Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 11:55:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Bill Paul <wpaul> To: dkelly@hiwaay.net (David Kelly) Cc: jlemon@americantv.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Off-topic: IRIX 5.3 Message-ID: <199808211855.LAA16044@hub.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <199808210040.TAA12740@nospam.hiwaay.net> from David Kelly at "Aug 20, 98 07:40:43 pm"
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> "Jason C. Wells" writes: > > On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, Jonathan Lemon wrote: > > > > > I know that this is offtopic, but I need to get ahold of an > > >IRIX 5.3 CD (for SimOS). Anyone know where I can find one of > > >these? Sales numbers at SGI are also welcome. > > > > > > I know zip about SGI, but apparently the 6.4 CD that I have > > >will not suit my purposes. > > > > I can tell you this. SGI made a change in binary file format from 5.3 to > > 6.4 so if you are thinking about mixing and matching binaries and kernels > > you best be careful. > > Irix 4.x was COFF, Irix 5.x was both COFF and ELF, Irix 6.x is ELF only. > The 5.3 kernel was COFF. IRIX 4.x was COFF only IRIX 5.3 is mostly ELF, but maintains the ability to run COFF executables and the IDO provides support for generating COFF binaries if you're desperate but defaults to ELF. It runs on R3000, R4000, R4400 and multi-CPU R4400 machines like the IP19 Onyx/Challenge. IRIX 5.3 is the last release of IRIX to support the R3000 processor: if you have an old SGI Indigo with an R3000 processor, this is the last release of IRIX that will run on it. IRIX 5.3 with 175Mhz and 2MB cache was a special release for certain Indigo2 machines with faster versions of the R4400 chip that run at 175Mhz or 300Mhz clock speeds. IRIX 5.3 with XFS was yet another interim release with XFS support. XFS was also available separately for IRIX 5.3 as aa whopping great patch bundle. (There were a couple of early 6.x releases for certain platforms. IRIX 6.0.1 and IRIX 6.1 were released mainly for Power Onyx and Power Challenge systems with R8000 CPUs. In IRIX 6.1, the kernel had support for activating COFF images but all the COFF compatibility libraries were removed.) IRIX 6.2 has all support for COFF removed and was supposed to be an all-platform release. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit machines and include a MIPS-4 ABI for 64-bit binaries. Typically the only 64-bit machines are multi-CPU boxes like the IP19 Onyx/Challenge or IP21 Power Onyx/Power Challenge or IP25 Onyx (R10000) machines. IRIX 6.2 marks the official end of COFF support. It's also the first release to use the FLEXlm license manager from GlobeTrotter Software instead of the NLS license manager used in previous releases. (IRIX is also the only OS in the world that I know of where you actually need a FLEXlm license key to use certain 3rd party kernel extentions.) IRIX 6.3 is a platform specific release much like IRIX 6.2, except designed to support only the O2 workstation machines, which came out after IRIX 6.2 was released. It also includes new desktop tools. IRIX 6.2 runs _only_ on the O2. IRIX 6.3 With R10000 is yet another platform specific release for O2 workstations with R10000 processors. IRIX 6.4 is a platform specific release for the OCTANE, Origin and Onyx2 R10000 systems, which also came out after IRIX 6.2 was released. IRIX 6.4 is _only_ for 64-bit class systems. IRIX 6.4.1 is an incremental update to IRIX 6.4 released because IRIX 6.4 sucked. IRIX 6.5 is the latest all-platform release for all currently supported SGI hardware, including the Onyx2, Origin, OCTANE, Indigo2, Indigo2 IMPACT, Indy, Indy R5000, O2, O2 R10000, Onyx, Challenge, Power Onyx and Power Challenge. Among other things, it's substantially larger than IRIX 6.2, and it marks the first time that SGI has actually bundled full NFS support with the base OS rather than making you buy a separate set of CDs at extra cost. It also marks the first time SGI has provided all of the development support (assembler, linker, headers, C runtime startup modules) necessary to run gcc without having to buy an extra development package first. Compilers still cost extra though. Anyway. I have an IRIX 5.3 CD in my "wall 'o media" in my office, but I can't part with it as I need as I still have some machines running that OS release. Also, I don't believe the SGI license agreement allows selling the media unless it's part of a package deal including the workstation that it came with. I'd rather not give SGI an excuse to send their vicious lawyer hordes after me or Columbia. -Bill To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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