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Key New Features and Changes

The goal of IRIX 6.5, and by extension IRIX 6.5.2, is to provide a high quality and stable operating system for all Silicon Graphics systems. This release supports all SGI 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
IRIX 6.5.2

For more details about IRIX 6.5 and IRIX 6.5.2, look for information about it on Supportfolio Online (http://support.sgi.com) and www.sgi.com.

For details on 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.

Management

Origin Reliability, Availability,

Serviceability (RAS)

Origin Scalability

PC & Macintosh Interoperability

PCI

Personal System Management

Scheduling

Security

Software Distribution

Standards

Workgroup System Management

X11/Motif

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.

Systems that support a 32-bit runtime
environment with 64-bit extensions*:

Indigo R4000
Indigo2
Indy
Challenge S/M R4000
Indy/Challenge R5000
O2 R5000
O2 R10000

*64-bit extensions include support for
XFS filesystem and 64-bit long integers,
excluding 64-bit address spaces.

Systems that support a 64-bit runtime environment:

Challenge R4000
Onyx R4000
POWER Indigo2
POWER CHALLENGE
POWER Onyx
Indigo2 Extreme 10000
Indigo2 IMPACT 10000
Origin200
Origin2000, Cray Origin2000
Onyx2
OCTANE

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 Look 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
NIS+
(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

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) ENlighten Workgroup DSM Server provides Distributed System Management for small enterprises and workgroups.
(O2, OCTANE, Onyx2 systems only) ENlighten Workgroup DSM 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

IRIX 6.5.2 Key New Features

New Hardware Supported

Flat Panel Monitor for O2 systems
16 pipe support
Filesystem Support of the LS-120, 120MB Floppy Drive
GSN network adapter
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
IRIX Oplock Support
Support for Non EUC encoding and locales (sjis/big5/gbk/utf8)

Maintenance and Feature Stream:

AutoFS extended to use UNS for map information.
Support for DCShare application sharing extension
Fibre channel support to Dmnet
Three new HP printer drivers

Applications:

SGImeeting Collaboration Environment, 1.0, Net-based data-conferencing, application-sharing software

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