GT.M V5.3-001 is a major new release that extends the platforms on which GT.M is a 64-bit application to IBM pSeries AIX and x86_64 GNU/Linux.

On IBM pSeries AIX, GT.M processes are now 64-bit processes rather than 32-bit processes.  Since there is no contemporary 32-bit hardware, and all contemporary releases of AIX are 64-bits, there are no more 32-bit GT.M processes on pSeries AIX.  M application program logic and database formats remain 100% compatible between the 32-bit V5.3-000 and the 64-bit V5.3-001.  As a consequence of the move to 64-bits, GT.M processes on pSeries AIX are no longer limited to 11 database regions, and shared libraries are no longer limited to a system wide limit of 256MB (there are still limits of course, but they are vastly greater than the needs of any application that we know of).

On industry standard x86/x86_64 platforms, both 32- and 64-bit hardware and versions of GNU/Linux remain common.  Therefore, GT.M remains available in both 32- and 64-bit flavors.  M application program logic and database formats are 100% compatible between 32-bit and 64-bit flavors.  The 64-bit flavor brings to GT.M on x86_64 GNU/Linux the ability to use ld, the standard Linux system loader, to create shared libraries containing object modules compiled by GT.M from M source code.

With object code in a shared library, thousands of concurrent processes on a system can execute a single shared copy of compiled object code from system virtual memory.

64-bit GT.M for this platform requires a 64-bit GNU/Linux on 64-bit hardware; 32-bit GT.M will execute on both 32- or 64-bit operating system and hardware.

Effective V5.3-001, GT.M on GNU/Linux on x86/x86_64 as well as OpenVMS & Tru64 UNIX on Alpha/AXP moves from version 2 of the GNU Public License (GPL) to version 3.  While 64-bit GT.M on x86_64 GNU/Linux source code is freely available under GPL, binaries built and tested by FIS will be made available only to those with support agreements.  While all are welcome to build and use their own binaries from the GPL source code, FIS encourages all users to purchase support - in the open source software business, revenue to support continued development comes from providing services such as education and support rather than from software licenses.  32-bit GT.M on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux continues to be have both source code and binaries freely available under GPL.

There are also performance enhancements - potentially significant for transaction processing as well as on systems with high end IO on GNU/Linux platforms - and the usual fixes to bugs and misfeatures.  Details are in the release notes on the GT.M web site.

In a release to follow in the near future, GT.M on Sun SPARC Solaris will execute as 64-bit processes.  Since all contemporary hardware and operating systems on that platform are 64-bit, there will be no 32-bit versions of GT.M.

GT.M on OpenVMS & Tru64 UNIX on Alpha/AXP servers, as well as GT.M on HP-UX on PA-RISC will permanently retain a 32-bit architecture.  Ongoing releases of GT.M on these platforms will include required bug fixes, but not enhancements.

The release is available on the GT.M FTP site to those who have support agreements.  Since the FTP site password changes from time to time, please send e-mail to gtmsupport@fnis.com for the current password when you are ready to download the software.

Software released under the GPL is available at Source Forge.  Please note that the GT.M project name has changed and the new URL is http://sourceforge.net/projects/fis-gtm

Please remember to download using binary file transfer.