Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!bbn.com!fkittred From: fkittred@bbn.com (Fletcher Kittredge) Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix Subject: Re: Rumours about "new" U*IX ? (Warning Long Message-ID: <62054@bbn.BBN.COM> Date: 12 Jan 91 15:29:02 GMT References: <7177.278f2835@abo.fi> Sender: news@bbn.com Reply-To: fkittred@spca.bbn.com (Fletcher Kittredge) Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 193 In article <7177.278f2835@abo.fi> hege@abo.fi writes: >A few months ago there was an ad in misc.jobs.offered (I think) where >Digital looked for people to develop a U*IX that was supposed to be >"The U*IX of the 90's". In Digital Review (was it December 10, 1990?) >the editor in chief rumoured something about U*IX/OSF-version from >DEC within 6 months. Does anybody have any information about this? This is the announcement I received from DEC. This seems general knowledge, so I am passing it on. regards, fletcher Received: by decpa.pa.dec.com; id AA04967; Thu, 27 Dec 90 09:24:35 -0800 Date: Thu, 27 Dec 90 09:24:39 PST Subject: OSF Development Kit ANNOUNCING OSF/1 ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT KIT =================================================================== o Digital is the first OSF member to ship OSF/1 o Kit offers support for the DECstation 3100 and 2100 o Early binary version of OSF/1 to be available Q3/Q4 FY91 =================================================================== PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Digital reinforced its commitment to OSF technology by announcing in October that it would ship the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit for the DECstation 3100 and 2100 in Q1CY91. Digital will be the first OSF member to ship a version of OSF/1. We are providing this Kit in response to customer and ISV requests for early access to OSF/1 technology. The kit is a preview of future versions of ULTRIX, which will be based on OSF/1 technology. The goals of the Advanced Development Kit are to provide market impact and underline Digital's leadership in delivering OSF technology. The kit can be used to attract new customers and ISVs by capitilizing on the growing acceptance of OSF/1 in the UNIX marketplace, and to provide a leading edge development platform for early evaluation purposes. The kit is a binary version of "pure" OSF/1 as shipped by OSF, and will include the GNU C compiler and development tools, which are included on the OSF/1 tape. With the exception of an installation procedure, there will be no Digital enhancements to OSF/1 in the Advanced Development Kit. Customers who order the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit from Digital should be innovators who want to begin investigating the OSF Application Programming Interface (API). Typically, these innovators are in academic and research institutions, software houses (such as CSOs and ISVs), and strategic accounts that have endorsed our ULTRIX/OSF strategy and want to begin evaluating the technology. Customers will use this kit for advance development and evaluation purposes only: it is not a deployment platform for applications, and is not an end-user system. FEATURES The OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit includes an advanced kernel based on Mach technology. Innovative kernel functions include an advanced virtual memory management system, secure interprocess communications, loadable kernel modules, and thread scheduling. Compatibility with key industry specifications (like POSIX 1003.1, FIPS 151-1 and the XPG 3 base level) is included for application portability. In addition, the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit includes compatibility with other UNIX environments including the Berkeley BSD 4.3 Operating System and the System V Interface Definition (SVID) Issue 2 base and kernel extensions, System V accounting features and a SVR3.2 compatible STREAMS framework. It is not a goal of the Advanced Development kit to provide binary compatibility with ULTRIX, although a number of applications will run without modification. When an OSF-based version of ULTRIX is delivered, programs developed with the Advanced Development Kit should only require a recompile. Binary compatibility with the current ULTRIX release is a goal for the merged ULTRIX-OSF offering. The file system architecture included with the Advanced Development Kit is based on the Berkeley 4.4 Virtual File System (VFS) and includes the following file systems: o Berkeley 4.3 Tahoe Fast file system o NFS-compatible distributed file system o System V file system o XENIX file system In addition, the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit provides logical volume management and disk mirroring. Logical volume management allows file systems to span multiple physical disks. Disk mirroring helps protect against data loss due to media failure. Networking features include the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP), the BSD socket interface, a System V-compatible STREAMS framework, and the X/Open Transport Interface (XTI). The programming environment included with the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit includes language tools based on the Free Software Foundation's GNU C compiler and debugger. Strict adherence to the ANSI standard for C should ensure portability to future releases of ULTRIX and Digital C compilers. In addition, OSF/1 supports position-independent shared libraries, callable program loading, and the standard UNIX exec facility. The OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit includes support for internationalization in conformance with the Native Language System (NLS) in the XPG3 specification. This support includes eight-bit clean commands, collating sequences, character classification functions, messages catalogs, date and time formats, monetary formats and numeric conventions. Although the OSF/1 operating system is capable of providing security features at the B1 level, configuration is available only at compile time. For this reason, the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit will offer only those security features common to all UNIX operating systems, including login controls and discretionary access protection. Mandatory access controls, labeling, auditing, access control lists, and discrete privileges will not be provided in binary form with this kit. WHAT ARE OTHER VENDORS DOING WITH OSF/1? OSF/1 is initially available from the Open Software Foundation for three OSF-supported reference implementations: Intel 302 (80386-based), Digital's DECstation 3100, and the Encore Multimax multiprocessor system (National Semiconductor-based). Also included on the OSF/1 distribution tape are three vendor-contributed implementations: HP/Apollo DN2500, Intergraph 6000, and an Intel 860-based system. OSF distributes OSF/1 in source code format. This distribution mechanism requires an AT&T source code license and is therefore cost prohibitive for many small software developers. IBM IBM has formally announced plans to release OSF/1 on the PS/2 line some time in 1991. The next machine in the IBM line to support OSF/1 will be the System/370. They have announced a committment to utilize OSF/1 technology on the IBM RS/6000. No timeframe has been specified. Hewlett-Packard HP aggressively announced its intention to be the first company to ship OSF/1 code, but is targetting OSF/1 at the workstation-only market right now. HP will evaluate each machine on a case-by-case basis. HP has committed to delivering OSF/1 on the new PA RISC line in 1991. The HP 400 series will probably be supported in 1992. HP will port OSF/1 to the Apollo DN series, but will not support the Apollo PRISM machines. HP has no firm plans to support OSF/1 on the HP900/800 series. Bull Bull recently announced an agreement with MIPS and could well announce OSF/1 on their Intel or MIPS line. Sun Sun has no intention of supporting OSF technology. Sun's strategy is to migrate from their current Berkeley-based SunOS to System V Release 4. PRICING/ORDERING INFORMATION The OSF/1 Development Kit is a media and documentation kit only. For tracking and royalty purposes, a separate media kit is required for each CPU. In addition to purchasing the media, all customers will be required to sign a Customer Services agreement for support. Digital will act as the customer's agent, consolidating bug reports and passing them on to the Open Software Foundation. Digital will not distribute maintenance releases for the Advanced Development Kit. Instead, Digital will include bug fixes in the first release of an OSF-based version of ULTRIX. This kit will be retired on introduction of an OSF-based version of ULTRIX. Additional pricing, licensing, and ordering information will be published as soon as it is finalized. RESOURCES Open Software Foundation OSF/1 Information Sheet will be available early Q3FY91 through Northboro. This information sheet is written by OSF, not Digital. ------- End of Forwarded Message Fletcher Kittredge Platforms and Tools Group, BBN Software Products 10 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138 617-873-3465 / fkittred@bbn.com / fkittred@das.harvard.edu