Path: news.daimi.aau.dk!sbrandt From: sbrandt@daimi.aau.dk (S|ren Brandt) Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta Subject: Re: Mjolner BETA future Date: 5 Dec 1994 10:39:05 GMT Organization: DAIMI, Computer Science Dept. at Aarhus University Lines: 48 Message-ID: <3buqk9$gm1@belfort.daimi.aau.dk> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: louise.daimi.aau.dk Keywords: object-distribution platforms Thus spake duke@diku.dk (Dennis Henriksen): >Second: what is the status of the object-distribution ? This particular >portion of the alpha-release of Linux-BETA as very much `alpha'. But >that aside the interesting question is whether BETA in the near future >will support cross-platform object-distribution, and to which level ? The distribution library that was part of the Linux alpha-release indeed was very alpha. However, the version that is part of release 3.0 of the Mjolner BETA System is well-tested and have no known errors on most UNIX platforms (HP UX, SunOS, Solaris). In the Linux version, a subtle timing related problem remains that seems to be caused by a bug in the Linux TCP implementation. Concerning cross-platform distribution, this is already possible between platforms with the same byte-ordering. That is, big-endian machines are able to communicate with other big-endian machines, and little-endians may communicate with other little-endians. In practice this means that machines based on the following processors may currently communicate using the BETA distribution library: 1. SPARC (Sun OS, Solaris), MC680x0 and HP PA (HP UX). 2. Intel (Linux, Windows NT). Currently it is *not* possible to communicate from e.g. a SPARC to an Intel, due to different byte orderings. However, the design of the distribution library is prepared for this, and the necessary runtime structures to make it possible are already available. Thus, future versions of the distribution library will probably support cross-platform communication even between machines with different byte-orderings. Work is in progress to port the system to Macintosh (PowerPC as well as MC680x0), but no release dates can be estimated yet. Regards, Soren _____________________________________________________________________________ Mjolner Informatics Aps Phone: (+45) 86 20 20 00 ext. 2753 Science Park Aarhus Direct: (+45) 86 20 20 11 - 2753 Gustav Wiedsvej 10 Fax: (+45) 86 20 12 22 DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark Email: sbrandt@mjolner.dk _____________________________________________________________________________