New Release of SyncSort 1.3 for z/OS

Syncsort’s newest release of SyncSort for z/OS
offers
new capabilities for exploiting the latest features of the z/OS
operating system and z9 processors. With this release, users will
achieve substantial reductions in elapsed time and CPU time through
SyncSort’s ability to offload certain sort processes to a zIIP
processor and SyncSort’s effective use of the z9’s MIDAW facility. In
addition, new data utility features improve productivity.

SyncSort for z/OS Release 1.3 is up to 25% faster than the previous release. These performance gains
derive from exploitation of the z9’s MIDAW I/O technology – reducing channel, director, and control unit
overhead – and the System z9 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP), both of which are available on
IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9-109) and IBM System z9 Business Class processors.

Performance
advances, such as enhanced memory management techniques and the use of
memory objects with more applications, also result in elapsed time
savings for a wide variety of applications. Early release of pages
backing a memory object provides benefits to the overall system by
freeing the central storage resource at the earliest possible point.

Many new features – designed to improve productivity and development time – make their appearance in
SyncSort for z/OS Release 1.3. These features include:

Enhanced
processing of fields in equally-keyed records including MIN, MAX, and
AVG functions available on the new DUPKEYS control statement.
Improved support for date processing, most notably the ability to convert a Julian date to a printable Gregorian date.
New
and enhanced parameters for the INREC, OUTREC, and OUTFIL OUTREC
control statements, such as the addition of IFTHEN and PARSE parameters.
Enhancements to the INCLUDE/OMIT control statement, such as the NUM feature and simplified syntax.
Enhancements to the OUTFIL control statement including support for MAXSORT.
Enhancements to the DB2 Query function to support additional data types.
Enhanced compatibility with other sort products.
“The new features and functionality of
release 1.3 are the result of Syncsort’s continuing focus on producing
high-performance software,” said Dan Regan, Syncsort’s senior vice
president. “By our responding to evolving architectures and new
information processing requirements, Syncsort’s customers will
experience significant productivity and performance benefits.”

Syncsort Incorporated