FYI: build as 64-bit (and shall only build as 64-bit from now I expect)
and the output works as:
==============================
aixtools.python:aixtools.python.man.en_US:2.7.11.0::I:C:::::N:man pages::::0::
aixtools.python:aixtools.python.rte:2.7.11.0::I:C:::::N:built 04-Mar-2016 1232 UTC::::0::
==============================
root@x064:[/data/prj/aixtools/python/python-2.7.11]./python
Python 2.7.11 (default, Mar  4 2016, 12:29:39) [C] on aix5
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sysconfig
>>> sysconfig.is_python_build()
True
>>> import distutils.util
>>> distutils.util.get_platform()
'aix-5.3'
>>> import os
>>> os.uname()
('AIX', 'x064', '3', '5', '00C291F54C00')
>>> import platform
>>> platform.architecture()
('64bit', '')
>>> import os, sys
>>> sys.maxsize
9223372036854775807
>>> 2**32
4294967296
>>> 

I was wondering if there is a PEP statement somewhere re: distutils.util.get_platform() semantics