IBM is working on updates for IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS. IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, version 5.1, works with the latest versions of IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS), Information Management System (IMS) and DB2 software. The software is expected to be available later this quarter.

The new software provides support for Java 7, new UTF-8 built-ins, debugging enhancements, and support for unbounded tables and groups. It also supports a new level of z/OS System Management Facilities (SMF) tracking, which allows users who implement sub-capacity tracking to reduce their administrative overhead. The software improves control over XML documents with the z/OS XML parser, allowing parsing workload to be off loaded to specialty engines.

Nearly 15 percent of all new enterprise application functionality is written in COBOL. The programming language also powers many everyday services such as ATM transactions, check processing, travel booking, and insurance claims. More than 200 billion lines of COBOL code are being used across industries such as banking, insurance, retail and human resources.