[PHP4]Lack of wide db table support

It looks as though the informix driver does not support very wide tables,
(say over 256 fields). This could be a generic DB interface ristriction in PHP.
When I attempt to select on a few hundred feilds (300) the SQL driver
reports that I have insuficient storage allocated for for the select. It
appears to have a problem specifically with the amount of fields involved
as I get the same symtoms when attemting to get ifx_fieldtype or
ifx_fieldproperties.
    Is this specific to the informix code or is it a generic DB interface
issue with PHP?

    At the moment I have to implement a work around and actually hold the
field data in a flatfile so the user may choose which fields he/she wishes
to view.