Vendors Rally for 64-bit Unix

Dave Andrews

An impressive list of vendors has endorsed an initiative to develop a common 64-bit Unix API, but it may be two or three years before some vendors release compliant products. The list includes Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, Digital Equipment, Compaq, IBM, Novell, Oracle, SunSoft, and practically everyone else except Microsoft (which has Windows NT). Microsoft officials say that the NT file system is 64-bit for improved performance, but the company has not announced a 64-bit version of NT.

Unix vendors hope to define a set of interfaces and a 64-bit C programming model for data representation to reduce the variability that developers face today in writing an application for several versions of Unix. "The real benefactors will be the independent software developers," sa ys Mark Silverberg, group manager, Unix product marketing for Digital Equipment (Maynard, MA). "If developers have a single specification they can program to, they won't have to develop or maintain different 64-bit implementations." Databases and other data-intensive applications will benefit the most from 64-bit operation.

The group says it will publish the 64-bit specification by the end of this year; it also intends to build from existing 32-bit APIs so that today's programs will run on future 64-bit operating systems. The API will also comply with existing standards such as XPG 4.2 (also known as the X/Open Spec 1170), POSIX, the System V Interface Definition (SVID), the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), and the X Window System.

The 64-bit effort follows another attempt to unify Unix around the Common Operating System Environment, an initiative that achieved mixed results. "COSE was going to unify systems management and networking, and it didn't quite succeed in that," says Scott McGregor, sen ior vice president of products at the Santa Cruz Operation (Santa Cruz, CA). "But COSE succeeded in getting the Unix world, including Sun, to agree on Motif as the basis for the Common Desktop Environment. That alone is a tremendous success of COSE, and it's often forgotten."

The delivery of products that comply with the spec is up to each vendor. Companies such as Silicon Graphics, Digital, and HAL Computer already have 64-bit versions of Unix, and the amount of work needed for them to comply with the specification depends on how closely it matches current products. Others, such as SCO, don't currently have a 64-bit version of Unix. "SCO plans to ship a 64-bit OS coincident with Intel shipping the P7, which will be a 64-bit processor," McGregor says. "That's probably two to three years away from happening."