News - Press Release - October 1997

XDC^® X3.3 now available!

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Extended Debugging Controller's newest release. "X3.3" has a number of incremental improvements over its predecessor. Briefly, they include the following:

• RMODE : The bulk of XDC's load module has been split off into two new load modules named XDC31 and XDCSYSIF which now can be loaded into 31-bit memory. Also, the XDCTFS load module has been recoded so that its residency can be changed from 24-bit to 31-bit. This significantly reduces XDC's total 24-bit memory requirements from 513K to 56K.
  
  Also, if you have been placing the XDC load module into the PLPA, then this reduction includes a reduction in XDC's 24-bit common memory requirements of from 271K to 56K.
• Year 2000 Compliance : XDC is now fully compliant, both internally and externally with year 2000 requirements.
• PSW-Relative Instructions : XDC now fully supports all of the new PSW-relative machine instructions. Also included is support for the Assembler supported "jump mnemonics" associated with the BRC instruction (JE, JNE, etc.).
• Limited Long Names Support : Tachyon Software makes an S/390 cross assembler that runs on PCs but produces object code that is 100% compatible with object code produced by IBM's High Level Assembler. In fact the Tachyon assembler is essentially a well supported PC implementation of HL-ASM. Anyway, when the program that is being debugged has been assembled via the Tachyon Assembler, XDC is now able to use and display all assembly-time labels regardless of length, not just those that are 8 characters and shorter. (The 8-character limitation still applies for code assembled by IBM's High Level Assembler.)
• Miscellaneous Minor Changes : These include some new commands such as:
  • LIST CDF : Displays miscellaneous status and state information about XDC's Cross Domain Facility.
  • LIST XDC : (Alias: LIST MAINTENANCE) Displays XDC's maintenance levels, SVC numbers, Cole Software^® contact information, and miscellaneous other information.
  • ALARM : Sounds a "hey guy, time to wake up" alarm for a minute or so.
  • SET BELL : Has been improved to allow you to better control what messages cause the terminal to beep at you.

For more information on Cole Software^® or XDC contact Robert W. Shimizu at 1 (800) XDC-5150 or sales@colesoft.com.