GCC 12 Compiler Gains Official Support For IBM z16

Over a year ago IBM sent out GCC compiler support for "arch14" that at the time we imagined was for IBM z16. Indeed with IBM having announced their z16 last week, the GCC compiler is now being updated to officially recognize z16 and offer that as an option over the "arch14" naming.

IBM last week unveiled their IBM z16 next-generation system for "real-time AI for transaction processing at scale and industry's first quantum-safe system." IBM z16 will see general availability at the end of May. If interested in all the z16 details see last week's announcement.

IBM z16

Now ahead of the GCC 12.1 stable compiler release in a few weeks, IBM has landed the patch to recognize the "z16" as a compiler option and to take all the "arch14" code paths introduced last year.

This patch adds the real z16 name for the IBM zSystems (s390) compiler code.