On Sun, 1 Sept 2024 at 22:19, Timothy Sipples <[email protected]> wrote:

> As previously reported back in 2004, the first customer production use of
> zAAP (the System z Application Assist Processor) went live on September 1,
> 2004. Which was impressively speedy because it occurred more than 3 weeks
> before the earliest release of z/OS to support zAAP (z/OS Version 1.6)
> became Generally Available — and barely 2 months after zAAP (the hardware
> feature) was introduced. IBM discontinued zAAPs several years ago because
> their functions were fully incorporated into zIIPs.
>
> Happy 20th Birthday, zAAP!
>

I think people need to remember that zAAP and zIIP were not any kind of
advance in technology, but rather a triumph of IBM marketing. IBM did a
great job of positioning these two as so-called "specialty" engines, with
the implication that they are somehow better or optimized for running their
respective kinds of workloads.

Of course the hardware is in fact identical to the regular old engines, at
a lower price but with restrictions on what software is allowed to be run.
I've advocated calling them "restricted" or "limited function" engines, but
of course that wouldn't suit IBM's approach.

So yes, Happy Birthday to all kinds of limited function engines!

Tony H.

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