UNOS (operating system)

UNOS
Developer	Charles River Data Systems
Written in	C
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Historic
Latest release	9.3.3+ / July 15, 1997; 26 years ago
Marketing target	Real-time data acquiring and processing
Platforms	Motorola 68k, Intel 80486
Kernel type	Monolithic

UNOS is the first, now discontinued, 32-bit Unix-like real-time operating system (RTOS) with real-time extensions.^{[citation needed]} It was developed by Jeffery Goldberg, MS. who left Bell Labs after using Unix and became VP of engineering for Charles River Data Systems (CRDS), now defunct. UNOS was written to capitalize on the first 32-bit microprocessor, the Motorola 68k central processing unit (CPU).^{[citation needed]} CRDS sold a UNOS based 68K system, and sold porting services and licenses to other manufacturers who had embedded CPUs.

History[edit]

Jeff Goldberg created an experimental OS using only eventcounts for synchronization, that allowed a preemptive kernel, for a Charles River Data Systems (CRDS) PDP-11. CRDS hired Goldberg to create UNOS and began selling it in 1981.^[1]^{[better source needed]}

UNOS was written for the Motorola 68000 series processors. While compatible with Version 7 Unix, it is also an RTOS.^{[citation needed]} CRDS supported it on the company's Universe 68 computers, as did Motorola's Versabus systems.^[2] CRDS's primary market was OEMs embedding the CRDS unit within a larger pile of hardware, often requiring better real-time response than Unix could deliver.^{[citation needed]}

UNOS has a cleaner kernel interface than UNIX in 1981.^{[citation needed]} There was e.g., a system call to obtain ps information instead of reading /dev/kmem.^{[citation needed]}

UNOS required memory protection, with the 68000 using an MMU developed by CRDS;^{[citation needed]} and only used Motorola MMUs after UNOS 7 on the 68020 (CRDS System CP20)^{[citation needed]} (using the MC68851 PMMU).

UNOS was written in the programming languages C and assembly language, and supported Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, and Business Basic.^{[citation needed]}

Limits[edit]

UNOS from CRDS never supported paged virtual memory^{[citation needed]} and multiprocessor support had not been built in from the start,^{[citation needed]} so the kernel remained mostly single-threaded on the few multiprocessor systems built.^{[citation needed]} A UNOS variant enhanced by H. Berthold AG under the name vBertOS added demanded page loading and paged processes in 1984,^{[citation needed]} but was given up in favor of SunOS because of the missing GUI and the missing networking code in Spring 1985,^{[citation needed]} when Berthold imported the first Sun to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

^ "Multics Significance". Retrieved August 15, 2015.
^ Fiedler, Ryan (October 1983). "The Unix Tutorial / Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace". Byte. p. 132. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

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[1] "Multics Significance". Retrieved August 15, 2015.

[fiedler198310-2] Fiedler, Ryan (October 1983). "The Unix Tutorial / Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace". Byte. p. 132. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

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