Changes in this Release

Version 3.0 of the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and Tachyon z/Assembler adds a number of new features, including:

New and Changed Options

• The new ADATALEVEL option specifies if the ADATA records are to be produced in HLASM release 4 or release 5 format.
• The new MACHINE option provides an alternate way to specify the OPTABLE option.
• The new SECTALGN option specifies the minimum and maximum section alignment.
• The new SUPPRESS option can be used to suppress informational and warning messages.
• The new SUPRWARN option provides an alternate way to specify the SUPPRESS option using HLASM message numbers.
• The OPTABLE option supports the ZS3 instruction set for the IBM z9 processor.
• The TYPECHECK option has been enhanced to allow the MAGNITUDE and REGISTER parameters to be specified.
• The NODECK option is ignored unless the DECK option is already in effect.
• The new NOGOFF and NOXOBJECT options are ignored unless the OBJECT(GOFF) option is already in effect, otherwise they are equivalent to OBJECT(OMF).

New Language Features

• The relative branch instructions can refer to external symbols and labels in other control sections.
• *PROCESS, *PROCESS OVERRIDE and *ASM XOPTS statements are supported.
• The ACONTROL statement accepts the MAGNITUDE and REGISTER parameters of the TYPECHECK operand.
• The AMODE statement supports the ANY64 operand and may be used for PARTs and external references.
• The CATTR statement supports the PART and PRIORITY operands. The FLAG(NOHLASM) is no longer required to specify ALIGN values of 5 through 11.
• The CNOP statement generates NOP instructions when possible instead of NOPR instructions. The FLAG(NOHLASM) option is no longer required to specify an alignment value of 16, but is still required for values greater than 16.
• The DC, DS and DXD statement operands and literal definitions accept the P() modifier to specify the programmer attribute. L-type constants accept the Q type extension code to specify quadword-aligned storage. 32-bit (ED), 64-bit (DD) and 128-bit (LD) decimal floating point constants and literals are supported. The FLAG(NOHLASM) option is no longer required for CA, CE, QD, RD, JD and VD constants, but is still required for FQ constants.
• The EQU statement now accepts up to 5 operands. The fourth operand is the programmer attribute and the fifth operand is the assembler attribute. The assembler attribute syntax is consistent with HLASM APAR PQ92291.
• The EXTRN and WXTRN statements support the PART operand.
• The ORG statement now accepts up to 3 operands. The second operand is the alignment and the third operand is the offset.
• The SETC and SETCF instructions can be used to assign values of up to 1024 characters without specifying the FLAG(NOHLASM) option. With the FLAG(NOHLASM) option, SETC values may be up to 100000 characters.
• The BYTE, DOUBLE, FIND, INDEX, LOWER, SIGNED and UPPER macro functions may be specified in the new function call syntax.
• The A2B, A2C, A2D, A2X, B2A, B2C, B2D, B2X, C2A, C2B, C2D, C2X, D2A, D2B, D2C, D2X, X2A, X2B, X2C, X2D, DCLEN, DCVAL,DEQUOTE, ISBIN, ISDEC, ISHEX, ISSYM, SYSATTRA and SYSATTRP macro functions are supported.
• If the FLAG(NOHLASM) option is in effect, the following language extensions are supported:
  • ORG alignment values can be 1, 2 or 4.
  • The SLA, SLL, SRA and SRL macro functions may be specified in the new function call syntax.
  • The following extended macro functions are supported: C2G, ABS, LOG2, LOG10, POW and REM.
  • UTF-8 (CB) and UTF-32 (CW) constants, literals and self-defining terms are supported.

Compatibility Notes:

• CP is now an abbreviation for the CODEPAGE option instead of the COMPAT option. CT and CPAT are now supported as abbreviations for COMPAT.
• The NODECK option is now ignored unless the OBJECT(DECK) option is in effect.
• The TRTAB option is no longer supported. ASCII, EBCDIC and Unicode code page translation is defined by the CODEPAGE option.
• Use of the old ASCII translation options will disable the CODEPAGE option and will also disable Unicode input support. Tachyon Software recommends that you use the CODEPAGE option to define the the translation between ASCII and EBCDIC.
• The x390.ini option file is no longer automatically read when the assembler starts. You can still cause the assembler to read x390.ini by setting the X390INI environment variable. If X390INI is not set, the assembler will read the txa.ini option file if it is present.