBM feels free to release as much future software as IBM thinks appropriate that requires the new ALS as a minimum. These rare ALS declarations do eventually matter. I cannot think of any piece of currently available IBM software (or for that matter non-IBM software) that requires more than ARCHLVL 2 as implemented in the z900 model. (Although I should look more carefully at certain crypto-related software to say that so definitively. Encryption Facility for z/OS might be a rare exception, for example.) There is plenty of software from many vendors that exploits new and enhanced CPU instructions in newer models, but the only software I can think of that absolutely requires a newer model is OpenSolaris for System z. OpenSolaris requires a System z9 or higher. (Leaving aside the technical requirements, whether it makes sense or not to continue running an older model or to upgrade to a newer model is a separate question.) As I recall, z/VM Version 5 was the first major software product that required ARCHLVL 2 (z/Architecture). It was not the last, and the list keeps getting longer with each passing year. So one would have to think that this new ALS declaration signals a similar pattern in future months (in the case of z/VM Version 6) and years. It's very important and useful information to have, especially for planning, including for software vendors. That said, the new ALS declaration says nothing on its own about which software products will require the new ALS or when. It only says that there could be some others (besides z/VM V6.1), at some point. Also keep in mind that you can upgrade mainframe hardware up to two generations old to the current technology by ordering an upgrade parts kit, not a whole new frame. Upgraded machines retain their serial numbers. This is quite unlike nearly all other servers, which you have to throw away when you upgrade and/or which do not allow skipping a generation. By the way, I don't know what the new ALS is called. It seems IBM hasn't announced a name for it yet. Maybe IBM is accepting nominations? No idea. Post your favorites if you like. I've had two name suggestions chosen in the past (one for a product version, another for a technology), and it's fun if it happens. There's a lot of luck involved, though. My personal opinions. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan / Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
