This section provides information for development on specific hardware platforms and architectures, including clustered environments.
The Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCL) identifies hardware that is compatible with the Oracle Solaris 10 OS and the OpenSolaris OS. Separate lists identify systems and components that are compatible with the latest commercial versions of the Oracle Solaris OS and with the latest development versions. The HCL is available in a comma-separated value (CSV) format, for searching and sorting the list in a spreadsheet or database.
The Solaris on x86 Platforms Device Support list shows drivers and the devices they support for x86 Oracle Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris systems. Select an Oracle Solaris 10 release or an OpenSolaris release and then select a device type such as Network, Storage, or Video. Drivers of that type that are bundled in that selected release are displayed.
The Oracle Device Detection Tool reports both built-in and third-party Oracle Solaris driver availability for x86 systems.
See Solaris on x86 Platforms Device Support for the latest list of device support that comes built in to the Oracle Solaris OS.
On any x86 system, you can use the Installation Check Tool to determine quickly whether the system is likely to be able to install the Oracle Solaris OS.
The Hardware Certification Test Suite (HCTS) includes system certification tests, controller certification tests, a command-line interface , and a browser-based user interface. HCTS tests certify systems, motherboards, and various network, storage, and serial I/O controllers to work with the Oracle Solaris OS. HCTS collects log files, determines test pass or fail results, and generates a final test report. Hardware that passes HCTS certification testing is eligible to be included in the Hardware Compatibility List as Certified.
The Oracle Solaris OS provides an assembly language for the x86 platform. The x86 Assembly Language Reference Manual describes the assembler that generates code for the 32-bit x86 processor architecture and translates source files that are in assembly language format into object files in linking format. This book describes the syntax of the Oracle Solaris x86 assembly language. The book also maps the instruction mnemonics of the Oracle Solaris x86 assembly language to the native x86 instruction set.
The Oracle Solaris OS provides an assembly language for the SPARC platform. The SPARC Assembly Language Reference Manual describes the assembler that runs on the SPARC architecture. The assembler translates source files that are in assembly language format into object files in linking format. The book describes the assembler syntax, and the executable and linking format. The relationship between hardware instructions of the SPARC architecture and the assembly language instruction set is discussed. The book also contains a description of the SPARC-V9 instruction set. Appendixes list the pseudo-operations that the SPARC assembler supports, with examples of their use. Other appendixes describe the available assembler command-line options and an example of the correspondence between the assembly code and the C code.
The Oracle Solaris OS provides a 64-bit computing environment along with backward compatibility for 32-bit applications. The Solaris 64-bit Developer’s Guide is written primarily for the application developer. The book provides guidance for choosing whether to use the 32-bit Oracle Solaris application development environment or the 64-bit environment. The manual explains the similarities and differences between the two environments, and explains how to write code that is portable between the two environments. This book also describes some of the tools provided by the operating system for developing 64-bit applications.
The Oracle Solaris OS can be configured into a cluster environment to improve availability. The Sun Cluster Data Services Developer’s Guide for Solaris OS describes the Sun Cluster data service API. Developers can use this API to turn a standard user application such as a web browser or database into a highly available data service that can run in the Oracle Solaris Cluster environment. For high availability in virtualized environments, see the Oracle Solaris Containers feature and Oracle VM Server for SPARC.
In addition, you can parallelize applications to enable them to reap the benefits of running in a clustered environment. Oracle Message Passing Toolkit, formerly Sun HPC ClusterTools, is a set of parallel development tools for high-end distributed memory applications. See Using Oracle Message Passing Toolkit for more information.