DS8000 - Hardware Withdrawal of older expansion frames and some

Yesterday IBM made the following announcement : 'Hardware withdrawal: IBM System Storage DS8000 Expansion Unit Model 92E and 9AE, and selected feature and model conversions - No replacements available (ZG12-0117)'.

You know what, the DS8000 has had so many model and features numbers since it was first announced in, what was it, 2004 that it's not always easy to see whether this applies to your system(s) or not. So, what does it say ?

Effective immediately, the following feature will be withdrawn:

 
                           Machine      Model        Feature
Description                type         number       number
 
DS8000 LMC R6.0 indicator  2421, 2422,  95E          1821
                           2423, 2424
 

Effective September 28, 2012, the following products will be withdrawn:

 
                                 Machine Model
Description                      number  number

DS8000 Expansion Unit            2421    92E
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2422    92E
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2423    92E
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2424    92E
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2421    9AE
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2422    9AE
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2423    9AE
 
DS8000 Expansion Unit            2424    9AE
 

Model conversions
Effective October 1, 2012, the following model conversions will be withdrawn:

 
From             To
machine  From    machine   To
type     model   type      model

2421     931     2421      941
2421     932     2421      941
2422     931     2422      941
2422     932     2422      941
2423     931     2423      941
2423     932     2423      941
2424     931     2424      941
2424     932     2424      941
 

That should be clear to you, no ? You know, there's a site that's called 'Let me google that for you'. Check it out, it's nice, you can use it the next time someone asks you a stupid question : http://lmgtfy.com/. Unfortunately there's no site or app that goes : Let me translate that for you in plain understandable English. So I'll help you out a bit.

The first part tells you that the LCM (Licensed Machine Code, but that, of course, you knew) R6.0 will no longer be available for the DS8800 Expansion Frame. This strikes me as a bit odd, withdrawing LMC for an expansion frame, but there it is. If someone can clarify this for me, be my guest.

The second part indicates that you will no longer be able to order expansion frames for a DS8100 nor for a DS8300 as of September 28, 2012.

And finally a model conversion from  a DS8100 or a DS8300 towards a DS8700 will no longer be possible from October 1, 2012 onwards.

I don't think that will really affect a lot of people. So, large post, little news.