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Windows NT 3.1

User interface similar to Windows 3.1
Website:	Microsoft Support Lifecycle
Company/ developer:	Microsoft
OS family:	Windows NT
Source model:	Closed source
Latest stable release:	3.10.528 SP3 / November 10, 1994
Kernel type:	Hybrid kernel
License:	Microsoft EULA
Working state:	Unsupported as of December 31, 2000

Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on July 27, 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest GUI from Microsoft, on account of the similar visual appearance of the user interface. Two editions of NT 3.1 were made available, Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT Advanced Server.

It could run on Intel x86, DEC Alpha, and MIPS R4000 CPUs.

Contents 1 Overview 2 N-Ten 3 References 4 External links

Development of Windows NT started in November 1988, after Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler. Many elements of the design reflect earlier DEC experience with VMS and RSX-11. The operating system was designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures and multiple hardware platforms within each architecture. The platform dependencies are largely hidden from the rest of the system by a kernel mode module called the HAL.

Windows NT was originally intended to be OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. When Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990, it was so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still-unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM, and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone, while Microsoft continued work on the newly-renamed Windows NT.

The first public demonstration of Windows NT, at the time called "Windows Advanced Server for Lan Manager", was at a developer conference in August 1991,^[1] and was formally announced at the Spring 1993 Comdex in Atlanta, Georgia.

Application programming interfaces in Windows NT are implemented as subsystems atop the undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally.

The project had a codename of just "NT OS", which is preserved in the filename of the Windows NT kernel, ntoskrnl.exe. Since it was targeted to become the next version of OS/2, a more official name of the project was "NT OS/2". This name is preserved up to now in some Windows NT DDK files.

Though "NT OS/2" was finally released as "Windows NT", it is largely compatible with OS/2 applications and HPFS disk volumes.

Originally the OS was targeted at the Intel i860 CPU, codenamed N10 (or "N-Ten"). However, the i860 was "horribly behind schedule", so the NT team used an emulator before i860 prototype hardware (code-named Dazzle) was available. Support for the other platforms followed later. The rationale for targeting the i860 first was to improve portability and avoid producing an x86-centric design.^[2]

1. ^ Windows Products and Technologies History. Microsoft.
2. ^ http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix-win2000/invitedtalks/lucovsky_html/

• GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.1 Gallery - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces