XDC and the
Tachyon z/Assembler

The Extended Debugging Controller (XDC)

XDC/SE 2.0 ADATA Support

The new XDC/SE 2.0 uses the Associated Assembler Data (ADATA) file produced by the Tachyon z/Assembler and IBM’s High Level Assembler to provide enhanced debugging information, including the source lines. Tachyon Software and Cole Software have cooperated to ensure that the ADATA files produced by the Tachyon z/Assembler are usable by XDC/SE.

The Tachyon z/Assembler can produce the ADATA file in a number of formats as specified through the ADATA option. Files produced in either the no record prefix or GOFF formats can be uploaded to the mainframe and read by XDC/SE 2.0.

The XDC Interface

On August 30, 1996 in cooperation with Cole Software, Tachyon Software released a direct-to-XDC interface from the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler. This interface is available as the TEST(XDC) option to the assembler and is also available in the Tachyon z/Assembler. With the interface, you can take advantage of all of the power of XDC without the need to run your object code through the XDCSYMED utility prior to linking or binding your program. You can even use the SYMDEL, SYMUNDEL, and SYMNODEL DSECTs in your program to prevent the redundant generation of symbolic debugging information for commonly included DSECTs.

In addition, the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and Tachyon z/Assembler generate symbolic debugging information for simply relocatable EQU symbols and labeled CNOP, LTORG and ORG statements. This information was produced by IBM’s Assembler F, but is no longer generated by Assembler H and the High Level Assembler. XDC is able to use this information to further help you to debug your programs.

The symbolic debugging information (SYM records) as defined by IBM only support assembler labels up to eight characters in length. However, the current IBM assembler language permits labels of up to 63 characters. Because of the limitations of the SYM record format, the IBM assemblers generate no label information for any name over eight characters long.

Tachyon Software and Cole Software have jointly developed an enhanced SYM record format that permits the full long name to be communicated from the assembler to XDC. This support is available with version 1.2 of the Tachyon 390 Cross Assembler and with XDC release 3.2 (maintenance level X32-9701D) or later. This interface is available through the TEST(LONG) assembler option.