Stream: Virtual Room 2
Time: 12:30 - 13:15
The z/OS virtual address space is one of the most important and least understood structures in enterprise computing. Every job that runs, every abend that occurs, every dump that is produced; all of it happens inside a precisely organized 64-bit address space whose layout has been carefully engineered over six decades. Yet most engineers who work on z/OS every day cannot fully describe that layout, explain why each area exists where it does or read a storage map with confidence. This session will try to change that. We cover the complete z/OS virtual storage map from the Prefixed Storage Area at virtual address zero, through the Nucleus, SQA, Link Pack Areas, CSA, and private regions, up through the 16MB line and 2GB bar into 64-bit space, explaining every region in technical depth. What it contains. Why it is positioned where it is. Whether it is fixed or pageable, shared or private. What storage key protects it. To make these concepts genuinely stick, each storage region is introduced through a single connected story, Z-City — where every district, building, and rule maps precisely onto the real technical concept. The technical depth follows immediately after each narrative moment, grounded in real addresses, real abend codes, and real diagnostic implications.
Aditya Srivastava has over 18 years of experience in the mainframe ecosystem and currently works with BMC Software, focusing on IMS Fast Path database technologies. He has extensive experience working with core mainframe infrastructure and database systems.
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