Position-independent code satisfies references indirectly by using a global offset table (GOT), which allows code to be relocated simply by updating the GOT. Each executable and each DSO has its own GOT. For more information on DSOs, see Chapter 3, "Using Dynamic Shared Objects."
The compiler system produces PIC by default when compiling higher-level language files. All of the standard libraries are provided as DSOs, and therefore contain PIC code; if you compile a program into non-PIC, you will be unable to use those DSOs. One of the few reasons to compile non-PIC is to build a device driver, which doesn't rely on standard libraries. In this case, you should use the -non_shared option to the compiler to negate the default option, -KPIC. For convenience, the C library and math library are provided in non-shared format as well as in DSO format (although the non-shared versions are not installed by default). You can link these libraries -non_shared with other non-PIC files.