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From: gavin@durban.vector.co.za (Gavin Maltby)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: ISP hardware/software choices (performance comparison)
Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.aix
Date: 16 Jan 1996 09:10:14 GMT
Organization: The Vector Group
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Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote:
: AIX features that are more modern than equivalents in Solaris:
: 1) Dynamically sized kernel structures. Solaris has made
: some headway in this direction, but AIX beats *everyone*
: else cold.
Solaris has made headway here. One can still complain that only a small
portion of kernel variables are documented, so some things that are changeable
are not well known. I suspect this is because Sun wants to be able to
reimplement certain algorithms without breaking kernel hacks that their
documentation "set in stone".
: 2) Motif environment shipped with system by default.
2.4 had runtime Motif only; 2.5 desktop and server ships with full CDE.
: 3) Clone devices for PTY's, not limited by range.
You mean things like the 48 pty default, requiring a kernel paramater change
and boot -r to effect? Would be nice to dynamically grow this. Very little
memory is lost by setting this good and high from the outset. I'd like to
see a book ship with Solaris server edition mentioning things like this.
With this an inexperienced installer does not need to know all the potential
hacks. It could give some cookbook stuff such as point n) if expecting no
more than 256 simultaneous pty users then set such and such
: 4) Full utilization of a device file system paradigm.
I can't comment.
: 5) Sample FS source code available in supplementary
: documentation.
I'm sure this must be forthcoming somewhere.
: 6) Sample device driver source code available in suplementary
: documentation.
I know this exists. I've seen (simple) examples in the STREAMs programming
guide and the DDI/DKI guide.
: 7) Well documented kernel interface for kernel subsystems,
: including kernel level file I/O (no locking facilities,
: but that's easy to hack given the header file structures
: and knowledge of the gnode interface).
Again, I can't really comment.
: 8) Thread stacks are not required to be preallocated at some
: limited size; they will be grown as needed, just like
: regular process stacks (UnixWare has support for this
: as well, but does not make use of the VM facility).
Probably a good feature for them to work on. Does AIX grow in chunks---
might lead to excessive utilisation of resources in some cases.
: 9) Unified system management interface, including API's
: for SNMP (IBM's code accompanied the SNMP II RFC).
This is coming along in Solaris.
: 10) A kernel that is *never* recompiled by the customer.
I think you're coomparing AIX against something other than Solaris here,
unless you consider modifications to /etc/system (and maybe things in
/kernel/drv etc) a recompliation.
Cheers
Gavin
--
.
/| The
/ | Vector
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/\ |____ Gavin Maltby, Vector Durban
/ \/| | Email: Gavin.Maltby@durban.vector.co.za
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\ | / Fax: INT+ 27 31 266 0811
\ | / Note: I speak for myself, and not
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