Tru64 UNIX

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Tru64 UNIX
Website Tru64 UNIX Software
Company/
developer		 DEC, HP, IBM, Compaq
OS family Unix-like
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
Working state Current

Tru64 UNIX is a 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha microprocessor architecture, currently owned by 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 because it is built on top of the Mach kernel. (Other commercial 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.

Contents

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, to compete with System V Release 4 from AT&T and Sun Microsystems. 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, developed at Carnegie Mellon University is cited as support of this assertion. The use of Mach was not as odd as it may seem now: traditional UNIX provided poor realtime support at best and Digital strongly promoted OSF/1 for realtime work, and this realtime (and multithreading) 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] it was never really a fully supported product and it 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. 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.

HP also worked on a product based on OSF/1, designed for early versions of their PA-RISC workstations, but this project never really got off the ground due to the complex nature of the hardware.

Apple intended to base A/UX 4.0 for their PowerPC-based Macintoshes on OSF/1, [3] but the project was canceled.

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 (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).

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]

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.

With HP's purchase of Compaq in 2002, HP announced the intention to migrate many of Tru64 UNIX's more innovative features (including its AdvFS file system, Trucluster, and LSM) to HP-UX, HP's proprietary Unix. As of December 2004, however, HP appears to have cancelled this project, instead choosing to use the Veritas file system and abandon the rest of the Tru64 advanced features. In the process, many of the remaining Tru64 developers have been laid off.

As of 2007 HP intends to continue supporting Tru64 UNIX until at least 2012. The next maintenance release is planned for 2008 (5.1B-5)[1].

  1. ^ Salus, Peter H. (1994). A Quarter Century of UNIX. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co, 217. ISBN 0-201-54777-5. 
  2. ^ Ellen Minter (1992-01-28). "Press Release - OSF/1". bit.listserv.esl-l. (Web link). Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ IBM announces AIX/ESA mainframe version of Unix - Product Announcement Newsbytes News Network - Find Articles (1992-04-01). Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  5. ^ Steve Lionel (1995-04-17). "Re: OSF vs. Digital Unix". comp.unix.osf.osf1. (Web link). Retrieved on 2007-08-21.

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