Re: Sun 64 bit clients

Darrell Kindred (dkindred@cmu.edu)
Fri, 9 May 1997 21:25:24 -0400

Joshua Weage writes:
> I attempted to help Darrell find a way to compile
> 64 bit code on an Ultra. However, it seems as though
> solaris 2.5 is not a 'real' 64 bit os. It would not
> compile 64 bit code. However, I pointed him to
> gcc-2.7.2.2 which is supposed to support the version9 (64 bit)
> architecture. He said he would look at that after finishing
> the other 64 bit clients.

I've looked into this a bit, and my current understanding is
that code using 64-bit integers won't work under Solaris
2.5.1, no matter what compiler you use. I've heard that the
OS won't save the 64-bit registers properly across context
switches. I believe Solaris 2.6 (currently in beta testing)
supports 64-bit code. If anyone can provide a guest account
on a machine running 2.6, I can try building a 64-bit client
for it.

That said, the bit-parallel code can run in 32-bit mode, and
the result is sometimes faster than the current (non-Intel)
DESCHALL clients. Some such clients may be released in the
near future.

- Darrell