Overview of IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z
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 provides an end-to-end application developer lifecycle that helps developers to modernize their applications through analyzing, refactoring, optimizing, and transforming code, with code explanation available at every stage of the process.
IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z also provides code explanation to help early tenure system programmers understand JCL.
IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z capabilities
- Understand
Understand your application. The watsonx Code Assistant for Z conducts a deep analysis of your program to understand and document your application landscape and the relationships within them. It creates an application “blueprint”.
- Explain
Explain your code. The watsonx Code Assistant for Z Code Explanation service leverages generative AI to explain your COBOL code, PL/I code, or a JCL step in natural language that can be inserted as comments or downloaded for documentation.
- Optimize
2.1+
Optimize your code. The IBM Z® Code Optimization Advice tool 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.
- Refactor
Refactor your COBOL code. The watsonx Code Assistant for Z Refactoring Assistant allows developers to refactor their application into more modular business services.
- Transform
Transform COBOL to Java™. By using 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.
- 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
- 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.
Available as a service and on prem
Watsonx Code Assistant for Z provides the flexibility to deploy its foundational models either on prem with Cloud Pak for Data 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 Cloud Pak for Data, see Solution architecture.