Aries Binary Translator

Aries is the HP-UX PA-RISC to HP-UX Itanium binary emulator. Aries transparently emulates both 32-bit and 64-bit HP-UX PA-RISC applications on HP-UX 11i v2.

The Aries distribution on HP-UX Itanium-based systems consists of four shared libraries:

/usr/lib/hpux32/aries32.so

/usr/lib/hpux32/pa_boot32.so

/usr/lib/hpux64/aries64.so

/usr/lib/hpux64/pa_boot64.so

The HP-UX 11i v2 kernel invokes pa_boot[32/64].so when a 32/64-bit PA-RISC binary is launched. Similarly, pa_boot[32/64].so invokes aries[32/64].so.

Summary of Change

Changes for Aries on HP-UX 11i v2 include the following:

Support for MxN threads
Support for Itanium 2 processor
Experimental implementation of a new dynamic translator with improved performance
By default, the current dynamic translator is turned on and the experimental dynamic translator is turned off. To use the experimental dynamic translator, you will need to add an option to the Aries resource file. More details about this option, and about other changes to Aries, can be found in the manpage, Aries(5).

Impact

There are no impacts.

Compatibility

There are no compatibility issues. (Note that Aries itself is a key product in binary compatibility between PA-RISC and Itanium-based.)

Performance

The experimental dynamic translator significantly improves the performance of the emulated application. From the initial measurements it has been observed that the overall Aries performance, with the experimental dynamic translator turned on, increases by 20% on an average. This increase may vary based on the nature of the emulated PA-RISC application.

Documentation

The manpage for Aries, Aries(5), has been changed.

For further information, see the white paper, “Compatibility Mode on Itanium-based HP-UX: A Developer Perspective,” available at http://devrsrc1.external.hp.com/STK/Aries.html.

Obsolescence

Not applicable.