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| Company / developer | DEC, HP, IBM, Compaq |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Closed source |
| Latest stable release | 5.1B-4/ December 2006 |
| Marketing target | ? |
| Available language(s) | ? |
| Update method | ? |
| Package manager | ? |
| Supported platforms | DEC Alpha |
| Kernel type | Hybrid kernel |
| Default user interface | Command line interface |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Tru64 UNIX Software |
Tru64 UNIX is a 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha microprocessor architecture, currently owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where it was known as Digital UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1 AXP).
As its original name suggests, Tru64 UNIX is based on the OSF/1 operating system. DEC's previous UNIX product was known as Ultrix and was based on BSD UNIX.
It is unusual among common commercial UNIX implementations as it is built on top of the Mach kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University. (Other UNIX implementations built on top of the Mach kernel are NeXTSTEP, MkLinux, and Mac OS X.)
Tru64 UNIX requires the SRM boot firmware found on Alpha-based computer systems.
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OSF/1
In 1988, during the so-called "Unix wars", DEC joined with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others to form the Open Software Foundation (OSF) to develop a version of Unix. Dubbed OSF/1, the aim was to compete with System V Release 4 from AT&T and Sun Microsystems, and it has been argued that a primary goal was for the operating system to be free of AT&T intellectual property.[1] The fact that OSF/1 was one of the first operating systems to use the Mach kernel is cited as support of this assertion[citation needed]. Digital also strongly promoted OSF/1 for real-time applications[citation needed], and with traditional UNIX implementations at the time providing poor real-time support at best, the real-time and multi-threading support was heavily dependent on the Mach kernel. It also incorporated a large part of the BSD kernel (based on the 4.3-Reno release) to provide Unix compatibility. OSF/1 was envisaged to be the third major branch of the Unix family tree, after System V and BSD.
DEC's original release of OSF/1 (DEC OSF/1 V1.0) was in January 1992 for their line of MIPS-based DECstation workstations, [2] however this was never a fully supported product and was cancelled before the end of the year. DEC ported OSF/1 to their new Alpha AXP platform (as DEC OSF/1 AXP), and this was the first version (V1.2) of what is most commonly referred to as OSF/1. DEC OSF/1 AXP 1.2 was shipped on March 1993. OSF/1 AXP was a full 64-bit operating system and the native UNIX implementation for the Alpha architecture. From OSF/1 AXP V2.0 onwards, UNIX System V compatibility was also integrated into the system.
Other vendors
HP also worked on a product based on OSF/1, designed for early versions of their PA-RISC workstations, but this project failed due to the complex nature of the hardware.
Apple Computer intended to base A/UX 4.0 for their PowerPC-based Macintoshes on OSF/1, [3] but the project was cancelled.
IBM used OSF/1 as the basis of the AIX/ESA operating system for System/370 and System/390 mainframes.[4]
OSF/1 was also ported by Kendall Square Research to their proprietary processor architecture used in the KSR1 supercomputer.
In 1994, after AT&T had sold UNIX System V to Novell and the rival Unix International consortium had disbanded, the Open Software Foundation ceased funding of research and development of OSF/1.
OSF/1 AD
OSF/1 AD (Advanced Development) was a distributed version of OSF/1 developed for massively parallel supercomputers. Variants of OSF/1 AD were used on several such systems, including the Intel Paragon XP/S and ASCI Red, Convex Exemplar SPP-1200 (as SPP-UX) and the Hitachi SR2201 (as HI-UX MPP).
Digital UNIX
In 1995, starting with release 3.2, DEC renamed DEC OSF/1 AXP to Digital UNIX to reflect its conformance with the X/Open Single UNIX Specification.[5]
Tru64 UNIX
After Compaq's purchase of DEC in early 1998, with the release of version 4.0F, Digital UNIX was renamed to Tru64 UNIX to emphasise its 64-bit-clean nature and de-emphasise the Digital brand.
In April 1999, Compaq announced that Tru64 UNIX 5.0 successfully ran on Intel's IA-64 simulator.[6] However, this port was cancelled a few months later.[7]
Current status
With their purchase of Compaq in 2002, HP announced their intention to migrate many of Tru64 UNIX's more innovative features (including its AdvFS file system, Trucluster, and LSM) to HP-UX, HP's existing Unix OS. In December 2004, HP announced a change of plan; they would instead use the Veritas file system and abandon the rest of the Tru64 advanced features. In the process, many of the remaining Tru64 developers were laid off.[8]
In July 2007, HP stated that they would continue to support Tru64 UNIX until at least 2012, with the next maintenance release, 5.1B-5, planned for the second half of 2008.[9]
References
- ^ Salus, Peter H. (1994). A Quarter Century of UNIX. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co, 217. ISBN 0-201-54777-5.
- ^ Ellen Minter (1992-01-28). "Press Release - OSF/1". bit.listserv.esl-l. (Web link). Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
- ^ "Open Software Foundation updates OSF/1 - OSF/1 1.1 operating system - Product Announcement Newsbytes News Network - Find Articles" (1992-06-24). Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ "IBM announces AIX/ESA mainframe version of Unix - Product Announcement Newsbytes News Network - Find Articles" (1992-04-01). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
- ^ Steve Lionel (1995-04-17). "Re: OSF vs. Digital Unix". comp.unix.osf.osf1. (Web link). Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
- ^ "Compaq Tru64 UNIX Runs on Intel's Merced Simulator" (1999-04-08). Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
- ^ "Compaq kills Tru64 development on Intel's Merced" (1999-09-22). Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
- ^ Ashlee Vance (2004-12-02). "HP laughs off Tru64 promises, welcomes Veritas", The Register. Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
- ^ "Tru64 UNIX Roadmap" (July 2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
External links
- Tru64 UNIX - HP's official Tru64 UNIX site
- Tru64.org - Industry news, events, links, etc. related to HP's Tru64 UNIX operating system running on AlphaServers.
- Official Tru64 UNIX FAQ from Tru64.org
- Tru64 FAQ from UNIXguide.net
- comp.unix.tru64 - Newsgroup on running, owning and administering Tru64 UNIX (web-accessible via Google Groups)
- comp.unix.osf.osf1 - Newsgroup on running, owning and administering OSF/1 (web-accessible via Google Groups)
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