Interactive Unix
| INTERACTIVE UNIX | |
|---|---|
| developer | INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. |
| License (s) | Proprietary |
| Current version | 4.1.1 (July 21, 1998) |
| ancestry |
UNIX ↳ UNIX System V ↳ INTERACTIVE UNIX |
| Architecture (s) | x86 , ( PDP-11 , VAX ) |
| timeline | PC / ix 386 / ix INTERACTIVE UNIX |
| Others | Development stopped |
| www.sun.com/.../Interactive/ | |
Commonly referred Interactive Unix , the Unix - operating systems of the company INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. (ISC) in Santa Monica (USA, California). In particular, however, this often refers to the INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 (originally 386 / ix ) operating system from the System V family.
history
IS / 1, IS / 3 and IS / 5
In 1978 the software company INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation (ISC) released the IS / 1 operating system, the first commercial UNIX operating system. Based on UNIX V6 (6th Edition), IS / 1 supported most PDP-11 systems at that time .
In 1983 IS / 3 , which was further developed on the basis of UNIX System III , was published, which also supported the mini-computer architectures VAX and MicroVAX . In Germany, the Danet company in Darmstadt took over sales and technical support for customers. In turn, Danet was supported by AT&T through Bell Telephone in Amsterdam.
Since the market for mini-computers from the manufacturer Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was facing increasing competition, further development of this line was stopped in 1984 after the release of the UNIX System V- based version IS / 5 .
PC / ix
In March 1983, IBM presented the first PC with a hard drive , the IBM XT . For this purpose, the ISC company was commissioned with the development of a UNIX operating system at an early stage, so that the first version of the PC / ix (Personal Computer Interactive eXecutive) operating system , an early port of IS / 3 , could be completed as early as 1982.
The IBM XT had 640 KB of memory and 10 MB of hard disk space - but networks were not in use at the time. In order to enable up to three users to work simultaneously, additional terminals could be operated via two serial interfaces. Often, however, one of these was already used to connect the type wheel printer that was common at the time , so that only one additional terminal could be operated.
The operating system was delivered in a black slipcase with the red rose that was characteristic of IBM at the time. The primary use for PC / ix was desktop publishing (DTP). For this purpose, ISC developed the TRoff- compatible word processing system IN / text and delivered it with PC / ix .
386 / ix
In 1984 a further developed version with support for Intel 80286 processors appeared under the name IN / ix . Building on this, ISC published the 386 / ix operating system in 1985 , with the basis of the source code being updated to UNIX System V Release 3.0 . 386 / ix already supported the emerging 32-bit architecture of the Intel 80386 processor. In order to achieve the highest possible compatibility with Microsoft's UNIX derivative Xenix , additional components from this were included in the system.
In the course of the following years, 386 / ix was further developed on the basis of UNIX System V Release 3.2 and later sold under the brand name INTERACTIVE UNIX. Since SCO was more successful with the competitor product SCO Unix , INTERACTIVE UNIX remained more of a niche existence.
INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386
When AT&T brought out another Unix version with Release 4 of UNIX System V, INTERACTIVE also updated its own product. At the same time now had Intel with Intel Unix System V / 386 own Unix derivative released, which was soon discontinued.
In September 1991, Eastman Kodak sold the INTERACTIVE Systems Products Division to SunSoft (a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems ), which continued the INTERACTIVE UNIX product under this name. With the purchase, Sun was able to acquire valuable know-how in the area of PC-Unix for the development of Solaris 2.0 for x86. In July 1998 the last version of INTERACTIVE UNIX was published with INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 4.1.1 and in July 2006 the support by Sun finally ended.
history
| version | publication | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| IS / 1 | 1978 |
First commercial UNIX derivative, based on UNIX V6 ( 6th Edition ), |
| PC / ix | 1982 |
Side branch of the development with support for IBM XT , based on an early version of IS / 3 , |
| IS / 3 | 1983 |
Further developed version of IS \ 1 based on UNIX System III , |
| IS / 5 | 1984 |
Last version of the product line for PDP-11 , VAX and MicroVAX , |
| 386 / ix | 1985 |
Further development of PC / ix and porting from UNIX System V to i386 , based on UNIX System V / 286 |
| 2.0 | 1988 |
Renaming to UNIX Interactive (or INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 ), |
| 2.2 | 1990 |
Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica: INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 Version 2.2 |
| 3.0 | 1992 |
Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica: INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 Version 3.0 |
| 4.0 | 1994 |
SunSoft: INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 Version 4.0 |
| 4.1 | 1996 |
SunSoft: INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 Version 4.1 |
| 4.1.1 | July 21, 1998 |
Last published version: INTERACTIVE UNIX System V / 386 Release 3.2 Version 4.1.1 , |