http://www-306.ibm.com/common/ssi/fcgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=877&letternum=ENUSZG07-0286
These points seem relevant to DB2(Thank you to Mike J Bracey for pointing this out):
Hardware decimal floating point facilities IBM is implementing hardware decimal floating point facilities in System z9. The facilities include 4-, 8-, and 16-byte data formats, an encoded decimal (base-10) representation for data, instructions for performing decimal floating point computations, and an instruction which performs data conversions to and from the decimal floating point representation.
Base 10 arithmetic is used for most business and financial computation. To date, floating point computation used for work typically done in decimal arithmetic has involved frequent necessary data conversions and approximation to represent decimal numbers. This has made floating point arithmetic complex and error prone for programmers using it in applications where the data is typically decimal data.
Initial software support for hardware decimal floating point is limited to High Level Assembler support running in z/OS and z/OS.e on System z9. z/OS
V1.9 will provide support for hardware decimal floating point instructions and decimal floating point data types in the C and C++ compilers as a programmer-specified option. Support is also provided in the C Run Time Library and the dbx debugger.
This function is also supported by z/VM V5.2 and later for guest operating system use. There is no support available for machines earlier than System z9. Refer to the Software requirements section.
Preview
C and C++ compiler support for hardware decimal floating point z/OS V1.9 will include programmer-directed support in the C and C++ compilers for decimal floating point data types and the hardware decimal floating point instructions. There is also support for the data types and instructions in the C Run Time Library and the dbx debugger. The new instructions are added in support of the Draft Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic P754, which is intended to supersede the ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985.
IPSec and zIIPs for z/OS
An enhancement to the z/OS Communications Server is planned to allow IPSec processing to take advantage of IBM System z9 Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs). In effect, the zIIP could be used as a high-speed encryption engine that is designed to provide better price performance for eligible IPsec workload. IPSec is an open networking standard used to create highly secure connections between two points in an enterprise - this may be server-to-server, or server to network device, as long as they support the IPSec standard. End-to-end encryption is deployed to provide a highly secure exchange of network traffic. This capability is planned to be available in August 2007 with z/OS V1.8 and PTFs and native in z/OS V1.9, when available.
Business demands to protect sensitive data on the Internet have increased the requirement for users to implement end-to-end encryption on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). At the same time that businesses are seeing an increased need for data protection, they are also increasing their use of more open networks such as the Internet. Moving secure business data and transactions from proprietary trusted networks to more open networks creates an ever-increasing need for new technologies to protect this data.
The IPSec support was included in z/OS Communication Server in z/OS V1.7, and is designed to provide authentication, integrity, and data privacy from z/OS to other network endpoints that support IPSec. In addition to allowing you to run host based IPSec for security-rich end to end network flows, the
V1.7 IPSec added IP filtering to help protect your host. Since the IPSec support is implemented in the IP protocol layer, it can be used for a variety of network traffic types to/from any application without any anticipated change to that application.
The new zIIP Assisted IPSec function is designed to move most of the IPSec processing from general purpose processors to the zIIPs. In addition to performing eligible encryption processing, the zIIP will also handle cryptographic validation of message integrity, and IPSec header processing.
This is designed to allow you to take advantage of the cost saving benefits of the zIIP when you implement IPSec to secure your valuable business transactions and bulk data movement and to protect your host. The z/OS Communication Server (z/OS CS) is designed to interact with z/OS Workload Manager to have all of its enclave Service Request Block (SRB) work made eligible to run on the zIIP.
P.S. Please pass my address to anyone interested in DB2 HOTLINE - thank you.
With kind regards
Michael Dewert, Software Group
DB2 Development
DB2 Information Management Software
