I just read through a lot of the announcement letter from the link quoted
below. This sounds very interesting. I don't know what the FICON Express8
channels cost, but I know if you just bought your machine, and you decide
you need those channels, you it will probably cost a lot to convert. I know
the last company I contracted for just got their z/10 BC several weeks ago,
so I'm sure they won't have the new channels. The also were running z/OS
V1.7 when I left.
One thing from the announcement letter puzzled me. This is from the
Software Requirements section, refering to the z/OS v1.7 Lifecycle
Extension:
"IBM Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7:z/OS V1.7 support was withdrawn
September 30, 2008. The Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7 (5637-A01) makes
fee-based corrective service for z/OS V1.7 available through September 2010.
With the Lifecycle Extension, z/OS V1.7 supports the System z10 servers (z10
EC, z10 BC). Certain functions and features of the z10 servers require later
releases of z/OS. For the complete list of software support, see the PSP
buckets. For more information on the IBM Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7,
refer to Software Announcement 208-283, dated August 12, 2008."
I know we had a discussion about the Lifecycle extension some time ago, and
a few people chimed in and said they weren't paying for the Lifecycle
Extension. They just put on all of the PTFs from the PSP buckets and things
worked fine. This was so you could run a z10 machine using z/OS V1.7. I'm
not sure what the quoted paragraph above says. Do you have to pay for the
Lifecycle Extension to be able to use these new channels to get the
maintenance, or can you just pull the PSP buckets? I guess I'm just
curious. I think curiosity is one attribute that makes a good sysprog.
Does anyone think they will upgrade their z/10 to use the new channels? I
imagine the channels are just the first step. To fully utilize the
channels, you need to replace all your I/O gear, although it sounds like
there are some benefits with the new channels even without updating your
disk or tape drives.
Eric Bielefeld
Sr. Systems Programmer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-475-7434
----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Sipples" <[email protected]>
The announcement letter is here for 8 Gbps:
http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/7/897/ENUS109-417
Shipments should start very soon (on July 31, 2009). FICON Express8 is
available for System z10 EC and BC. IBM is withdrawing FICON Express4
adapters for z10 machines (only) effective October 27, 2009.
- - - - -
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
