After the announcement of IBM z16, the innovative platform that helps accelerate your digital transformation and unlock the potential of your hybrid cloud transformation, the latest version of IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.4 is now generally available! Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.4 fully supports the IBM z16 architecture to optimize application performance and provides new features to help you modernize your business-critical applications to propel forward with your digital transformation plans.
The Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.4 product documentation is also available in IBM Documentation now. Check the following topics to further explore those new features and enhancements provided in COBOL 6.4:
- Support of the latest IBM z/Architecture to maximize your IBM z16 investment, reduce CPU usage, and improve performance of critical COBOL applications (Read documentation)
- Improved Java/COBOL interoperability to easily extend the capabilities of your COBOL programs with Java (Read documentation)
- Interoperability between AMODE 31 (31-bit) and AMODE 64 (64-bit) COBOL programs to handle your growing COBOL program data without converting the entire application to run in AMODE 64 (Read documentation)
- Support for user-defined functions to enable you to write your own functions and invoke them like intrinsic functions, improving code modularity and maintainability (Read documentation)
- Improved integration with IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS to invest in your future so that modules you compile today take advantage of future IBM zSystems hardware enhancements, without having to be recompiled (Read documentation)
You can always find the latest Enterprise COBOL for z/OS documentation (both online and PDF versions) in the
COBOL documentation library. If you have any comments regarding the COBOL documentation, please send them to
compinfo@ca.ibm.com.
To get a quick overview of Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, its business values, and the key features, visit the IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS product page.
COBOL migration resources:
Since Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.2 is withdrawn from service on April 30, 2022, if you are still on COBOL 4.2, you are encouraged to plan and start your migration to COBOL 6 as soon as possible.
To ease your migration efforts, visit the COBOL Migration Portal for all the COBOL migration-related information, which includes case studies, COBOL expert interview videos, the cloud-based COBOL Migration Assistant for a navigation through the migration process, COBOL Migration and Performance Tuning Webinars, Ask an Expert for contacting COBOL experts, FAQs, other IBM products to support your migration, and many other resources.
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