What's new and changed in Watson Studio Runtimes

The Watson Studio Runtimes include Jupyter Notebook runtimes for Python 3.10 (with and without GPU), Python 3.11 (with and without GPU), R 4.2, and R 4.3. Updates to these runtimes can include new features, bug fixes, and security updates. Releases are listed in reverse chronological order so that the latest release is at the beginning of the topic.

You can see a list of the new features for the platform and all of the services at What's new in IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Installing or upgrading Watson Studio Runtimes

Ready to install or upgrade Watson Studio Runtimes?

  • To install Watson Studio Runtimes along with the other Cloud Pak for Data services, see Installing Cloud Pak for Data.
  • To upgrade Watson Studio Runtimes along with the other Cloud Pak for Data services, see Upgrading Cloud Pak for Data.
  • To install or upgrade Watson Studio Runtimes independently, see Watson Studio Runtimes.
    Remember: All of the Cloud Pak for Data components associated with an instance of Cloud Pak for Data must be installed at the same version.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.0.3

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in September 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 5.0.3.

Operand version: 9.3.0

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features:
Python-based 24.1 runtimes now run on Z hardware

Python-based 24.1 runtimes now run on Z hardware (s390x). For more information, see Notebook environments.

Updated library versions in 23.1 runtimes

The Tensorflow and Keras libraries that are included in 23.1 runtimes are now updated to their newer versions. This might have an impact on how code is executed in your notebooks. For details, see Environments.

Pass environment variables and settings to your Spark environments

You can now pass environment variables and change Spark settings when you create and edit your custom Spark environments. This enhancement provides you with more flexibility when setting up your Spark environments. For more information, see Creating environment templates.

Security issues fixed in this release
The following security issues were fixed in this release:
CVE-2024-6409, CVE-2024-6119, CVE-2024-45492, CVE-2024-45491, CVE-2024-45008, CVE-2024-45006, CVE-2024-45005, CVE-2024-45003, CVE-2024-45001, CVE-2024-45000, CVE-2024-44998, CVE-2024-44996, CVE-2024-44994, CVE-2024-44990, CVE-2024-44989, CVE-2024-44987, CVE-2024-44986, CVE-2024-44985, CVE-2024-44984, CVE-2024-44983, CVE-2024-44977, CVE-2024-44975, CVE-2024-44974, CVE-2024-44970, CVE-2024-44967, CVE-2024-44965, CVE-2024-44964, CVE-2024-44961, CVE-2024-44960, CVE-2024-44958, CVE-2024-44957, CVE-2024-44954, CVE-2024-44952, CVE-2024-44949, CVE-2024-41110, CVE-2024-4032, CVE-2024-39705, CVE-2024-39689, CVE-2024-38428, CVE-2024-3651, CVE-2024-35235, CVE-2024-2398, CVE-2024-22190, CVE-2024-21147, CVE-2024-21145, CVE-2024-21140, CVE-2024-21138, CVE-2024-21131

Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.0.1

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in July 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 5.0.1.

Operand version: 9.1.0

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features:
NLP transformer embedding models are included in Runtime 24.1

In the Runtime 24.1 environment, you can now use natural language processing (NLP) transformer embedding models to create text embeddings that capture the meaning of a sentence or passage to help with retrieval-augmented generation tasks. For more information, see Embeddings.

New specialized NLP models are available in Runtime 24.1

The following new, specialized NLP models are now included in the Runtime 24.1 environment:

  • A model that is able to detect and identify hateful, abusive, or profane content (HAP) in textual content. For more information, see HAP detection.
  • Three pre-trained models that are able to address topics related to finance, cybersecurity, and biomedicine. For more information, see Classifying text with a custom classification model.
Security issues fixed in this release
The following security issues were fixed in this release:
CVE-2024-6409, CVE-2024-37891, CVE-2024-3727, CVE-2024-35178, CVE-2024-34064, CVE-2024-34062, CVE-2024-33602, CVE-2024-33601, CVE-2024-33600, CVE-2024-33599, CVE-2024-32487, CVE-2024-32465, CVE-2024-32021, CVE-2024-32020, CVE-2024-32004, CVE-2024-32002, CVE-2024-2961, CVE-2024-28182
Deprecated features
The following features were deprecated in this release:
Runtime 23.1 is deprecated
Runtime 23.1 in Watson Studio notebooks is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. To avoid disruption when the removal is completed, update your notebook environment to use Runtime 24.1. For information about changing environments, see Changing notebook environments.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.0.0

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in June 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 5.0.0.

Operand version: 9.0.0

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features:
Runtime 24.1 is now available for use with Python and R
You can now use Runtime 24.1, which includes the latest data science frameworks on Python 3.11 and on R 4.3, to run your code in Watson Studio Jupyter notebooks and in RStudio®. For more information about the available environments, see Environments .
A new version of Jupyter notebooks editor is now available
If you're running your notebook in environments that are based on Runtime 23.1 and 24.1, you can now:
  • Automatically debug your code
  • Automatically generate a table of contents for your notebook
  • Toggle line numbers next to your code
  • Collapse cell contents and use side-by-side view for code and output, for enhanced productivity
For more information, see Jupyter notebook editor.
Runtime 23.1 with R is now available on Power platform
Runtime 23.1 with R is now available in RStudio on the Power platform. For more information, see RStudio environments.
Updates
The following updates were introduced in this release:
Removal of all environments based on Runtime 22.2
Environments based on Runtime 22.2 have been removed in Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.0.0. For instructions on migrating your assets to environments that are based on newer runtimes, see Migrating Runtime 22.2 environments from Cloud Pak for Data 4.7 or 4.8.
Security issues fixed in this release
The following security issues were fixed in this release:

CVE-2024-3772, CVE-2024-3651, CVE-2024-3154, CVE-2024-30251, CVE-2024-28863, CVE-2024-28835, CVE-2024-28834, CVE-2024-28219, CVE-2024-27983, CVE-2024-27982, CVE-2024-27306, CVE-2024-26609, CVE-2024-26602, CVE-2024-26130, CVE-2024-25743, CVE-2024-25742, CVE-2024-25629, CVE-2024-25062, CVE-2024-24786, CVE-2024-22421, CVE-2024-22365, CVE-2024-22195, CVE-2024-22025, CVE-2024-21896, CVE-2024-21503, CVE-2024-21094, CVE-2024-21085, CVE-2024-21068, CVE-2024-21012, CVE-2024-21011, CVE-2024-0841

CVE-2023-7008, CVE-2023-6932, CVE-2023-6918, CVE-2023-6915, CVE-2023-6622, CVE-2023-6176, CVE-2023-6121, CVE-2023-6004, CVE-2023-5455, CVE-2023-52620, CVE-2023-52581, CVE-2023-52580, CVE-2023-52574, CVE-2023-52489, CVE-2023-52448, CVE-2023-52434, CVE-2023-52426, CVE-2023-52425, CVE-2023-52323, CVE-2023-51780, CVE-2023-51779, CVE-2023-50782, CVE-2023-49080, CVE-2023-4785, CVE-2023-47038, CVE-2023-46219, CVE-2023-46218, CVE-2023-45863, CVE-2023-45288, CVE-2023-45139, CVE-2023-43804, CVE-2023-43787, CVE-2023-43786, CVE-2023-43785, CVE-2023-42755, CVE-2023-42754, CVE-2023-4244, CVE-2023-42282, CVE-2023-4133, CVE-2023-40170, CVE-2023-39968, CVE-2023-39332, CVE-2023-39331, CVE-2023-39198, CVE-2023-39194, CVE-2023-39193, CVE-2023-39192, CVE-2023-39189, CVE-2023-38546, CVE-2023-38545, CVE-2023-38473, CVE-2023-38472, CVE-2023-38471, CVE-2023-38470, CVE-2023-38469, CVE-2023-38409, CVE-2023-38039, CVE-2023-37453, CVE-2023-3567, CVE-2023-32665, CVE-2023-32611, CVE-2023-3138, CVE-2023-31083, CVE-2023-2975, CVE-2023-29499, CVE-2023-28464, CVE-2023-28322, CVE-2023-27866, CVE-2023-27579, CVE-2023-25801, CVE-2023-25775, CVE-2023-25676, CVE-2023-25675, CVE-2023-25674, CVE-2023-25673, CVE-2023-25672, CVE-2023-25671, CVE-2023-25670, CVE-2023-25669, CVE-2023-25668, CVE-2023-25667, CVE-2023-25666, CVE-2023-25665, CVE-2023-25664, CVE-2023-25663, CVE-2023-25662, CVE-2023-25661, CVE-2023-25660, CVE-2023-25659, CVE-2023-25658, CVE-2023-25399, CVE-2023-24816, CVE-2023-24023

CVE-2022-48624, CVE-2022-48554, CVE-2022-48338, CVE-2022-45934, CVE-2022-45907, CVE-2022-40897, CVE-2022-3565, CVE-2022-33068, CVE-2022-25882

CVE-2021-43618, CVE-2021-39537, CVE-2021-3753, CVE-2021-32862

CVE-2020-25656, CVE-2020-19188, CVE-2020-17049, CVE-2020-15778, CVE-2020-11023, CVE-2020-11022

CVE-2019-15505, CVE-2019-13631, CVE-2019-11358

CVE-2018-18700

CVE-2015-9251

CVE-2013-2035

CVE-2010-1330

Deprecated features
The following features were deprecated in this release:
Deprecation of Spark 3.3
Spark 3.3 is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Although you can still use the environments with Spark 3.3 to run your notebooks and scripts, consider moving to Spark 3.4. To change environments, see Changing the environment of a notebook.