Another new release of ACS, 1.1.9.16

This is the third new release of IBM's Access Client Solutions, ACS, in the past two months. While my ACS does not alert for a new release (Help > Check for Updates), version 1.1.9.16 is mentioned on IBM's ACS webpage.

This version is to remedy the following, that has been an issue for all previous versions of ACS:

• STRPCCMD command sent from a compromised IBM i
• 5250 emulator macro that contains a malicious 'RunProgram' action
• 5250 multiple sessions file (.bch, .bchx) that contains a malicious 'Run' action

From this version each of the above actions will require user confirmation to run. A confirmation will be displayed, with "Yes" and "No" options. For the 5250 emulator macro 'RunProgram' action an additional "Cancel" option is offered to end the execution of the entire macro.

First Technology Refreshes of 2026 released today

The PTFs for the Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.6 TR2 and 7.5 TR8, announced two weeks ago are released today.

When you ask your Sys Admin to download and apply the PTFs don't forget to tell them that they need to download the latest PTFs for Database (Db2) and RPG too.

I am looking forward to "playing" with all the new and enhanced features added, and will be writing about them here, on RPGPGM.COM.

New model of IBM Power 11 announced

Along with the announcement of the latest Technology Refreshes came another announcement for the smallest of the IBM Power11 servers, S1112.

I am not a hardware geek, more of a software one, but having read the announcement document I think it is something worth reporting upon.

S1112 is in the P05 software tier that can run IBM i AIX, Linux, or hybrid workloads on one server.

It comes in two configuations:

First TR of 2026

The deferred first Technology Refreshes of 2026 PTFs, IBM i 7.6 TR2 and 7.5 TR8, have been announced.

The first thing I do when any new TR announcement is made is to check out what enhancements have been made to Db2 for i (SQL) and RPG. Do note that there are a number of changes and additions made to IBM i 7.6 that have not been made to 7.5.

The SQL that have caught my eye are:

IBM Bob Premium Package for i released

Today the first significant update for IBM Bob, the AI-development tool for IBM i has been released.

It is called IBM Bob Premium Package for i

You can read the announcement, that gives you all the details on the new features, here.

There is also an Overview page, that includes the link to download it, here.

You do have to be using IBM Bob 2.0.0 to use IBM Bob Premium Package for i.

After the first paragraph in the Overview document is a button to "Copy Markdown". I strongly recommend you do. I clicked the button and then pasted what was copied into Notepad. The markdown contains all kinds of useful information to successfully install the new version.

Within markdown are some paths to further documentation. As paths do not include the domain I have for your convenience done so below:

Fall 2025 Technology Refreshes available

The Technology Refresh PTFs for IBM i 7.6 TR1 and 7.5 TR7 become available today.

My recommendation is you download the latest CUM PTFs as that should include all of the PTFs for your release.

Do check if the Database (SQL) PTFs are included:

• IBM i 7.6 TR1:  SF99960 Level 2
• IBM i 7.5 TR7:  SF99950 Level 11

And the ones for RPG too:

• IBM i 7.6 TR1:  5770WDS SJ08065, and for TGTRLS(V7R5M0) support:  5770WDS SJ08092
• IBM i 7.5 TR7:  5770WDS SJ08064

If after applying IBM i 7.5 TR7 you notice a performance degradation you need to follow the instructions on this page here. It appears that this is not an issue for IBM i 7.6 TR1.

Fall 2025 Technology Refreshes announced

The announcement for the latest round of Technology Refreshes for IBM i has been announced for 7.5 (TR1) and 7.5 (TR7). The planned availability date for these is November 21

Having given the announcement and enhancement information a quick read I see lot more useful changes for us.

The Db2 for i enhancements that caught my eye were:

• CERTIFICATE_USAGE_INFO:  Returns information about applications that use certifications and the related certificate information
• QIBM_SELF_BY_DAYS:  Global variable that will allow for the automatic purging of rows from the SQL_ERRORT, SELF Error Log, table
• QIBM_SYSIXADV_BY_DAYS:  Global variable that will allow for automatic purging of rows from the SYSIXADV, System Index Advisor, table

EoS for 7.4 announced

What I have been predicting for a while happened on Tuesday September 16, 2025. IBM announced that the end of standard support for IBM i 7.4 will occur on September 30, 2026.

After that date support for this release will only be offered as a Service Extension. In the past the Service Extension is offered at twice the cost of standard support.

If you have Power9, Power10, or Power11 you can upgrade your IBM i release to the two remaining supported releases: 7.5 and 7.6 .

If you have a Power8, 7.4 is the last release that can be run on that server. You will need to upgrade to a later Power server, Power11, to be able to upgrade to one of the newer releases.

IBM's announcement for the Withdrawal from marketing and change in service level: IBM i 7.4.

IBM's document of the IBM Power systems and the IBM i releases they can run.

CPW ratings for Power11 servers

When the IBM Power11 servers were announced, July 8, several people contacted me if I had the CPW rating for the new servers.

What is CPW? It is a number that is frequently mentioned, but I have never seen its definition. After some digging I found the following:

The CPW, Commercial Processing Workload, rating provides a measure to show how on-line transactions processing, OLTP, workloads perform on systems that run IBM i. The CPW rating is built using workloads that can utilize the full processing power of the system.

Below is a summary of the Power11 CPW. I have included the top of range Power10 equivalent too, its column is gray.

Some Power11 performance and efficiency information

I had been unable to find any information comparing the performance and efficiency of the new IBM Power11 to previous IBM Power servers. I reached out for this information to people I know and they shared with me an IBM document, whose information I have copied into this post.

Before we get started I need to briefly explain what rPerf is. It is a method to approximate the difference in performance between two Power servers. rPerf is only for AIX. For IBM i performance CPW is used. I found an IBM page explaining what rPerf is here.

All of the quotes I giving below are from the document I received. They are divided into Performance and IT Efficiency. While the document did not group them together I am doing so. I am not including the disclaimers with the quotes, as that will make it difficult to read. The disclaimers can be found at the bottom of this post.

More details about Power11

I have found more links on IBM's websites about Power11 that I think are worth sharing:

• IBM Power Security new enhancements and capabilities
• IBM Power E1180: Powering the Future with Unmatched Reliability, Security and Scalability for the AI Era
• IBM Power E1150: Full-Stack Innovation for Autonomous, Scalable, and Secure IT
• IBM Power S1124: A New Era of Full-Stack Design and Synergy
• IBM Power L1124: A New Era of Full-Stack Design and Synergy
• IBM Power S1122: Transforming Infrastructure with Integrated Full-Stack Solutions
• IBM Power L1122: Transforming Infrastructure with Integrated Full-Stack Solutions
• IBM Power Platform Enhancements 3Q 2025
• IBM Extends hardware capabilities with the new IBM Rack-Mounted Flat-Panel Console Kit with Keyboard
• IBM Power Security new enhancements and capabilities
• IBM Power Expert Care Power11 systems

Video of the announcement on Tuesday July 8, 2025:

• Video

IBM Power11 chips and servers are announced

Today is the day! The new IBM Power servers using the new Power11 chips have been announced.

Over the years IBM has developed increasingly more power Power, chips that have been significant improvements from the previous one.

IBM i 7.6 available today

The new release of the IBM i operating system, IBM i 7.6, is available today. While 7.6 will steal the headlines today, there is a Technology Refresh for IBM i 7.5, TR6, that is also available.

If you have missed all the news, you can find out what is in the new release and the new TR, here.

More information about IBM i 7.6

I found some more interesting information about IBM i 7.6, the new release that was announced yesterday.

The first is what IBM called a "data sheet". It is only three pages long an gives a very high level insight into the new release. This might be something to share with your superior, so that they have an idea of what is in 7.6.

Version 7.6 announced

The awaited IBM iNext was announced today as IBM i 7.6. Also announced is a new Technology Refresh for IBM i 7.5 TR6.

IBM i 7.6 will only run on IBM Power 10 servers, and, I presume, on the Power 11 too whenever that is announced.

It would appear to be the end of TRs for IBM i 7.4. IBM has said they will provide fixes for 7.4, but nothing new. If you are on 7.4 on a Power 10 my recommendation it is time to start making plans to move up to at least 7.5.

The new release, IBM i 7.6 and the PTFs for IBM i 7.5 TR 6 will be available April 18, 2025.

Every release in recent years has a "theme". The "theme" of this release is security, with many of the new features and functions being to do with keeping your data and server secure.

IBM Power9 maintenance end of life

On September 12 last year IBM published a document about the future of maintenance for some of the IBM Power9 servers.

In it IBM explains that after eight years of IBM Power9, the end of their Standard Service maintenance for various Power9 servers is effective January 31 2026.

I think this is brought on by the expected announcement of the IBM Power11 chip based servers later this year.

IBM's document gives you all the information, therefore, I am not going to repeat it. You will find IBM's document here.

TR PTFs for Db2 now available

The PTFs for Db2 for i for the latest Technology Refreshes become available today, December 13, 2024.

The PTF for Db2, not the TR PTF, are:

• Database (SQL) and RPG 7.5: SF99950 level 8
• Database and RPG 7.4: SF99704 level 29

You can download them by follow the appropriate link on the Db2 for IBM i 2024 PTF Group Schedule page.

I have asked RZKH to download these PTFs so I can start experimenting and start writing about the features in these TR.

The TR PTF are:

• IBM i 7.5 TR5: SF99957
• IBM i 7.4 TR11: SF99737

Read about:

• Db2 for i enhancements (same enhancements are made to IBM i 7.4)

Technology Refresh PTFs for RPG are now available

This morning Barbara Morris, lead developer for the RPG compiler, announced that the RPG PTFs for the latest Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.5 TR5 and 7.4 TR11, are now available.

You can see what these are here.

I don't have the specific PTF numbers for RPG. You will want the latest PTFs for 5770WDS, ILE RPG compiler. Those you can download from Fix Central.

This does not appear to have been coordinated with the Db2 Database (SQL) PTFs. They show they will be available December 13, 2024.

IBM Power11 is coming, but not announced

I do not think I have ever seen IBM do this before. The Vice President of Product Management for the IBM Power Servers, Bargav Balakrishnan, wrote a blog post in the IBM Newsroom about IBM Power11 processors being released next year, 2025.

While his post was not technical, explaining the differences from IBM Power10 and Power11, he did give some details about the performance improvement we could see when comparing these two servers.

He also wrote about integrating the IBM Spyre Accelerator to allow IBM Power servers used to be able the scale AI workloads.

The last section of his post talked about IBM's AI tool for RPG, RPG code assistant, stating that IBM intends to deliver it next year too.

You can read his blog post here.

This goes to show that 2025 is going to be an exciting year for IBM Power, IBM i and RPG.

Fall 2024 IBM i Performance Guide

On Tuesday, November 12 2024, IBM i Chief Architect and CTO, Steve Will, announced the updated "Fall 2024 IBM i Performance FAQ" guide had been published, and is available for download.

This guide gives information on how to measure the performance of your IBM i partition, and how to optimize whatever tools and programming languages you use to get the best from the operating system we all love.

You can open and download the document from here.

I have already downloaded and read this document this guide. And I think it would be good for you to do the same.