The versions of AS and ICE from ASTRAC are fully supported and
compatible with z/OS and z/VM and do not require a PTF.
The versions of AS and ICE from IBM have not been tested on z/OS or z/VM. All support and service for
IBM AS/ICE ended on 31 January 2001 and, in the event of a problem, there is no
compatibility PTF available from either ASTRAC or IBM.
IBM provides and documents official programming interfaces for its software products. IBM generally provides full upward compatibility for these interfaces so that programs that use these interfaces exclusively will continue to work correctly on all new levels of IBM hardware and software. ASTRAC AS has been specifically designed to use only these official programming interfaces.
However AS does not run on the z/OS.e operating system because GDDM® Base is a pre-requisite product for AS and IBM does not permit customers to use GDDM® with z/OS.e. IBM z/OS.e is a specially priced offering of z/OS providing selected z/OS function for the new zSeries 800. For further details see the IBM z/OS.e web page.
Consequently ASTRAC AS supports current and future levels of IBM z/OS, IBM z/VM, IBM z/Architecture and IBM zSeries processors such as the z800; z890; z900; z990; and the System z9. ASTRAC AS supports 64-bit addressing.
Very occasionally, program code in IBM or ASTRAC products may fail to achieve the design objectives of full upward compatibility. When IBM perceives that this may occur, it informs ASTRAC through IBM's "Partner in Development" program. This allows ASTRAC to provide any necessary maintenance to ASTRAC AS in good time before customers upgrade their IBM software.
One example where it has been necessary for ASTRAC to provide such maintenance is to support DB2v8. AS support for DB2v8 is provided by ASTRAC ASv6 or by a PTF to ASTRAC ASv5.3. Previous levels of ASTRAC AS and IBM AS do not support DB2v8.
For additional information on z/Architecture and upgrading AS related products, click here.