I somewhat agree. I'm confused by IBM's z "philosophy". I remember when the S/370 arch was around and IBM was targetting from mid-size to large shops (4331 was __small__!). Now the z people seem to be like Bentley dealers. If you're not a multimillionaire, you don't even need to consider a Bentley. But that's the way Bentley has always been. All of a sudden IBM z is like Ford deciding that the family car is too much of a bother, and only go with super-luxury models. Old joke: "You want 10 million for a car!?! How many will buy that?" Answer: "I only need one!"
And since it's only the PFD instruction (which the PoPs indicates has multiple subfunctions, some of which may be a NOP on some models), IBM hardware should be able to rather easily make a millicoded PFD instruction on all the z series machines which would be a NOP instead of a PIC 1. But I guess it isn't worth the development cost to them. <shrug> -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * (817)-691-6183 cell [email protected] * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM > -----Original Message----- > From: The IBM z/VM Operating System > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ivan Warren > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 3:01 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Virtualizing a z10 > > 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 > >
