On 9/23/2010 7:26 PM, Alan Altmark wrote:
No secret: It uses the PREFETCH DATA instruction in the
General-Instructions-Extensions Facility. Of course, since developers are
no longer shackled by the z900, they may use other z10+ instructions at
their discretion.
<rant>
Sheesh... Would it have been hard to add a TM (On the STFLE results)
around the PFD/PFDRL ? Don't tell me the labs decided to cast off an
entire line of (<4 yo) machines (which cost >$100K) for just *ONE*
instruction (and more than that - it's only for performance.. PFD/PFDRL
have no operational impact other than performance).
The "underlying" problem I see is that it is putting a severe dent in
people's mind as far as IBM's view of "Invest in long lasting
technology" is concerned.. z9 is what ? 4 years old ? and IBM is already
issuing SCPs that are no longer compatible..
I remember a time (yeah.. I'm an old geezer) where the time when IBM
would release SCPs that were no longer guaranteed to work on system that
were more than 20 year old - or rather had been withdrawn from marketing
for more than 20 years.. (I'm quite convinced that with some effort, you
could have run VM/SP5 on a S/370 138.. And possible VM/ESA S/370 option!)
PS : We're not talking about the z900/z800.. or the z990/z890.. But the z9 !
</rant>
--Ivan
