Key New Features and Changes

The goal of the IRIX 6.5 release family is to provide a high quality and stable operating system for all Silicon Graphics systems. This release family supports all SGI hardware platforms supported by IRIX 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4, except for Crimson. Significant additional software has been packaged with IRIX 6.5, including some important system and network management and interoperability tools.

The page contains a partial list of the key new features and changes for:

IRIX 6.5.4

IRIX 6.5

Look for information about the IRIX 6.5 release family on Supportfolio Online (http://support.sgi.com) and www.sgi.com.

For details on any of these new features and changes, refer to the release notes.

Please be aware that some features listed here are only applicable for certain software bundles or hardware configurations.

IRIX 6.5.4 Key New Features

The following features are in the core 6.5.4 overlays.

New Hardware Supported

• 270 Mhz processor for O2 and Octane
• HDTV XIO Board for Onyx2, Origin2000, and CRAY Origin2000
• Systems using the MIPS R12000 processor (initially supported in 6.5.3)
• Digital Video Multiplexer option board (DPLEX) for Onyx (initially supported in 6.5.3)
• Redundant Power Supply (RPS) (initially supported in 6.5.3)
• 21" Monitor Support for O2 and Octane (initially supported in 6.5.3)
• Flat Panel Monitor for O2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.2)
• 16 pipe InfiniteReality2E systems (initially supported in 6.5.2)
• GSN network adapter (initially supported in 6.5.2)
• Gigabit Ethernet for Octane and Origin systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
• 128p Metarouter for CRAY Origin 2000 systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
• Dual Channel Display option for O2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
• XR hardware for InfiniteReality2E (initially supported in 6.5.1)
• 225QC for Origin200 (initially supported in 6.5.1)

Software

Feature Stream Only:

• Motif 2.1/ViewKit 2.1 (initially added in 6.5.2)
• IRIX Oplock Support (initially added in 6.5.2)
• Support for Non EUC encoding and locales (sjis/big5/gbk/utf8) (initially added in 6.5.2)

Maintenance and Feature Stream:

• Support for the Miser queue repack policy. When a job finishes execution prior to the end of its schedule, the system resources it was using are released. This policy attempts to reschedule the jobs using earlier start and end times in order to take advantage of these released system resources. The order of the scheduled jobs will be maintained. This feature can be used by all Miser users running IRIX 6.5.4m or f. For more information, see the miser(4) and miser(5) man pages, and the IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation, Chapter 7 "Managing User Processes."
• Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Client for accessing shared resources in distributed computing DCE/DFS serving environments
  • Kernel libraries only
  • Requires installation of DCE/DFS 1.2.2a software for full functionality
• (OCTANE systems only) The worst-case interrupt response time is guaranteed to be less than one millisecond on properly configured OCTANE systems (initially added in 6.5.3)
• Support for the X security and appgroup extensions (combined with a new Netscape plugin, these allow the embedding of X applications in Web pages) (initially added in 6.5.3)
• Extra support for European fonts, including the new Euro currency symbol (initially added in 6.5.3)
• New Software Manager and Inst commands to simplify selections for upgrades (initially added in 6.5.3)
• New Software Manager and Inst configuration variable to more easily handle cases where configuration files are upgraded. See the "smart_config_handling" preference in inst or swmgr for more information (initially added in 6.5.3)
• LDAP 3.0 now supported (initially added in 6.5.3)
• AutoFS extended to use UNS for map information (initially added in 6.5.2)
• Support for DCShare application sharing extension (initially added in 6.5.2)
• Fibre channel support to Dmnet (initially added in 6.5.2)
• Three new HP printer drivers (initially added in 6.5.2)

Applications CD:

• Upgrade to Netscape Communicator 4.51; for details, see http://home.netscape.com/communicator/v4.5/tour/index.html.
• CosmoPlayer 2.1 release
• SGImeeting Collaboration Environment, 1.1, Net-based data-conferencing, application-sharing software (SGImeeting Collaboration Environment, 1.0 was added in 6.5.2)
• SGImeeting Extensions, 1.1, offer additional whiteboard tools as "plugins" that appear on the whiteboard tool palette. These tools are ideal for group discussions in CAD and image intensive industries. A 90-day evaluation license is included. The following extensions are available:
  • A screen capture tool for dynamic or still whiteboard input
  • A video capture tool for dynamic or still whiteboard input
  • Customizable arrows and dimension markers for easy discussion pointing
  • Symbol palette for drag and drop images
  • SmartClear for clearing annotations when captured images update
• WebViewer Library Execution only Environment 3.2 release

  For more information about the bundled software that is included with this release, see CD Contents and the Bundled Software and Licenses web page that you can access from the Welcome web page.

IRIX 6.5 Key New Features

IRIX 6.5 feature categories:

Binary Compatibility

Includes both a 32-bit and a 64-bit runtime environment. Systems that use the 64-bit runtime environment support both 32-bit and 64-bit applications; systems that use the 32-bit runtime environment, such as the O2, will only support 32-bit applications.

Desktop

Products:

• Site Manager 1.1, for web content validation and version control, workflow support, 3D visualization, and server traffic statistics
• Adobe Acrobat 3.0, for viewing PDF documents
• Nedit, new default text editor; jot is also available
• Accessibility Panel, new graphical interface for AccessX software, allowing movement-impaired users to use the keyboard and mouse more efficiently
• WebViewer 3.0 now supports CSS1 Style sheets, Netscape plug-ins, JavaScript, history mechanism, animated GIFs (WebViewer is embedded in System Manager, File Manager, Software Manager, InfoSearch, EZ-setup, Site Manager, Out of Box Experience, and SGIHelp)
• Netscape Communicator 4.05 provides support for Navigator (browser), Messenger (e-mail), Composer (content creation), and Collabra (news reader); MediaMail no longer supported-see preinstallation caveat
• Netscape Communicator Lite 4.05 provides support for Navigator (browser) only

General Changes:

• Desktop now called IRIX Interactive Desktop (previously Indigo Magic)
• For security, ability to display applications that are running on other systems is now off by default (see the online Desktop User's Guide, "About the Remote Display Feature," for details)
• Performance improvements in application startup
• Impressario now supports PostScript Printer Description (PPD); HP and Lexmark PPD drivers are included with software

Digital Media

• Media Player now supports movies played to video output
• Movielib file now supports Quicktime MJPEG-A files
• Movielib, Media Player, and Movie Maker now support DV DIF files
• Sony DAT Qualification (LibDatAudio)
• Support new Audio Subcode I/O
• Hardware generated audio events, sample rate changes
• O2 and OCTANE Digital Media Buffers (dmbuffers) now support the same interface--the OCTANE 6.4 interface (for compatibility, the O2 IRIX 6.3 interface will continue to be supported)
• For compatibility, VL Buffers continues to be supported for IRIX 6.2 and earlier applications (dmbuffers are recommended for new application development)

Documentation Content and Delivery

• InfoSearch, new and improved online viewer and search engine for books, man pages, and Release Notes
• New on the Toolchest: Help > Quick Answers; Help > Hints and Shortcuts
• See Resources section for comprehensive overview of useful information and support

Graphics

• Support for OpenGL 1.1 on all systems
• Imaging performance increased for O2
  • Increased performance for luminance (8 and 16-bit) and RGB images
  • Increased performance for general and separable convolves
  • Increased throughput through the imaging engine

I/O

• Guaranteed Rate I/O (GRIO) support
• Project quotas
• User space serial I/O
• Fibre channel Arbitrated Loop Topology (AL)

Networking

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) version 2
• (Origin systems only) HP-UX MIB/SNMP provides network manageability in enterprise environments
• Unified Name Service now supports yp services
• NFS for data-serving
• (Origin systems only) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Client for accessing shared resources in distributed computing DCE/DFS serving environments

Origin Database

• Database Accelerator (DBA)

Origin Enterprise System Management

• Computer Associates Unicenter® TNG(TM) Framework(TM)

Origin Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS)

• SBE reporting mechanism
• Automatic disabling of failing components while booting
• Extended memory error handling

Origin Scalability Features

• Single system environment consisting of up to 128 processors
  • Single system image
  • Support for balanced batch and timeshare workloads
  • Single administrative entity
• Partitioned system environment consisting of up to 128 processors
  • Partitioned system image with firewalls between each Origin partition
  • Application availability with Failsafe (option)
  • Administration through IRIS Console

PC & Macintosh Interoperability

• (O2 systems only) SoftWindows 95 for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 terminal emulation on IRIX
• Xinet Appletalk for Macintosh file and print sharing
• Novell Netware
• (Origin systems only) Syntax TAS provides instant interoperability with Windows 95 (Server Message Block), Macintosh, and Novell clients
• SAMBA (on Freeware CD) provides interoperability with Server Message Block (SMB) clients

PCI

• Support for multifunction cards
• User-level PCI drivers can now be developed for OCTANE

Personal System Management

Products:

• New and improved personal system administration interactive guides and tools (accessible from the System Manager)
• Process Manager, graphical tool to manage processes
• Hosts Guide, graphical tool to setup your network

General Changes:

• Startup login screen is user configurable (for example, user icons can be replaced with any image)
• Support for personal filetypes--allows users to create custom icons for their desktops
• Keyword search now supported in System Manager
• Backup and Restore graphical tool now uses cpio

Scheduling 

• (Origin systems, Onyx2 systems only) The worst-case interrupt response time is guaranteed to be less than one millisecond on properly configured Origin and Onyx2 systems with up to eight CPUs
• Miser predictive batch scheduler
• Share II resource manager (option)

Security

• Most features of the Commercial Security Pack are now bundled into IRIX 6.5
• Least Privilege (POSIX P1003.1e), which allows allocation of system privileges individually (rather than setuid)
• Access Control List
• Single Sign-on via Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) 

Software Distribution Features

• Inst now supports ISO 9660 CDs 

Standards

Standards compliance under IRIX 6.4 will be extended, with the addition of:

• Year 2000 compliance as defined by the X/Open group
• UNIX 95 Certified Single UNIX Specification - Spec 1170/UNIX 95
• DII-COE Kernel Version 3.2 available for development projects
• Full pthreads support, including system scope

Workgroup System Management

• (Origin systems only) EnlightenDSM Workgroup Server provides Distributed System Management for small enterprises and workgroups.
• (O2, OCTANE, Onyx2 systems only) EnlightenDSM Workgroup Client provides Distributed System Management for small enterprises and workgroups

X11/Motif

• Improved performance for X11 and Motif
• Thread-safe Xlib and Xt
• Support for X11R6.3 server and libraries (previously X11R6.1), including support for Low-Bandwidth X
• Continue to support Motif 1.2.4
• Improvements to the hardware colormap implementation minimizes colormap flashing for IMPACT and OCTANE graphics systems