®
As of May 9, 2001 IRIX 6.5.12 is releasing with all new systems
shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers.
The IRIX 6.5.12 release contains updates for both the maintenance
(6.5.12m) and feature (6.5.12f) streams. This release continues the
focus on stability, reliability and compatibility required in the
IRIX 6.5.X quarterly release process.
Approximately 130 customer reported incidents are fixed in this release.
In addition to bug fixes, the IRIX 6.5.12 maintenance path delivers
several software enhancements and additional installation improvements.
Since a major goal of the IRIX 6.5.X release process is to provide a
feature stream as stable as the maintenance stream, the same bug fixes
and software enhancements are also applied to the IRIX 6.5.12 feature path.
The general distribution process is through the online ordering system. IRIX
6.5.12m and 6.5.12f images are also available for download off Supportfolio.
- OpenGL Performer 2.4.1 execution environment, which is a powerful
suite of tools and features that creates real-time visual simulation
and other professional performance-oriented 3D graphics applications
for the IRIX operating system. The following new features for OpenGL
Performer provide enhanced realism and peak-performance rendering:
- Programmable model shading using pfShader
- Use of pfVolFog for rendering layered and patchy fog
- Use of pfRotorWash to create the visual effect of downwash in
helicopter simulation
- Double-precision matrix support for rendering extremely large
databases where objects are far away from the origin
- CPU priority specification to allow multiple run-time processes to run on the same processor
- Multi-pipe scalability enhancements
- Improved pfLOD behavior to allow custom evaluation functions
- Speed and functionality enhancements for pfFlux, pfCliptexture,
and pfLightpoints
- pfHyperpipe support for the DPLEX hardware option
- EventView performance tuning tool for instrumenting and tuning your OpenGL Performer application
- The IRIX tape-support feature consists of a tape support driver,
personality daemons, and a daemon that manages the personality daemons.
The feature enables new personality daemons to be developed and
added individually. The tape-support driver, which co-exists with the
current IRIX tape driver (tpsc), passes all device-dependent tasks,
except for I/O processing, to a personality daemon. This release
supports various devices including the Fibre Channel implementation
on the StorageTek 9840 and T9940A tape drives. The reserve, release,
preempt, clear, and prsv commands are available for these tape
drives on the mt command. For more information, see the mt(1),
tsarchive(1M), tsdaemon(1M), tserrpt(1M), tsset(1M), tsstop(1M),
ts.config(4), and ts(7) man pages.
- Updated FLEXlm v7.2e support from GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc. The
license manager daemon and the floating license server are built
in V5 compatibility mode. For backwards compatibility, the client
libraries and header files are still based on FLEXlm v6.1. For more
information, see the FLEXlm End User Manual and the associated man
pages.
- The Scheduled Transfer Protocol (STP) has moved from the feature
stream to the maintenance and feature stream. STP is now a mature
supported protocol and it includes support for the Trusted IRIX.
Feature Stream:
- Supports the labeling of disks as XVM system disks in the XVM
Volume Manager. This lets you create XVM logical volumes that
include the partitions of a system disk. The following XVM system
disk features are supported:
- Root partitions can be mirrored
- There can be multiple root partitions on a system disk
- You can include usr and swap partitions in any XVM logical volume
configuration, including mirrors, concats, and stripes
- A system disk can include slices that are not part of a root, usr, or swap partition
You can now convert existing system disks to XVM system disks, and then
use their partitions as part of an XVM logical volume. After you have
converted an existing system disk to an XVM disk, you can convert the
disk back to its original state by unlabeling the disk with the XVM
unlabel command. For information on XVM system disks, see the XVM Volume
Manager Administrator's Guide.
Applications CD:
For those providers asking about quarterly recertification of applications,
please take a moment and become acquainted with the application compatibility
protections offered by IRIX 6.5. This is a very powerful mandate that allows
an application to be developed under IRIX 6.5.X and be run on any IRIX 6.5.Y,
regardless of whether Y > X, Y == X, or Y < x.
The Mandate of Application Compatibility in SGI IRIX 6.5 is at URL:
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi/0650/bks/SGI_Developer/books/mandate_IRIX/sgi_html/pr01.html
Users are reminded to review the special "Caveats to Read Before You
Upgrade" section of the online Start Here document. Visit the the "Caveat and
Release Note Updates" site for any late-breaking information.
IRIX 6.5.13 is in development and is planned to release mid-August, 2001
