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From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Sun != Open Archtecture
Message-ID: <3049@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 90 13:28:56 GMT
References: <36911@cup.portal.com> <5089@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1990Dec16.222542.28236@erbe.se>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
Lines: 18

In article <1990Dec16.222542.28236@erbe.se> prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) writes:

|              Also, the SPARC version of SVR4 that anyone can license from
| AT&T will not have the SunOS 4.x compatibility support built-in. Clone
| vendors will have to construct that part themselves, if they want to be
| able to run programs from SunOS.

  I'm led to believe that's correct. However, while total binary
compatibility may not be there for programs using SunOS extensions, I am
told that Sun will use the SPARC ABI, and that applications written for
generic SPARC will run on SunOS as well as V.4 from other vendors.

  I've been able to take a reasonable number of programs from a Sun to
386 V.4 in source, so the prudent vendor will probably pass on Sun
extensions unless they provide a large performance bonus.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
    VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.