Solaris 7 (SPARC Platform Edition) Release Notes

Chapter 4 Late-Breaking News

This chapter lists late-breaking new features that arrived too late to be included in the "What's New: A Closer Look" in Solaris 7 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Library. You may also want to refer to the online new_features file in the SUNWrdm package on the Solaris CD for additional information on new features.


Note -

The information in this chapter supplements any information listed in the new_features file that is part of the SUNWrdm package on the Solaris 7 CD. If you boot from the Solaris 7 CD, the new_features file is located in the directory:

/cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s0/Solaris_2.7/Docs/release_info/C

The default installed location for the new_features file is the directory:

/usr/share/release_info/Solaris_2.7/C



Note -

The name of this product is Solaris 7 but code and path or package path names may use Solaris 2.7 or SunOS 5.7. Always follow the code or path as it is written.


Solaris Name Change

This release of Solaris is called Solaris 7 instead of Solaris 2.7. As the Solaris product line continues to grow, this name change will make it easier for you to determine which products in the Solaris line you might want to use.

In Solaris 7, the transition to the new name change is in progress. That means that you will still see references to Solaris 2.7, and even to Solaris 2.x.

The name of the core operating system has not changed. In this release, it is SunOS 5.7.

Euro Unit Support

Support for the new Euro currency has been added to the Units command. This new feature enables you to enter, display, and print the new Euro currency symbol. It also adds system support for monetary string formatting in Euros.

However, exchange rate conversion between the Euro and other currencies is not supported. This should be handled at the application level.

64-Bit Solaris Support for the Assembler

A mechanism was included in the SPARC V9 ABI to provide global register use checking so that these global registers can be more reliably utilized.

This mechanism is described in the SPARC V9 ABI. In summary, ELF register usage records were introduced. V9 ABI compliant programs are required to utilize these records to report global register usage. During link time, either static or dynamic, the records are compared to insure consistent usage of the global registers between differing linkable objects. If inconsistent usage is detected, an error message results from the link operation.

To implement this mechanism, the compiler must output the ELF register records. This can currently be accomplished by adding the -Wc,-Qiselect-regsym=1 option for C or the -Qoption cg -Qiselect-regsym=1 option for C++ to the compiler when compiling for v9. Linkers bundled with Solaris 2.5.1, Solaris 2.6, and Solaris 7 accept the ELF register records. Linkers bundled with previous Solaris builds do not accept the new ELF register records and issue an error message.

Since the SPARC assembler may also generate linkable objects, it is necessary for the SPARC assembler to also output the ELF register records. The assembler needs to know how you intend to utilize the global registers referenced within each input .s file. To do this, you must introduce a new assembler pseudo op to provide this functionality.

Since the compiler may also output assembly language, e.g. with -S options, which may later be assembled by the assembler, it is necessary for the compiler to output the new pseudo ops so as to provide the proper documentation of the global register usage.

New SPARC V9 Pseudo Instruction:

.register %g {2 | 3 | 6 | 7}, {#scratch | symbol name}

The new pseudo is accepted by the SPARC assembler for any arch setting. It only has an effect for V9. This allows enables you to write assembly code for V8 and V9 using the new natural assembly pseudo ops. For V8 on SPARC architecture versions 2.5.1 and 2.6, the pseudo op is accepted, but ignored.

Under -xarch=v9, if the SPARC assembler detects a global register use that is not covered by a new pseudo op, then the SPARC assembler displays an error message.

Under -xarch=v9, if the SPARC assembler detects multiple differing pseudo ops related to the same global register, then the SPARC assembler issues an error message. Otherwise, the SPARC assembler lists the appropriate ELF register records as identified by the user. The SPARC assembler may verify that the specified usage description is correct, but is not required to do so.

Arabic and Hebrew Support

Arabic and Hebrew support forms a part of the overall Complex Text Layout (CTL) support in the Solaris 7 operating environment of which Thai is also a part. The following information outlines the major features of this support including language features, information on how to enter Arabic and Hebrew characters, and printing.

The following Arabic and Hebrew features are supported in the Solaris 7 operating environment:

No Support for 3.3V

The pcic nexus driver for the PCMCIA interface does not support 3.3V on devices. Cards that are 3.3V only do not work correctly; they seem to hang a system. There are several related causes for this problem:

Some of the new PC cards are now available as 3.3V only. This includes variations of supported devices such as PC ATA and SRAM. New bus bridges, such as the TI PCI1130/1131, support 3.3V as well as 5V.