Out of Memory Error on Vector File Manipulation

At UCL London we have GRASS 4.0 installed under AIX on an rs6000
network.On the Spearfish location, all manipulation on the vector
files gives an Out of Memory message and return to GRASS prompt.
Raster file manipulation is unaffected.Thus in d.display the program
gets as far as 'Initialising' and then falls over when displaying the
soils mapset.

My system manager felt this may be something to do with the way AIX
handles malloc, but any suggestions would be very welcome.

Joe Mintz, Dept Computer Science, Birkbeck College.