Other proprietary features Hewlett-Packard Co has overturned in its HP-UX 10.0 release this week include its Update distributed update and install mechanism – which is replaced by Software Distributor-UX – with Network File System diskless in place of HP-UX diskless. It is adding Posix 1003.b compliance for the real-time implementation as well as NFS 4.2. Other changes include input-output convergence, or rather the decision to go with naming and numbering conventions for device drivers written to its 700 workstation series, which means series 800 drivers will need to be re-written for 10.0. With new System V Interface Definition 3 level 1, XPG4 and Open Software Foundation AES compatibility, Hewlett-Packard claims 96% compliance with Spec 1170 for 10.0, saying it lacks some signals and international curses (sic). A dot Spec 1170 release is also promised by the end of the year. System administration is provided by SAM, HP-UX System Administration Manager. Some of its components include Resource Manager/9000 for managing processor loads, new disk configuration tools and application binary interface and application programming interface commands, which are now the same across its workstations and servers. Networking additions include a new Telnet TN3270 client, and bundled streams and XTI for TCP/IP development application programming interfaces. The Open Software Foundation technologies that are also in HP-UX 9.0x include the logical volume manager, Motif and DCE/9000 executive. Hewlett says HP-UX 10.0 on a 12-way T500 server will deliver 4,067 TPC-C transactions per minute – 3,100 on an eight-way. It puts its numbers up against 1,122 for an IBM Corp RS/6000 59H, 885 on a three-way AS/400 F90, 2,152 for a 10-way Sun Microsystems Inc 2000E and 2,237 on an eight-way AT&T Global Information Solutions 3500. Digital Equipment Corp does not figure in its charts. Users buying new systems can choose HP-UX 9.x or 10.0. HP-UX 10.0 is free for a two-user licence, costs $1,250 for up to eight users, and $12,000 above.
