Specifications

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2009, 2013. All rights reserved. ix
Preface
This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces the IBM System z® Personal Development
Tool (zPDT), which runs on an underlying Linux system based on an Intel processor. zPDT
provides a System z system on a PC capable of running current System z operating systems,
including emulation of selected System z I/O devices and control units. It is intended as a
development, demonstration, and learning platform; it is not designed as a production
system.
This book, discussing more advanced topics, is the last of three volumes. The first volume
introduces zPDT and provides reference material for zPDT commands and device managers.
The second volume describes the installation of zPDT (including the underlying Linux, and a
particular z/OS® distribution) and basic usage patterns. The third volume discusses more
advanced topics that may not interest all zPDT users. The IBM order numbers for the three
volumes are SG24-7721, SG24-7722, and SG24-7723.
The systems discussed in these volumes are complex, with elements of Linux (for the
underlying PC machine), z/Architecture® (for the core zPDT elements), System z I/O
functions (for emulated I/O devices), and z/OS (providing the System z application interface),
and possibly with other System z operating systems. We assume the reader is familiar with
the general concepts and terminology of System z hardware and software elements and with
basic PC Linux characteristics.
The author
This series of IBM Redbook publications was produced by the zPDT development team, with
assistance from many other people.
Bill Ogden is a retired Senior Technical Staff Member at the International Technical Support
Organization, Poughkeepsie. He enjoys working with new mainframe users and entry-level
systems.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Keith VanBenschoten, IBM Poughkeepsie, was very helpful in establishing installation and
startup processes for the 1090 and in providing test systems.
Theodore Bohizic, IBM Poughkeepsie, helped us understand command, design, and
internal details.
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