IBM i 7.1 out of support

What it brought

• After 7.1 became available, point ("modification") releases were replaced by Technology Refreshes, delivered as a PTF group
• Db2 for i: XML support, the MERGE statement, global variables, arrays in procedures and FIELDPROC to encode or encrypt a field
• RPG: SORTA and %LOOKUP on data structure arrays, %SCANRPL, RTNPARM and %PARMNUM
• From here on, RPG language additions reach Rational Developer for i only: the SEU syntax checker stops at V6R1

Technology Refreshes

IBM no longer keeps a page listing what each 7.1 Technology Refresh added. Here are the dates and PTF groups from the IBM page, the additions the 7.1 Redbook ties to a specific TR, and for TR9 and TR10 what the 7.2 pages state also applies to 7.1.

1. Power8 20 May 2016

   • With no new TR: support for the Power8 hardware announced on 12 April 2016, with Resave RS-710-S
2. TR11 20 November 2015 SF99707 level 11

   • The last Technology Refresh for 7.1
3. TR10 29 May 2015 SF99707 level 10

   • Java 8 also reaches 7.1

   IBM page →

4. TR9 11 November 2014 SF99707 level 9

   • The same Db2 additions as 7.2 TR1, except those IBM marks as 7.2 only: regular expressions, LPAD and RPAD, pipelined functions
   • QSYS2.JOBLOG_INFO, QSYS2.LIBRARY_LIST_INFO and QSYS2.JOURNAL_INFO
   • Announced together with the 5733-OPS open source product

   IBM page →

5. TR8 6 June 2014 SF99707 level 8

   No source read ties specific additions to this TR.

6. TR7 15 November 2013 SF99707 level 7

   • Free-form RPG for the H, F, D and P specifications too, and /FREE is hardly needed any more
   • Ethernet link aggregation with LACP (*LNKAGG), besides the static kind
   • PPP on the 2-port async adapter
7. TR6 13 February 2013 SF99707 level 6

   • Collection Services gathers data for IBM Storwize V7000 and SR-IOV ports
8. TR5 12 October 2012 SF99707 level 5

   • RDX drives attached natively, via USB or SATA
   • The 2-port async adapter for serial terminals and devices on Power7 and Power7+
9. TR4 18 May 2012 SF99707 level 4

   No source read ties specific additions to this TR.

10. TR3 14 October 2011 SF99707 level 3

    No source read ties specific additions to this TR.

11. TR2 13 May 2011 SF99707 level 2

    No source read ties specific additions to this TR.

12. TR1 10 September 2010 SF99707 level 1

    No source read ties specific additions to this TR.

Individual PTFs are not listed: there are thousands per release and nearly all of them fix a defect. New function comes with releases and with the Technology Refresh PTF groups, which are here.