Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3.5 is available on z/OS platforms, from Natural Version 8.2.8 onwards.
If you are upgrading from Natural CICS Interface Version 8.2, it is recommended that you also read the sections related to Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3 in the release notes for previous versions of Natural for Mainframes, starting with Natural Version 8.2.6.
This section describes the new features and changes of Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3.5.
Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3.5 is available on z/OS platforms, from Natural Version 8.2.8 onwards.
This section describes the changes of Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3.5.
From Natural CICS Interface Version 8.3.5 onwards, the Natural swap pool is no longer supported on z/OS when running in the CICS OTE environment (threadsafe). The roll server must be used instead. The new error message NS56 indicates the error situation (see the Messages and Codes documentation).
On z/OS, the new %P=SQ terminal
command can be used in a Natural CICS running in the CICS OTE environment
(threadsafe) to call quasi-reentrant user programs.
For this purpose, the supplied assembler program
NCILINKQ must be installed in CICS as quasi-reentrant. See the
relevant
installation instructions described in Installing Natural
CICS Interface on z/OS in the Installation
documentation.
The maximum value for the tolerance value of the
STORVIO parameter has been increased from 255 to 16777215. See
also STORVIO in the
Parameter Reference documentation for further details.
Natural Com-plete/SMARTS Interface 8.3.6 is available on z/OS platforms, from Natural Version 8.2.8 onwards.
This section describes the changes of Natural Com-plete/SMARTS Interface Version 8.3.6.
Natural Com-plete/SMARTS Interface Version 8.3 supports the Natural Roll Server. With Natural for zIIP under Com-plete the compression and decompression of the Natural thread is executed on a zIIP.
The use of the zIIP-enabled Natural Roll Server is controlled by
the TPF parameter and requires the selectable unit
U1.
Natural IMS TM Interface Version 8.3.5 supports use of IBM's System z Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs) in an IMS TM environment on z/OS.
For information on Natural for zIIP support, see the Natural for zIIP documentation.
For the changes in installation, see Installing Natural for zIIP on z/OS and Installing Natural IMS TM Interface on z/OS in the Installation for z/OS documentation.
Natural Optimizer Compiler Version 8.4.1 is available on z/OS platforms, from Natural Version 8.2.8 onwards.
Natural Optimizer Compiler Version 8.4.1 provides maintenance updates and program fixes.
This section describes the new features of Natural Optimizer Compiler Version 8.4.1.
Architecture levels are used to employ new instructions available with IBM hardware facilities in order to enhance the performance of generated code (see the related literature from IBM).
The ARCH option of Natural Optimizer Compiler
Version 8.4.1 now also supports IBM Architecture Level 12 on z/OS
platforms.
When using Architecture Level 12, you can generate machine instructions introduced with the Vector Packed-Decimal Facility in the z14 hardware class. This can improve the execution speed for assignments, comparisons and calculations if at least one packed operand is used.
For more information, see Architecture Level 12 in the section ARCH Option in Natural Optimizer Compiler Version 8.3/8.4 - Documentation Updates in the Natural Optimizer Compiler documentation.
The optimization capabilities in NOC84 are significantly improved in comparison to former versions. This includes:
Support variables with starting offset > 64MB and with a field length > 16MB
Improved optimization for the EXAMINE, MOVE ALL, MOVE <scalar> TO <array> and RESET statements
Optimized numeric sign translation
Optimized Unicode MOVE operations
Improvements on the NOCSHOW command
Additional improvements of performance and runtime stability of the generated code.