If you are referring to the decimal arithmetic feature, it is included on all S/370s, S/390s, and zSeries and most S/360s. It was only optional on a few of the 360 models. Since the late 1960's it has been included on all processors in this family.
For the format of any non-privileged instruction (and some privileged instructions) see the "Principles of Operations" book for the processor. These books are available from IBM. Most of the more recent versions are available in softcopy on the IBM web site. Some may be downloaded as PDF files. Start with the chapter on "Packed Decimal" in PriOps. I am at home and I don't have the book with me so I can't tell you the exact name of the chapter. This chapter explains the format of decimal data and gives you a list of the instructions that use it. The instructions are described in the general instructions part of the book. Stephen Frazier Oklahoma Department of Corrections -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Erik Elmgren Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 4:38 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: BCD or BCD assist in hardware? Hi Does the S/390 and zSeries have BCD or BCD assist instructions implemented that are faster than BCD with integers? And if so, where can i find the exact format for these? I am perfectly willing, expecting actually, to access this from inline assembly in gcc. Erik
