Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and
Tachyon z/Assembler 2.1 Announcement

January 21, 2001:
Tachyon Software is pleased to announce Linux for S/390 and Linux for zSeries programming support for the Tachyon z/Assembler. In addition to the GOFF object file support included in version 2, the Tachyon z/Assembler supports creation of the object file in ELF format. ELF is the object file format supported by many UNIX variants, including Linux. ELF support in the Tachyon z/Assembler will make it possible to create Linux for S/390 and Linux for zSeries programs using the traditional HLASM-style assembly language. The Tachyon z/Assembler can also run on Linux for S/390 and Linux for zSeries.

Other enhancements in version 2.1 of both the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and the Tachyon z/Assembler include:

• Support for delimited EBCDIC source and macro files (like OS/390 HFS text files) and macro and copy files stored in UNIX tar files.
• A new command-line interface program that invokes the assembler once for each assembler source file specified.
• Enhanced ASCII support through CA and CE DC constants, literals and self-defining terms as well as the new TRANSLATE(AS,SELF) option.
• The new FLAG(RA) option can be used to flag all relocatable address consants in movable code.
• The new FLAG(HLASM) option enables some enhanced error checking available with IBM’s HLASM. These error checks can be disabled to prevent problems with older source code.
• The new TERM(EVENT) option causes the assembler to generate the SYSTERM file in IBM EVENT format for IBM’s VisualAge TPF.
• The new OPTABLE(ZOP) instruction set option includes only the z/Architecture instructions (Tachyon z/Assembler only). The OPTABLE option also supports the new LIST parameter which causes the assembler to print a summary of the supported operation codes.

Details of the changes in this release are available in the Changes section of the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and Tachyon z/Assembler User’s Guide.