Minix is an open source, Unix-like operating system based on a microkernel architecture. Andrew S. Tanenbaum wrote the operating system to be used for educational purposes; Minix also inspired the creation of Linux.
History
Andrew Tanenbaum created Minix at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam to exemplify the principles conveyed in his textbook, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (1987). An abridged 12,000 lines of source code of the kernel, memory manager, and file system are printed in the book. Minix is written mostly in the C programming language.
Tanenbaum originally developed Minix for compatibility with the IBM PC and IBM PC/AT microcomputers available at the time. Minix version 1.5 was also ported to the Motorola 68000 CPU, which allowed compatibility with such popular computer platforms as Atari ST, Amiga, Apple Macintosh. There were also ports to the SPARC and National Semiconductor 32K processors. Demand for these architectures waned, however, and Minix version 2.0 was once again only available for the x86 architecture. It was included with the second edition of Tanenbaum's textbook, co-written with Albert Woodhull.
Minix version 3 was publically announced on 24 October 2005 by Andrew Tanenbaum during his keynote speech at the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles conference. Although it still serves as an example for the new edition of Tanenbaum and Woodhull's textbook, it is redesigned to be "usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability." It is available in a LiveCD format that allows it to be used on a computer without installing it on the hard drive, and in versions compatible with hardware emulation/virtualization systems, including Bochs, Qemu, VMware, and Virtual PC.
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The design principles Tanenbaum applied to Minix famously influenced the design decisions Linus Torvalds applied in the creation of Linux. Torvalds used and appreciated Minix, but his design deviated from the Minix architecture in significant ways, most notably by employing a monolithic kernel instead of a microkernel.
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At the time of its original development, the license for Minix was considered to be rather liberal; its licensing fee was very small compared to those of other operating systems. Although Tanenbaum wished for Minix to be as accessible as possible to students, his publisher was not prepared to offer material (such as the source code) that could be copied freely, so a restrictive license requiring a nominal fee (included in the price of Tanenbaum's book) was applied as a compromise. This prevented the use of Minix as the basis for a freely distributed software system, which prompted the creation of Linux, and led volunteer software developers to contribute to operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD instead. In April 2000, Minix became open source under the BSD license, but by this time other operating systems had surpassed its capabilities, and it remained primarily an operating system for students and hobbyists.
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Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix Binaries and Sources. Prentice Hall, 1987. ISBN 0-13-583873-8
A set of 360KB 5¼" floppy disks intended for use with IBM PCs with 640KB of RAM.
A set of disks for IBM PC with 256KB RAM, which does not include the C compiler since it cannot execute in the amount of memory. ISBN 0-13-583881-9.
Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix 1.3 Binaries and Sources for IBM PC/ATs. Prentice Hall, 1994. ISBN 0-13-583865-7
A set of 1.2MB 5¼" floppy disks for IBM PC/AT computers with at least 512KB RAM
Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Minix Source Software. Pearson Higher Education, 1990. ISBN 0-13-583899-1
Nine-track, industry-standard 1600 bpi magnetic tape containing files encapsulated in the tar file format. Includes an IBM PC emulator, as well as libraries and programs allowing the Minix file system to operate on VAX and other minicomputers running Unix.
Tanenbaum, Andrew S. and Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. Second Edition. Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-13-638677-6
This hardcover textbook includes a bundled CD-ROM containing Minix version 2.0.
Tanenbaum, Andrew S. and Albert S. Woodhull. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN 0-13-142938-8
Minix
Company/developer:
Andrew S.
Tanenbaum OS family: Unix-like
Source model: Open
source Latest stable release: 3.1 / 24
October 2005
Kernel
type: Microkernel
Default user
interface: ash
License:
BSD license
Working state: Current Website:
minix3.org
2.)Xenix was a version of the Unix operating system, developed by Microsoft in the 1980s. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually began distributing it as SCO UNIX.
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Xenix was Microsoft's version of Unix intended for use on microprocessors, but they called it Xenix because it could not license the "UNIX" name.
Microsoft purchased a license for Version 7 Unix from AT&T in 1979, and announced on August 25, 1980 that it would make it available for the 16-bit microcomputer market.
Xenix varied from its 7th Edition origins by incorporating elements from BSD, and soon possessed the most widely installed base of any Unix flavour due to the popularity of the inexpensive x86 processor, even though the port created for Tandy computers proved to be more robust.
When Microsoft distributed Xenix, they did not sell it directly to end users; instead, they licensed it to computer manufacturers who then ported it to their own proprietary computer architectures. Microsoft originally ran on the PDP-11; the first port was for the Zilog Z8001 16-bit processor. Altos shipped a version for their computers early in 1982, Tandy Corporation shipped one for their 68000-based systems in January 1983, and Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) released their port to the Intel 8086 processor in September 1983. A port to the 68000-based Apple Lisa also existed. At the time, Xenix was based on AT&T's UNIX System III.
Version 2.0 of Xenix was released in 1985 that was based on UNIX System V. An update numbered 2.1.1 added support for the Intel 80286 processor. Subsequent releases improved System V compatibility.
When Microsoft entered into an agreement with IBM to develop OS/2, it lost interest in promoting Xenix. In 1987 Microsoft transferred ownership of Xenix to SCO in an agreement that left Microsoft owning 25% of SCO.
In 1987, SCO ported Xenix to the 386 processor, a 32-bit chip. Xenix 2.3.1 introduced support for i386, SCSI and TCP/IP.
Microsoft continued to use Xenix internally, submitting a patch to support functionality in UNIX to AT&T in 1987, which trickled down to the code base of both Xenix and SCO UNIX. Microsoft is said to have used Xenix on Sun workstations [1] and VAX minicomputers extensively within their company as late as 1992.
In the late 1980s, Xenix was, according to Samuel J. Leffler et al. in The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System (1989), "probably the most widespread version of the UNIX operating system, according to the number of machines on which it runs" (p. 7).
SCO branched Xenix into SCO UNIX in 1989. In the meantime, AT&T completed its merge of Xenix, BSD, SunOS and System V into System V Release 4. SCO UNIX was still based on System V Release 3, but had most features of Release 4. The last version of Xenix itself was 2.3.4.
Company/developer: Microsoft OS family: Unix Source model: Closed source Latest stable release: 2.3.4 / 1989 Kernel type: Monolithic kernel Default user interface: {{{ui}}} License: Working state: Historic Website: sco.com
3.)IRIX is the System V-based Unix Operating System with BSD extensions developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run natively on their 32 and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers.
As a result of its Unix underpinnings, it is capable of extremely long uptime, and its XFS filesystem is regarded to be one of the most advanced journaling file systems in the industry.
IRIX has particularly strong support for 3D graphics, video and high-bandwidth bulk data transfer. IRIX was one of the first Unix flavors to feature a GUI for the main desktop environment, and is widely used in the computer animation industry and for scientific visualization due to its extremely high 3D graphics performance. IRIX uses the IRIX Interactive Desktop with its default 4dwm window manager and Motif widget toolkit with a custom look and feel.
The current major version of IRIX is IRIX 6.5. New minor versions are released every quarter. Up to and including Version 6.5.22, there were two branches of each release: a maintenance release that includes only fixes to the original IRIX 6.5 code, and a feature release that includes improvements and enhancements. Versions up until the 6.5.22 maintenance release are available for free download, 6.5.23 and higher require an active Silicon Graphics support contract, despite only running on Silicon Graphics hardware.
Rumors abound that SGI plans to retire IRIX and the MIPS architecture in favor of Linux on Itanium, but SGI engineers on Usenet have stated this will not happen any time soon.
Company/developer: Silicon Graphics OS family: Unix Source model: Closed source Latest stable release: 6.5.28 / August 3, 2005 Kernel type: Monolithic Default user interface: 4wdm License: closed source Working state: End of Life Website: SGI IRIX
4.)Linux is a computer operating system and its kernel. It is one of the most prominent examples of free software and of open-source development: unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS, all of its underlying source code is available to the public and anyone can freely use, modify, and redistribute it.
In the narrowest sense, the term Linux refers to the Linux kernel, but it is commonly used to describe entire Unix-like operating systems (also known as GNU/Linux) that are based on the Linux kernel combined with libraries and tools from the GNU Project and other sources. Most broadly, a Linux distribution bundles large quantities of application software with the core system, and provides more user-friendly installation and upgrades.
Initially, Linux was primarily developed and used by individual enthusiasts. Since then, Linux has gained the support of major corporations such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell for use in servers and is gaining popularity in the desktop market. Proponents and analysts attribute this success to its vendor independence, low cost, security, and reliability.
Linux was originally developed for Intel 386 microprocessors and now supports all popular computer architectures (and several obscure ones). It is deployed in applications ranging from embedded systems (such as mobile phones and personal video recorders) to personal computers to supercomputers.
The Linux trademark (U.S. Reg No: 1916230) is owned by Linus Torvalds, registered for "Computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation." The licensing of the trademark is now handled by the Linux Mark Institute (LMI). LMI has also sought to enforce the Linux trademark in countries other than the US. In September 2005, Intellectual Property Australia, the trademark regulator in Australia, rejected an application to trademark Linux.
Linux is predominantly used as part of a Linux distribution (commonly called a 'distro'). These are compiled by individuals, loose-knit teams, and various professional organizations. They include additional system software and application programs, as well as certain processes to install these systems on a computer. Distributions are created for many different purposes, including localization, architecture support, real-time applications, and embedded systems, and many deliberately include only free software. Over 450 distributions are available [7].
A typical general-purpose distribution includes the Linux kernel, some GNU libraries and tools, command-line shells, and thousands of application software packages, from office suites and the graphical X Window System to compilers, text editors, and scientific tools.
LINUX is a free UNIX-like operating system that runs on Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentium, Intel 80x86, Motorola/IBM PowerPC, Motorola 680x0, Sun SPARC, SGI MIPS, DEC Alpha, HP PA-RISC, DEC VAX, ARM, API 1000+, and CL-PS7110.
Linux is named for Linus Torvalds, a Finnish engineering student who created the original kernel. Linus didn’t want to use Windows and searched for an inexpensive alternative that would run on low cost IBM PC clones. The GNU open source project was progressing very slowly because of political infighting and an attempt to make the same operating system run the same on numerous processors. Linus received permission to use MINIX as the foundation for his own efforts. MINIX was a small version of UNIX created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum to provide college students with a working version of UNIX with no AT&T owned source code. Linus opened a web site on his university student account and started posting free copies of his source code. During the early days of the project, Linus was posting updated versions several times a day, which directly contradicted the commercial approach of only releasing new versions on an infrequent basis after extensive testing. With the help of a growing number of volunteers (literally tens of thousands), Linus quickly replaced all of MINIX with new all new source code. As Linux caught on in popularity (because it allowed college students and hobbyists to experiment with very cheap Intel hardware), other groups of volunteers ported Linux to a wide variety of additional processors. The success of Linux proved the viability of open source software projects and Linus’s approach of rapid and continual incremental updates proved to be an effective method for harnessing volunteer effort and an excellent method for widespread testing on a wide variety of hardware.
server/mainframe: one of the most popular small and medium scale server systems
desktop/workstation: Can be used as a general desktop system, more appropriate as a workstation system for those familiar with UNIX or those who want to tinker with their OS as a hobby — this is changing rapidly and with either KDE or GNOME, Linux can be used by an increasing number of general computing users.
handheld: experimental and hobbyist only
real time: not appropriate
“Linux is a free (GPL Licensed), from scratch operating system based heavily on the POSIX and UNIX APIs. It supports both 32 and 64 bit hardware and provides a stable multiuser internet ready operating system. Linux itself is not UNIX, although many people call it that and you would be very hard pushed to tell the difference. This is because the UNIX trademark has a cost and is specific to systems that meet a complex set of X/Open standards.”w25
“Unix is a trademark that was transferred by Novell Unixware (the result of Novell’s purchase of AT&T Bell Lab’s Unix group) to the non-profit X/Open Company, Ltd, and is now apparently owned by ‘The Open Group’ (the result of a merger between X/Open and OSF). To get their permission to call a product ‘Unix’, The Open Group requires one to pass a number of validation suites that check conformance of APIs, commands and utilities, and the C compiler.” — Steve Byane56 (See also: http://www.opengroup.org/testing/checklist/u98brand.html
“The “holy war” of computing these days — Microsoft’s Windows NT Server vs. UNIX — is, strangely enough, being upstaged by a johnny-come-lately called Linux. And while UNIX-clone Linux’s emerging popularity gives small businesses another attractive alternative when plotting their network operating system (NOS) strategies, it also adds confusion to an already muddled issue.” — Jim Carrm1
“Technically, Windows NT Server 4.0 is no match for any UNIX operating system, not even the non-commercial BSDs [FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD] or Linux.” —John Kirchw51
Current Version: 2.6.4w88
“For the most cost-conscious customer, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD would be the obvious choices. They cost nothing, yet they are just as stable and offer as much functionality as, if not more than, the commercial UNIX operating systems.” —“Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX”w51
“Linux can be downloaded for free over the Internet or obtained inexpensively with support and documentation from a number of commercial vendors. This makes it an attractive product for companies trying to reduce the cost of licensing and managing OSes.” —R. Scott Raynovich and Polly Sprenger, “Linux legitimacy rallies NT skeptics”, LAN Times, 17 August 1998w51
“Randy Kessell, manager of technical analysis for a Southwestern Bell operation center, notes that because Linux allows his company to do more remote network administration and software loads than was possible with either Microsoft or NetWare products, it has driven down their network management costs.” —Ann Harrison, “In LINUX We…”, Software Magazine, Cover Story, September 1998w51
Hardware Supported: Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentiumw17, 80486w17, 80386w17, 80286 (partial port)e90, 8086 (partial port)e90, IBM/Motorola PowerPCw17, IBM RS/6000w79, Motorola 68060w17, 68040w17, 68030w17, 68020w17, 68000w17, Sun SPARCw17, Sun SPARC64 (Ultra)e90, SGI MIPSw17, DEC Alphaw17, HP-PA RISCw17, ARMw17, API 1000+w17, CL-PS7110w17
680x0 assembly language is discussed in the assembly language section.
Number of bits: 32 or 64 (depending on the processor used)e90
Kernel: LINUXe61
“The Linux kernel was originally written by Linus Torvalds (hence the name “Linux”), and it maintained by a team of developers. The kernel itself is released under the GPL (GNU Public License).” —Rich Steinere61 (See also: http://www.linuxhq.org
Some versions of LINUX use the MACH kernel. These include: MkLinux (PowerPC), Intel MkLinux, and HP/PA MkLinux.e75
POSIX: compatible
Peripherals: “most PC hardware” —Kristian Elof Sørensenw36
John Kirch: “Ease of configuration and being able to configure a server without causing downtime is yet another aspect of functionality: ‘Some versions of UNIX (Linux, for example) support loadable device modules. This means you can boot Linux and reconfigure its support for hardware and software on the fly. For example, you can boot Linux without support for the SCSI card you have installed. You simply load support for that SCSI card when you need to access one or more of the SCSI-connected devices, such as an optical disk for backup. You can unload the SCSI driver when you’re finished. You can also freely load and unload support for sound cards, network cards — even file systems such as HPFS, FAT, VFAT, and others (an NTFS driver is in the works).“—Nicholas Petreley, The new UNIX alters NT’s orbit: The re-emergence of UNIX threatens to modify the future direction of NT, NC World, April 1998.”w22
preferred file system: ext2fse17
file systems can read/write/format: ext2fse17, extfse17, FATe17
file systems can read/write: FAT32e17, VFATe17, FFSe17, codae21, NFSe21, Minixe17, Xenixe18, UMSDOSe18, xiafe30, SMBe21
file systems read only: NTFSe17, UFSe17, HPFS-2e18, HPFSe17, sysvfse30, adfse21, ROMFSe90
file systems read only and can write through optional software: ISO 9660e17, Commodore 1541/1581 (shareware at http://www.npsnet.com/danf/software/e98
file systems can read/write/format through third party or optional software: HFSe18
Graphics Engine: X Windoww25
Text Command Shell: UNIX shells (default shell is bash)
“The properties of the command-line interface depend to some extend on the shell involved. Linux uses shells which tend to be close of (or derived from) Unix shells. Typical shells are bash, tcsh, and zsh.” —Rich Steinere61
User Interface (graphic): XWindowse61
“Linux uses the X windows system (usually) as a graphical interface, which gives it the capability to distribute displays over a network, and which allows for windowing on the desktop. The X window managers or environments each have their own names (like AfterStep, fvwm, twm, olvwm, Enlightenment, KDE, etc). The X server which is normally used in Linux is XFree86.” —Rich Steinere61 (See also: http://www.xfree86.org
“Linux uses internet and industry standard components and protocols giving a system with complete network integration. The operating system can act as a server for most major file serving protocols, and provide all the major internet applications.”w25
“Yesterday’s college students learned their UNIX expertise on Linux and FreeBSD. Today they’re working in IT departments, and many of them are openly hostile to both Microsoft and Windows NT. As a result, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other forms of UNIX are finding their way into IT departments, both overtly and on the sly. “For example, are you sure that’s an NT server you’re connecting to at work? IS employees in many corporations have secretly installed UNIX servers that provide native NT services. Why take such a risk? Linux and FreeBSD are free, as is SAMBA, the software that provides NT services. So the IS department saves money. And managers are unlikely to find out UNIX is behind the scenes because fewer people will complain about server downtime. “Fewer people will complain because the servers are more stable than Windows NT. Linux, FreeBSD, and BSDI UNIX outperform Windows NT by a wide margin on limited hardware, and under some circumstances can perform as well or better than NT on the best hardware. Once behind in scalability features, UNIX on Intel is catching up and may soon surpass NT in the number of processors it can use, and how it uses them.” —Nicholas Petreley (editor-in-chief of NC World and columnist for InfoWorld and NT World Japan), “The new UNIX alters NT’s orbit: The re-emergence of UNIX threatens to modify the future direction of NT”, NC World, April 1998w51
“Since these operating systems [Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD] are free for use even in commercial environments, many ISPs run on Linux or FreeBSD. Linux is the most popular and will run on a wide range hardware: Sun, Intel, DEC Alpha, PowerPC, PowerMac, etc. Paul Krill’s recent articles in InfoWorld (Linux picking up steam and Linux supporters rally around freeware OS) focus on the ever increasing support of major vendors and future plans for added functionality, i.e. support for Intel’s 64-bit Merced processor. Currently, Linux is perhaps the fastest growing operating system on the market. For more information, see Linux Resources or Red Hat Software.” —“Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX”w51
“Meanwhile, Windows NT already loses on many more competitive issues. Linux, FreeBSD, and other forms of Unix can be configured as a firewall right out of the box. Windows NT cannot. Free Unix operating systems have built-in features like IP masquerading. Windows NT doesn’t even do basic IP filtering without additional software.” —Nicholas Petreley, “The new Unix alters NT’s orbit”, NC Worldw74
Businesses
and organizations with servers powered by Linux:
1st-Netcard.com, Deja News, Etoys, free-dvd.org.lu (SuSE/Linux),
Google.com, HomeStore.com, LinuxSucks.org, MP3.com, Napster.com (Red
Hat), NetBroadcaster.com, NetWare, PayPal.com, PlanetofMusic.com,
Rackspace, Real.com, Red Hat (Red Hat Secure Linux), royal.gov.uk
(the British Royal Family), Slashdot.org, Yahoo.com (also uses
FreeBSD)w52
ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug/ “bootp-DH2.x” free, patched CMU BOOTP-DD2.4.x server from Doug Hughes of auburn.edu. Supports DHCP, even for Win95 clients. Adds the patches from the Samba mailing list to support PCNFS and Win95 simultaneously. For SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, Linux, and NetBSD servers.
“The existence of such alliances as mentioned in the article Andreessen Sees Mozilla-Linux Upset of Windows clearly shows that Linux is strengthening its presence in commercial environments. (For newcomers to this arena, Mozilla is the name of the Netscape/Communicator code and Marc Andreessen is Cofounder and Executive VP of Products at Netscape).” —“Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX”w51
“…Corel, which has already announced plans to build a Linux-based network computer, said it will next month post free Linux-based development tools to its Web site, joining a number of software companies supporting the Linux open source movement.” —Erich Luening, “Corel joins Linux fest”, CNET News.Com, 8 May 1998w51
“The very latest headlines [1998] indicate that Linux is well on its way into the major leagues: Informix, Oracle ready to port to Linux (PCWeek Online, 20 July 1998), Oracle to port database to Linux (PCWeek Online, 20 July 1998), and Netscape: Linux a top priority (CNET News.Com, 7 April 1998). … Also noteworthy is a new alliance between Sun Microsystems and Linux International (Slashdot: Sun Joins Linux International, 21 May 1998).” —“Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX”w51
“Tim Payne, director of database marketing at Oracle, says many of his company’s corporate customers have made large investments in Linux. When Oracle announced in July [1998] that it would be offering 24x7 support for Oracle8 on Linux, he says 300 customers called the next day asking about availability. ‘It’s reliable, it’s proven, it runs on commodity Intel boxes, and it’s a really low-cost alternative to NT,’ says Payne. ‘The fact that you are going to be able to get enterprise quality support from Oracle to deploy on the Linux platform will help customers adopt Linux.’ ” —Ann Harrison, “In LINUX We…”, Software Magazine, Cover Story, September 1998w51
Other:
“On March 7, 2003, The SCO Group filed suit against IBM, claiming it improperly inserted proprietary Unix code in the Linux kernel. The case has diverted the attention of the entire IT industry. As a service to [its] visitors, Linux Online has devoted a section of [its] news area to provide more information on SCO controversy.”w88 See www.linux.org/news/sco/index.html.
“The suit has evolved into a full-blown controversy. SCO’s lawyers are threatening to make the case a test of the validity of the Free Software Foundation's General Public License (GPL), under which the Linux kernel and the GNU programs that make up the Linux operating system are distributed. Were SCO to prevail, it might hinder development of Linux and make the general public’s ability to obtain it difficult. It could also have an adverse effect on other Open Source projects which are developed and distributed in ways that are similar to the Linux model. Since SCO is threatening to charge exorbitant licensing fees for Linux, this would be a serious blow to developing nations particularly. Their fledgling IT industries rely on Linux to a great extent in their efforts to overcome a technological lag which contributes to the cycle of poverty. Though most experts in the Linux, Open Source, and Free Software communities believe SCO’s claims dubious, their evidence flimsy, and their chances for success slim, the case has managed to divert the attention of the entire IT industry. It has many in these communities understandably worried.”w89
“Historically, large corporations have steered clear of free software due to the unfounded assumption that anything free can’t be worthwhile. The recent trend among some corporations is to use these cost-effective operating systems. Hewlett-Packard used Linux instead of its own HP-UX operating system ‘to port the Carnegie Mellon Mach kernel to HP PA-RISC in order to use it for their imagery work’ (full story). Schlumberger chose Linux over SCO for its new point of sale computers (Linux Journal, November 1997, Issue 43, pp. 83-4). It is interesting to note that SunWorld On-Line gives Linux positive press in one of its articles, Linux lines up for the enterprise.” —“Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX”w51
“Yesterday’s college students learned their Unix expertise on Linux and FreeBSD. Today they’re working in IT departments, and many of them are openly hostile to both Microsoft and Windows NT. As a result, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other forms of Unix are finding their way into IT departments, both overtly and on the sly.” —Nicholas Petreley, “The new Unix alters NT’s orbit”, NC Worldw74
5.)QNX (pronounced either Q-N-X or Q-nix) is a commercial POSIX-compliant Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. It is probably the most successful microkernel operating system.
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As a microkernel-based OS, QNX is based on the idea of running most of the OS in the form of a number of small tasks, known as servers. This differs from more traditional monolithic kernels, in which the operating system is a single very large program comprised of a huge number of "parts" with special abilities. In the case of QNX, the use of a microkernel allows users (developers) to turn off any functionality they do not require without having to change the OS itself; instead, those servers are simply not run.
The system is quite small, fitting in a minimal fashion on a single floppy, and is considered to be both very fast and fairly "complete."
QNX Neutrino (2001) has been ported to a number of platforms and now runs on practically any modern CPU that is used in the embedded market. This includes the x86 family, MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4 and the closely related family of ARM, StrongARM and xScale CPUs.
A version for non-commercial use can be downloaded for free from the company web site.
Gordon Bell and Dan Dodge, students at the University of Waterloo in 1980, both took a standard computer science course in operating system design, in which the students constructed a basic real-time kernel. Both were convinced there was a commercial need for such a system, and moved to Kanata, Ontario, (a high-tech area outside Ottawa) to start Quantum Software Systems that year. In 1982 the first version, QNX, was released for the Intel 8088 CPU.
One of QNX's first widespread uses was in the non-embedded world, when it was selected as the operating system for the Ontario education system's own computer design, the Unisys ICON. Over the years QNX was used mostly for "larger" projects, as its 44k kernel was too large to fit inside the single-chip computers of the era. The system garnered an enviable reputation for reliability and found itself in use running machinery in a number of industrial applications.
In the mid-1990s, Quantum realized that the market was rapidly moving towards the POSIX model and decided to rewrite the kernel to be much more compatible at a lower level. The result was QNX 4. This was available with an embeddable GUI called Photon microGUI as well as a QNX version of the X Window System. QNX 4 made porting Unix software much easier and removed many of the quirks of the earlier version.
Toward the end of the 1990s they decided to model a new version on Linux as much as possible, while retaining the microkernel architecture. This resulted in QNX Neutrino, which was released in 2001. This version typically ships with Momentics, an Integrated Development Environment(IDE) based on the Eclipse IDE, Various GNU tools, and internet software including the Voyager web browser and server. The company also renamed itself QNX Software Systems in the early 1990s to eliminate confusion with other companies, primarily with the hard drive manufacturer of the same name.
Neutrino was slated to re-appear on the desktop as the basis of a new Amiga operating system, in a partnership with Phase5. This idea apparently died after management changed the goals of the "new" Amiga.
In 2004 several prominent engineers left the company as rumors of restructring began to surface, most notably among these was Chris McKillop who acted as liason between the community and the company. His departure was seen as a sign of the company's move away from its user community.
Later in 2004 some of the rumors proved true as the company announced it had been sold to Harmon International. Since the purchase, the company has restricted the once free version of QNX, moving away from the community as it concentrates on large, coporate accounts.
The former name was Qunix, changed to QNX due to trademark issues.
Cisco's IOS-XR (the next version of IOS), is based on QNX.
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Some important competitors in the embedded market are LynxOS, VxWorks, Linux, THEOS, Windows CE, and OS-9.
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Company/developer: QNX Software systems OS family: Not Applicable Source model: Closed source Latest stable release: 6.3.0 / date unknown Kernel type: Microkernel Default user interface: {{{ui}}} License: Proprietary Working state: Current Website: www.qnx.com
6.) Solaris Operating Environment
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The Solaris Operating System is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. It is certified as a version of Unix. Although Solaris has traditionally been proprietary software, a free software version, OpenSolaris, is now available.
Sun's operating system was originally called SunOS, based on BSD Unix. The shift to a System V code base in SunOS 5 was marked by changing the marketing name to Solaris 2; thus SunOS 5.0 was marketed as Solaris 2.0. After version 2.6, Sun dropped the "2." from the name, so SunOS 5.10 is marketed as Solaris 10. Earlier versions were retroactively renamed Solaris 1.x. The term "SunOS" is still used to refer to the underlying operating system itself, and Solaris is considered to be the SunOS operating system plus a graphical user environment, ONC+, and networking and other enhancements.
Solaris uses a common code base for the architectures it supports: SPARC, x86 and x86-64. Solaris was also ported to the PowerPC architecture for version 2.5.1, but the port was cancelled almost as soon as it was released. Solaris has a reputation for being well-suited to SMP and supporting a large number of CPUs. Sun also plans to implement part of the Linux APIs in Solaris 10, allowing Solaris to natively run Linux binaries on x86 and x86-64 systems.
Solaris is tightly integrated with Sun's SPARC hardware, and is designed and marketed as a combined package. This has often led to more reliable systems, but at a cost premium over commodity PC hardware. However, since the availability of commodity 64-bit CPUs (like AMD64), the latest version of Solaris, Solaris 10, has been designed with x86-64 architecture in mind. Sun heavily marketed Solaris on x86 with its AMD64-based entry-level server.
The first Solaris desktop environment was OpenWindows. It was followed by CDE in Solaris 2.6. Sun's Java Desktop System, which is based on GNOME, is included with Solaris 10.
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Solaris 10 is proprietary software, although a free software version, OpenSolaris, is now available.
Both binary and source versions have been downloadable without cost at various times in the past, although under changing terms and restrictions as Sun explored a number of business models.
Sun's Common Development and Distribution License, which was approved after review by Open Source Initiative, has been selected as the license for OpenSolaris, which was seeded on June 14, 2005, from the current Solaris development code. Future releases of Solaris (Sun's official version) will be derived from OpenSolaris.
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The most recent versions of Solaris (as of early 2005) are:
|
Solaris version |
SunOS kernel version |
Release date |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Solaris 10 |
SunOS 5.10 |
January 31, 2005 |
Includes Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), Solaris Containers, Service Management Facility (SMF) which replaces init.d scripts, and iSCSI support. Adds Gnome based Java Desktop System as default desktop, CDE still included. |
|
Solaris 9 |
SunOS 5.9 |
May 22, 2002 |
Most current update is Solaris 9 9/05 |
|
Solaris 8 |
SunOS 5.8 |
February 2000 |
Includes Multipath I/O. Last update is Solaris 8 2/04. [1] |
|
Solaris 7 |
SunOS 5.7 |
November 1998 |
The first 64-bit release.[2] |
|
Solaris 2.6 |
SunOS 5.6 |
July 1997 |
|
|
Solaris 2.5.1 |
SunOS 5.5.1 |
May 1996 |
User IDs (uid_t) expanded to 32-bits [4] |
|
Solaris 2.5 |
SunOS 5.5 |
November 1995 |
First to support Ultra 1 [5] |
Solaris 7 and Solaris 2.6 are no longer shipping but still supported. Earlier versions are unsupported.
SunOS is still used as the term to describe the core of Solaris. The version number of the SunOS core lying underneath Solaris is 5.{the Solaris version number}. For example, the latest Solaris release, Solaris 10, runs on SunOS 5.10. Solaris man pages are labeled with SunOS, and the startup sequence displays it, but the term "SunOS" is no longer used in Sun marketing documents.
A more comprehensive summary of earlier Solaris versions is also available.
7.) ULTRIX
ULTRIX is a UNIX-based† operating system made by DEC. ULTRIX has been replaced by Digital UNIX
Intended purpose
server/mainframe: medium to high scale servers; minicomputers; mainframes
desktop/workstation: workstations (for those with UNIX familiarity)
handheld: not appropriate
real time: not appropriate
“ULTRIX is a 4.2BSD based UNIX operating system with enchancements from 4.3BSD and System V Release 2. It also includes a variety of enchancements specific to Digital hardware systems.” — Alan Rollowe100
V1.0 was released in early 1984 or late 1983e100
V4.5 (current release) has a release date of November 1995e100
Current Version: V4.5e100
“Depends on the target hardware, but generally; expensive. Unfortunately, the last “powers that be” in Digital priced it so that the few license sales would generate enough income to offset the development costs.“ — Alan Rollowe100
Hardware Supported: VAX, MIPSe53
“ULTRIX runs on VAX and MIPS (R2000, R3000 or R4000 series)” — Joshua Copee53
“O-VMS should run on any of the VAXen, including MicroVAX, VAXStation, and VAXServer after the MicroVAX 1. Ultrix will run on all the above, plus any of the DECStation line.” — Bruce Lanee51
Performance information about Digital products: www.compaq.com/alphaserver/download/alphaserver_gs_benchmark_performance_v2.pdf
VAX-11 assembly language is discussed in the assembly language section.
Maximum Number of Processors: 6 (in some models of VAX 6000)e100
Kernel: “Based on Berkeley 4.2BSD with enhancements from 4.3BSD and System V Release 2.” — Alan Rollowe100
POSIX: compatible
Peripherals: “Refer to the Software Product Description for the complete list of supported devices by system. Not all systems support all devices, though some offer considerable overlap.” — Alan Rollowe100
file systems can read: ISO 9660 (R)e100
file systems can read/write through third party or optional software: FAT (RW)w55 [using “mtools”, a set of MS-DOS utilities for UNIX† available at ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/mtools-2.0.7]w55, SMB (through SAMBA)
Graphics Engine: “X10 or X11 depending on the version” — Alan Rollowe100
Text Command Shell: UNIX shells
User Interface (graphic): “X10 on older versions. DECwindows on intermediate versions. Motif on current versions.” — Alan Rollowe100
SOURCE:http://www.osdata.com/oses/ultrix.htm
8.)SunOS
SunOS is an older text-based UNIX† that runs on Sun SPARC. Solaris is an enhancement of SunOS that includes a graphic user interface.
“SunOS (1.x - 4.x) is Sun’s original, BSD-based Unix.” — Chris Hansone55
“Sun OS is basically all the “real unix” stuff. Solaris is a bundling of Sun OS with all the “window dressing” (pun intended) like CDE (Common Desktop Environment) a.k.a. the GUI, and other OS “accessories” like a Web browser, etc.” — Greg T. Loosee57
Intended purpose
server/mainframe: medium to large scale servers
desktop/workstation: workstations (for those with UNIX familiarity)
handheld: not appropriate
real time: not appropriate
Kind of OS: proprietary System V Release 4-based UNIX†e55
“SunOS is part of Solaris. Current versions of SunOS were originally based on the AT&T SVR4.0 flavor of Unix. Since then it has diverged. SunOS is compliant with the Open Group’s Unix 98 specifications (http://www.UNIX-systems.org/).” —Greg Onufere68
Release Date: 4.0; replaced by Solaris
Current Version: 5.8e116
Hardware Supported: Sun SPARC
Maximum Number of Processors: 64e64
“SunOS 4 supports 1 processor per system except in some very old configurations (4/6xx series machines with slow processors). SunOS 5 supports up to 64 processors in a single box (the E10000, for example).” —Greg Onufere64
Kernel: proprietary
POSIX: compatible
preferred file system: UFS (NRWF)e21
read/write through third party software: SMB (RW) through SAMBA
www.novalink.com/freeport-express “FreePort Express is a binary translator (running on Alpha) which permits you to convert your SunOS 4.1.x (same as Solaris 1.x) user executables into Digital UNIX executables in minutes. FreePort Express runs under Digital UNIX V3.0 or later, and is available FREE of charge (hence the name).”w55
Text Command Shell: UNIX shells
ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug/ “bootp-DH2.x” free, patched CMU BOOTP-DD2.4.x server from Doug Hughes of auburn.edu. Supports DHCP, even for Win95 clients. Adds the patches from the Samba mailing list to support PCNFS and Win95 simultaneously. For SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, Linux, and NetBSD servers.
http://www.join.com “JOIN DHCP/DDNS” commercial integrated DHCP and DDNS servers from Join Systems for DHCP and BootP clients running on SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x SPARC and x86, Digital UNIX, HP-UX 10.x using Motif GUI, evaluation copies available online.
9.)RT-11
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RT-11 (for Run Time or Real Time) was a real-time operating system for the DEC PDP-11. It was a single-user operating system which did not support multitasking although RT-11 could be configured to support a single "foreground" task running concurrently with a single "background" task. RT-11 was small and could be generated by the user, meaning a sufficiently skilled user with the source code could bootstrap their system from being without any OS into having a functional RT-11 installation. The most common console was a printing terminal, but DEC also supported the VT-11 and VS-11 graphics display devices (vector graphics terminals with a graphic character generator for displaying text, and a light pen for graphical input). A common program run on the system was "Lunar Lander." You adjusted the thrust and angle of the lander as it landed on the moon. If you landed in the right spot a little man would get out of the lander and plant a flag on the moon.
The RT-11 operating system could be stored on a 2.5MB removable hard disk platter, or quickly booted from an 8 inch floppy disk. The system supported a real time clock, printing terminal, VT-11 vector graphic unit, 16 channel 100 kHz A/D converter with 2 channel D/A, 9600 baud serial port, 16 bit bidirectional boards, etc. The file system used an 6.3 file name format (as opposed to MS-DOS 8.3 file name format). An assembly language and a FORTRAN compiler were available from DEC; various compilers were available from other sources. One source of the simplicity (and speed) of RT-11 was the disk architecture; all files were contiguous, meaning a program could initiate file I/O through the operating system and thereafter access the hardware directly. This also meant the disk had to periodically "squeezed" to defragment unused storage.
Later, when DEC introduced the LSI computers, they were able to run RT-11 from an 8 inch floppy disk. Several years later, DEC introduced RSX-11, a multiuser, multitasking operating system, but RT-11 remained the operating system of choice for data acquisition systems where real time response was required.
RT-11 also ran on DEC-10's, DEC 11/34's to DEC 11/60's and the PDT-11.
S&H Computing developed the TSX-Plus OS, which was essentially a multi-user, multi-processing extension of RT-11.
SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT-11
10.)Solaris
Solaris is a UNIX-based† operating system made by Sun MicroSystems that runs on Sun SPARC and Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentium.
“SunOS (1.x - 4.x) is Sun’s original, BSD-based Unix. Solaris 2.x is Sun’s newer, System V Release 4-based Unix. Which means it has STREAMS networking, System V interprocess communication, and so on, as well as some SunOS compatibility libraries so it can still run SunOS software. Solaris 1.x — this is the part where it gets confusing — is the same as SunOS 4.x.” —Chris Hansone55
“Sun OS is basically all the “real unix” stuff. Solaris is a bundling of Sun-OS with all the “window dressing” (pun intended) like CDE (Common Desktop Environment) a.k.a. the GUI, and other OS “accessories” like a Web browser, etc.” —Greg T. Loosee57
Intended purpose
server/mainframe: medium to large scale servers; corporate databases; supercomputers
desktop/workstation: workstations (for those with UNIX familiarity)
handheld: not appropriate
real time: not appropriate
Kind of OS: proprietary System V Release 4-based UNIX†e55
“SunOS is part of Solaris. Current versions of SunOS were originally based on the AT&T SVR4.0 flavor of Unix. Since then it has diverged. SunOS is compliant with the Open Group’s Unix 98 specifications (http://www.UNIX-systems.org/).” —Greg Onufere68
Current Version: 8e116
Cost: $695 single user or 5-user licensew40
Hardware Supported: Sun SPARC, Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentium, Intel 486DXw28
Maximum Number of Processors: 64e64
“SunOS 4 supports 1 processor per system except in some very old configurations (4/6xx series machines with slow processors). SunOS 5 supports up to 64 processors in a single box (the E10000, for example).” —Greg Onufere64
“Digital UNIX continues to dominate the 64-bit arena, leaving HP-UX and IRIX to contest the second position, followed closely by AIX. Solaris and NT trail significantly behind. Solaris does not yet provide support for 64-bit processes, so it falls somewhat further behind and potential compatibility issues remain largely unknown. Still, Sun has migrated over half its product line to 64-bit hardware, and provides support for large amounts of physical memory, both of which are still missing from NT.” —D.H. Brown Associatesw43
Kernel: proprietary
POSIX: compatible
Peripherals: “all current Sparc peripherals, some PC peripherals” —Kristian Elof Sørensenw36
preferred file system: UFS (NRWF)e21
file systems can read/write: FAT (RW)e37
read/write through third party software: DFS (server and client)e118; SMB (RW) through SAMBA
www.novalink.com/freeport-express “FreePort Express is a binary translator (running on Alpha) which permits you to convert your SunOS 4.1.x (same as Solaris 1.x) user executables into Digital UNIX executables in minutes. FreePort Express runs under Digital UNIX V3.0 or later, and is available FREE of charge (hence the name).”w55
Text Command Shell: UNIX shells
User Interface (graphic): Common Desktop Environment (CDE)e57
Businesses
and organizations with servers powered by Solaris:
AccountOnline.com, AllHealth.com, Amiga.org, Andover.net, AOL
(America On Line), Apple Computers (also uses Mac
OS X Server), Aria.com, AT&T, BabyCenter.com, BillGates.com,
BMGMusicService.com, CNN (Cable News Network), CNNSI.com,
Discovery.com, Disney.com, Epicurious.com, Equifax, E-Trade.com,
FoodTV.com, General Electric, General Motors, GetSmart.com,
Java.Sun.com, MacroMedia, More.com, MTV, MyCoupons.com, nCipher,
Netscape, NYTimes.com, Oracle, OurHouse.com, Penthouse, PepsiCo,
Playboy, Shockwave.com, SportsLine.com, Sun MicroSystems, Virgin.com,
WashingtonPost.com, Weather.com, WhiteHouse.gov, W3.orgw52
ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug/ “bootp-DH2.x” free, patched CMU BOOTP-DD2.4.x server from Doug Hughes of auburn.edu. Supports DHCP, even for Win95 clients. Adds the patches from the Samba mailing list to support PCNFS and Win95 simultaneously. For SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, Linux, and NetBSD servers.
http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP “Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server, Client, and Relay agent” freely redistributable tools: source builds on most Unix platforms, Mac, NeXTStep, and Rhapsody.
http://www.princeton.edu/~irwin/dhcpd.html “Princeton Patches to CMU dhcpd 3.3.7” free software provides DHCP, bootp, tftp, true dynamic IP addresses, and reporting tool for NetBSD and Solaris.
http://www.join.com “JOIN DHCP/DDNS” commercial integrated DHCP and DDNS servers from Join Systems for DHCP and BootP clients running on SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x SPARC and x86, Digital UNIX, HP-UX 10.x using Motif GUI, evaluation copies available online.
http://www.baynetworks.com/Products/nav/f_netid_3_0.html “NetID” commercial DHCP/DDNS server from Bay Networks that runs on Solaris, HP-UX, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 95; links into Oracle and Sybase, with tools for managing IP addresses.
Sun follows, with good support for NFS functions and the second-place array of TCP/IP extensions. However, Sun relies on its own Web server, rather than Netscape, Microsoft or Apache, and lacks authoring tools as well as important services such as Novell’s NDS directory service.” —Digital Equipment Corporation, “AIX 4.3 Leaps To 64-Bits In Dead Heat With Digital UNIX 4.0”w51
See also chart of internet features.
Other:
“Yesterday’s college students learned their Unix expertise on Linux and FreeBSD. Today they’re working in IT departments, and many of them are openly hostile to both Microsoft and Windows NT. As a result, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other forms of Unix are finding their way into IT departments, both overtly and on the sly.” —Nicholas Petreley, “The new Unix alters NT’s orbit”, NC Worldw74
“Solaris 2.6 scores moderately well in system management and PC interoperability, but falls short in remaining areas. The operating system is unable to match many useful line-item features found in other systems that have benefited from a massive investment.” —D.H. Brown Associatesw42
11.) DragonFly BSD
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DragonFlyBSD |
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Matt Dillon |
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OS family: |
BSD |
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Source model: |
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Latest stable release: |
1.2.6 / October 9, 2005 |
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Kernel type: |
Hybrid |
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Default user interface: |
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BSD |
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Working state: |
Current |
In computing, the DragonFly BSD operating system is a fork of FreeBSD. Matt Dillon, a long-time FreeBSD and Amiga developer, started work on DragonFly BSD in June 2003 and announced it on the FreeBSD mailing lists on 16 July 2003 [1].
Dillon started DragonFly in the belief that the methods and techniques being adopted for threading and SMP in FreeBSD 5 would lead to a poorly performing system that would be very difficult to maintain. He sought to correct these suspected problems within the FreeBSD project. Due to ongoing conflicts with other developers over the implementation of his ideas in FreeBSD, and other reasons, his ability to directly change the FreeBSD code was eventually revoked. Despite this, the DragonFly BSD and FreeBSD projects still work together contributing bug fixes, driver updates and other system improvements to each other.
Intended to be "the logical continuation of the FreeBSD 4.x series", DragonFly is being developed in an entirely different direction from FreeBSD 5, including a new Light Weight Kernel Threads (LWKT) implementation and a light weight ports/messaging system. Many concepts planned for DragonFly were inspired by the AmigaOS.
Early on in its development, DragonFly acquired a slab allocator, which replaced the aging FreeBSD 4 kernel memory allocator. The new slab allocator requires neither mutexes nor blocking operations for memory assignment tasks, and unlike the code it replaced, it is multiprocessor safe.
DragonFly uses SFBUFs (Super-Fast BUFfers) and MSFBUFs (Multi-SFBUFs). A SFBUF is used to manage ephemeral single-page mappings and cache them when appropriate. They are used for retrieving a reference to data that is held by a single VM page. This simple, yet powerful, abstraction gives a broad number of abilities, such as zero-copy achieved in the sendfile(2) system call.
SFBUFs are used in numerous parts of the kernel, such as the Vnode Object Pager and the PIPE subsystems (indirectly via XIOs) for supporting high-bandwidth transfers. An SFBUF can only be used for a single VM page; MSFBUFs are used for managing ephemeral mappings of multiple-pages.
The SFBUF concept was devised by David Greenman of the FreeBSD Project when he wrote the sendfile(2) system call; it was later revised by Dr. Alan L. Cox and Matthew Dillon. MSFBUFs were designed by Hiten Pandya and Matthew Dillon.
Currently, DragonFly runs on x86 (Intel and AMD) based computers, both single processor and SMP models. A port to the Athlon 64 (x86-64) has been started, but doesn't exist yet. A port to the PowerPC processor has been speculated about sometime following the eventual x86-64 port.
SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonFly_BSD
12.)Pyramid
“Pyramid uses the MIPS chipset, and did the reference port of SysVr4 to those chips under contract to Unix System Laboratories (USL). Pyramid runs Sys V, release 4.2 (with their own enhancements).” —Chad R. Larsone50
Intended purpose
server/mainframe: medium to large scale servers; mainframes
desktop/workstation: workstations (for those with UNIX familiarity)
handheld: not appropriate
real time: not appropriate
Kind of OS: proprietary UNIXe50†
“Note that it does support the mips abi. Unfortunately, virtually nothing is compiled for the mips abi, but instead compiled for the specific os (sgi irix, sony, whatever.)” —Mark Wedele96
Current Version:
Maximum Number of Processors: 24e65
“This really depends on the model — as far as I know, the OS does not limit the number of processors — only the amount of physical slots.
“That said, the MIS 2, 4, and 12 have 2, 4, and 12 slots for CPUs. The later MIS-ES series had 2 processors per board (earlier models had 1 cpu/board). So in theory an MIS-ES could have up to 24 processors.
“The nile 100 has 6 R-bus slots, NS 150 has 12 r-bus slots. At least one of those slots will need a memory board, and another will need an RXI. So that leaves 4 or 10 rbus slots for dpu's (2 cpu/board).
“The mis-s is an r3000 @ 33 mhz, mis-es is r3000@37, and the niles are r4400 at either 150 or 200 mhz.
“For the rm1000, the number of processors is not as simple — each node in the system has 1 cpu, but some nodes can be either niles or rm600s. So a one cell rm1000 could have 4 corner nodes (4 cpu's) + 2 nile nodes (22 cpu's). In mile configuration, the niles do not need the RXIs.
“I have limited this to pyramid proper hardware. The SNI hardware (other rm model numbers) vary system to system — generally, the higher the number, the more power the system can have.” —Mark Wedele65
Kernel:
“Niles boards include dens (dual ethernet) xni (two wide scsi), and a variety of other comm products (fddi, token ring, …). Fast ethernet currently not supported, and support of scsi devices is fairly limited.
“mis support xvi (2 fast scsi), den, above mentioned comm products, as well as iop drives, ios scsi (2 scsi 1 interfaces), and itp (16 port serial boards).
“All scsi above is differential.
“Rm1000 are a hot swapable backplane with hot swapable drives (wide scsi). Included is additional scsi ports and ethernet. PCI nodes can be installed, with a variety of cards supported (fddi, fast ethernet, and I am sure many more).” —Mark Wedele96
File Systems Supported: rxfs (basically vxfs), ufs. Nile, rm100 also use tfs for /stand partitions.e96
Graphics Engine: “No on board graphics hardware. These are servers that sit in the back room — remote display via X11 is what is used.” —Mark Wedele96
SOURCE:http://www.osdata.com/oses/pyramid.htm
13.)
