New Features at a Glance

(for z/OS and z/VM):

MP/204 Improvements - MP/204 will now allow you to use up to 850% CPU in a single region.

SWITCH STREAM command - Switches to the next member of any CHKPOINT, CHKPNTS, CCAJRNL or CCAJLOG stream. This will allow you, for example, to synchronize your journals with your in-flight backups for database regeneration.

Table X - This new file table stores extension records. Model 204 will thereby process record extensions more efficiently.

64-bit Support - Under z/OS and z/VM, Model 204 now runs using 64-bit addressability. With Model 204 V7R1 buffers for Tables B and X, record lists, bitmap and index pages are all above the bar. You can also use storage above the bar for server swapping.

CCATEMP in Memory - CCATEMP can be allocated in 64-bit memory and accessed directly without going through the buffer pool, even if you choose to allocate your buffers below the bar.

Table X Compaction - The COMPACTB command can now also be used to reorganize and optimize the new Table X in-flight.

Physical Removal of ‘Dirty Deletes’ - COMPACTB now includes the option to physically delete logically deleted records.

In-flight Increase Datasets - You can issue the INCREASE DATASETS command without stopping a file and bumping all users out of the file. The file may be accessed and updated at the same time as the INCREASE command is processing.

Improved Field Scanning - Improved internal algorithms that save CPU when scanning records.

$SNDMAIL function - You can easily send an e-mail message from User Language without writing a procedure and without having an extensive knowledge of sockets or SMTP protocol.

Updated Statistics Handling - To support very long running Model 204 regions Rocket has modified the capacity of statistical counters.

Updated SNAP Handling - A date/time stamp has been added to the SNAP dump symptom records to allow sequencing of seemingly concurrent dumps. New parameters have been added to help limit the number of times SNAP processing can fail before being deactivated. SNAP processing has also been upgraded for 64-bit addressing.

Improved Table B Page Usage - Model 204 V7R1 introduces new parameters that let you define a file in such a way that, in conjunction with the new Table X, its full capacity of 16 million data records can be realized.

Automatic Table Increase - New parameters have been introduced that will allow Tables B, D and X to increase in size automatically should they become full.

Table E Data Compactor - The new COMPACTE command will let you reduce Table E fragmentation dynamically while production applications are still processing the file.

MQ/204 Improvements - Now Model 204 users can control the grouping of MQ messages.

Reduced Page Requests - The number of page requests, tracked by the DKPR statistic, has been reduced. This improvement may also lead to a small reduction in CPU and disk I/O.

Increased Found Set Capacity - Model 204 V7R1 increases the number and size of found sets possible at any one time.

Large Dataset Support - Under z/OS the DEFINE DATASET command now supports allocation of datasets having more than 64 thousand tracks. This feature will help you with the very large journal files you may generate in very long running Model 204 regions, or use a fewer number of large datasets for your database.

Granular REGENERATE - The REGENERATE command now permits regeneration from one member of a journal stream at a time. Previous releases required the entire stream to be allocated.

MERGEJ Improvement - MERGEJ can now identify the file type of the journals being merged.

CHKPOINT and CHKPNTS Streaming - CHKPOINT and CHKPNTS can now be defined as parallel streams.

New MSGCTL Options - New options now let you manipulate message types and control whether they are counted as errors.

New Compilation Error Handling - This release introduces the COMPERR parameter that allows you to specify how many compilation error messages are displayed to highlight the code that may have caused cascading errors.

Internal CPU Reduction - A number of internal processes, such as FIND, FOR loops and IMAGE processing have been improved to reduce their CPU consumption.**

Date/Time Stamp - A customizable, system maintained date/time stamp field has been introduced into Model 204 so that you can easily discern when a record in a file was last changed.

Disk Buffer Overrun Detector - A disk buffer overrun detection and prevention capability has been added to Model 204 to help eliminate this type of error condition.

.NET Framework for Connect - The new version of the Connect Suite that will be released alongside Model 204 V7R1 will provide a full set of common base classes to give you the option of using .NET Framework when including Model 204 in your Enterprise Application Integration initiatives.

TCP/IP Connection Tracking - You can now detect and display the underlying connection between a TCP/IP attached device and Model 204 on the mainframe.

Mixed TBO and non-TBO Update Transactions - A transaction can now update both a Transaction Backout and Non-Transaction Backout file in a single procedure.

SQL Enhancements - All table JOIN expressions are supported and the SELECT statement column limit has been removed.

New and Modified Parameters Commands and Messages - Many new parameters, commands and messages have been added to assist your control over and understanding of the new features and facilities in Model 204 V7R1. Many existing commands and parameters have also been appropriately modified.

Updated Dictionary/204 - Dictionary/204 has been updated to recognize new features where appropriate.