Solaris 2.5.1 is designed to provide enhanced multi-architecture enterprise business solutions for IT professionals, resellers, ISVs, and in-house MIS organizations need to deliver Internet / Intranet connectivity and offer a scalable, secure, and reliable operating environment.

SunSoft is committed to deliver a full 64-bit Solaris environment. The release of Solaris 2.5.1 contains several 64-bit features including 64-bit KAIO (Kernel Asynchronous Input/Output) for fast asynchronous transfers of large amounts of data between memory and disk. Future Solaris releases will continue the move to a full 64-bit environment while continuing to support existing 32-bit applications.

Key New Features

Optimized support for the most advanced microprocessors

• UltraSPARC - Graphics drivers ZX (high-end 3D graphics accelerator) and FFB+ (optimal code for new ASIC supporting 1600x1280 resolution); Wabi runtime performance improvements of the SPARC V9 little-endian.

• Pentium and Pentium Pro - As much as 25% improvement with relational databases running Oracle® Transaction Processing Council benchmarks.

64-bit KAIO

64-bit kernel asynchronous I/O upgrades the libaio library to support 64-bit offsets for KAIO operation with large database requirements within an Oracle or Sybase database environment.

Virtual Memory

Increased virtual memory space support up to 3.75GB. The boundary between user space and the kernel is more flexible, so the kernel can take as little as 250MB of space and applications can be as large as 3.75GB.

Greater number of UID's

Increased UID extensions providing extended data types from 16-bit to 32-bit. Maximum User ID (MAXUID) has been extended to support over 2 billion UIDs.

Desktop Features for UltraSPARC/SPARC, Intel

Common Desktop Environment (CDE) 1.0.2, co-packaged with Solaris 2.5.1, provides users with flexible, open user environment that has a common look-and-feel across all major UNIX® desktops; transparent access to network resources; and iconification of frequently-used UNIX commands, allowing drag & drop between files and the commands.

CDE provides compatibility with industry standards such as Motif, X11, MIME, and XAPIA. CDE also supports OpenWindows^TM and OpenStep^TMapplications. Graphics enhancements to XGL^TM, XIL^TM, and PEX to improve graphics and imaging rendering performance while increasing the quantity of supported image file formats.

Wabi^TM 2.2, standard with Solaris 2.5.1, uses high-performance translation technology which allows Solaris users to run Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and Lotus SmartSuite 4.0 productivity applications on their desktop while integrating these applications into their Solaris environment. In addition, Wabi 2.2 provides support for multimedia and ODBC applications.

Server Features for UltraSPARC/SPARC and Intel

• Solstice^TM Backup^TM 4.2 utilities have been tuned for UltraSPARC/SPARC, a tighter integration with SunNet Manager^TM SNMP module. The Intel version remains at the revision of Backup at 4.1.2 will incorporate new features equivalent to the UltraSPARC/SPARC version.

• Solstice^TM AdminSuite^TM has been upgraded to version 2.2 and incorporates additional Solstice^TM AutoClient^TM features within a heterogeneous environment. Larger UID support is now included with Solstice Admin Suite 2.2.

System Requirements

Platforms:

SPARC, UltraSPARC; Intel 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, PowerPC

Operating System:

Solaris 2.5.1

Window System:

CDE, OpenWindows, Motif, X11R5

Hard Disk Space:

250MB minimum, 300MB recommended

System Memory (RAM):

16MB minimum, 32MB or more recommended for increased performance

Network Interface (NIC):

Ethernet (10BaseTand 100BaseT)

FDDI

ATM

Media:

CD-ROM

3.5" floppy boot disk for Intel Platform Edition

Why Upgrade / Update to Solaris 2.5.1?

If you are running Solaris 2.5, you may not require an update to Solaris 2.5.1. If you have a support contract with Solaris 2.5, you can upgrade at no charge to Solaris 2.5.1 by contacting your support contract provider.

All other upgrades/updates from previous versions of Solaris to Solaris 2.5.1 require the purchase of the applicable upgrade kit.
Call 1-800-SUNSOFT, prompt #2 for additional information.

If you are currently running Solaris 2.4 or below upgrade to Solaris 2.5.1 for increased performance, functionality, and reliability offered with this release of Solaris.

Java Virtual Machine support within Solaris