ABIs and the futurrrr of UNIX(tm)

[964[jak]-Robert Halloran]

In article <7534 at brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <431 at micropen> dave at micropen (David F. Carlson) writes:
>>What this
>>in effect will say is that there are preferred hardware platforms for UNIX,
>>the portable operating system, in that software vendors using popular ABI 
>>platforms will be able to sell more software that those using perhaps
>>technically superior but not a popular ABI would.  In turn, buyers will
>>bypass a technically superior solution in favor of a popular ABI option
>>solely because of binary interchange:  exactly why we rejected popular software
>>platforms to choose UNIX in the first place.
>
>I think you're drawing false conclusions, perhaps because you're working
>from false premises.  There is no reason that other architecture families
>could not also follow their own binary standards, and in fact there are
>efforts underway to do so for some families, for example the 386.  The
>only real significance for UNIX as such is that the porting base will
>change from 3B2 to SPARC, which may result in the sale of a few more
>Sun-4s to UNIX VARs but otherwise is of little consequence for most VARs.

I have seen in the trade press that Motorola has signed an agreement 
with AT&T to produce an ABI for the 68XXX family (XXX probably >= 020).
I am pretty sure a '386 ABI is in the works.

As far as porting bases, I am almost certain it will remain the 3B2 for
political reasons, but that the SPARC version will appear hot on its heels.



						Bob Halloran
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