About IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z

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IBM® watsonx Code Assistant™ for Z increases developer and system programmer productivity through a mixture of generative AI and automation.

IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z capabilities

The capabilities of watsonx Code Assistant for Z are:
  1. Understand

    Understand your application. The IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z Understand conducts a deep analysis of your program to understand and document your application landscape, the relationships within them, and creates an application blueprint.

  2. Generate 2.6.0+

    Generate new COBOL code. Using watsonx Code Assistant for Z developers can update existing code and create new code using AI assistant, improving efficiency and code quality.

  3. Explain

    Explain your code. The watsonx Code Assistant for Z Code Explanation capability leverages generative AI to explain your COBOL code, PL/I code, REXX code, Assembler code, or a JCL step in natural language that can be inserted as comments or downloaded for documentation.

  4. Optimize 2.1.0+

    Optimize your code. The IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z Code Optimization Advice VS Code extension performs in-depth analysis on COBOL code to identify inefficiencies and deliver recommendations for fixes to the exact line of code through the VS Code user interface.

  5. Refactor

    Refactor your COBOL and PL/I code. The IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z Understand extension allows developers to refactor their application into more modular business services.

  6. Transform

    Transform COBOL to Java™. Using the IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z VS Code extension, developers can leverage generative AI to transform the refactored and optimized COBOL code into object-oriented Java code.

  7. Validate

    Validate Java. IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z Validation Assistant allows developers to ensure semantic equivalence between the refactored COBOL code and transformed Java code by leveraging automated test generation features.

User roles

IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z requires collaboration across different roles.
  • Administrators for Windows, Linux®, z/OS®, and IBM Cloud® work together, along with DevOps specialists, to install and configure the solution.
  • Architects, System programmers, COBOL Developers, and Java Developers use the solution to modernize applications that run on z/OS.
For more information about the types of persona and how they work together, see End-to-end workflow.

Available as a service and on prem

The watsonx Code Assistant for Z solution provides the flexibility to deploy its foundational models either on prem with IBM Software Hub or as-a-service through IBM Cloud. For more information on how watsonx Code Assistant for Z works on IBM Cloud versus on prem with IBM Software Hub, see Solution architecture.