Avie Tevanian

Last updated
Avadis Tevanian
Born
Avadis Tevanian

1961 (age 62–63)
NationalityAmerican
EducationPhD, MS, BA
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
University of Rochester
Employers
Known forComputer scientist and coarchitect of Mach kernel, NeXTSTEP, and macOS

Avadis "Avie" Tevanian (born 1961) is an American software engineer. At Carnegie Mellon University, he was a principal designer and engineer of the Mach operating system (also known as the Mach Kernel). He used that work at NeXT Inc. as the foundation of the NeXTSTEP operating system. He was senior vice president of software engineering at Apple from 1997 to 2003, and then chief software technology officer from 2003 to 2006. [1] There, he redesigned NeXTSTEP to become macOS. Apple's macOS and iOS both incorporate the Mach Kernel, and iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS are all derived from iOS. He was a longtime friend of Steve Jobs. [2]

Contents

Early life

Tevanian is from Westbrook, Maine. [3] He is of Armenian descent. [4] Tevanian cloned the 1980s arcade game Missile Command , giving it the same name in a version for the Xerox Alto, and Mac Missiles! for the Macintosh platform. [5] He has a B.A. degree in mathematics from the University of Rochester and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. There, he was a principal designer and engineer of the Mach operating system, [6] along with Richard Rashid.

Career

NeXT Inc.

He was Vice President of Software Engineering at NeXT Inc. and was responsible for managing NeXT's software engineering department. There, he designed the NeXTSTEP operating system, based upon his previous academic work on Mach. [6]

Apple Inc.

He was senior vice president of software engineering at Apple from 1997 to 2003, and then chief software technology officer from 2003 to 2006. There, he redesigned NeXTSTEP to become macOS, which became iOS. [1] [6]

In United States v. Microsoft in 2001, he was a witness for the United States Department of Justice, testifying against Microsoft. [7]

In 2001, Bertrand Serlet and Tevanian initiated a secret project at the request of Steve Jobs, to sell MacOS on Vaio laptops. [8] Apple demonstrated the product to Sony executives at a golf party in Hawaii, with the most expensive Vaio they could acquire. [9] Sony refused, arguing Vaio's sales had just started to grow after years of difficulties. [10]

Theranos and Dolby Labs

Tevanian left Apple on March 31, 2006, and joined the boards of both Dolby Labs [11] and Theranos, Inc. [12] He resigned from the board of Theranos in late 2007, with an acrimonious ending as he faced legal threats and was forced to waive his right to buy a company cofounder's shares, actions he believed were in retaliation for the skepticism he was often alone in expressing about the company's finances and progress in developing its technology at board meetings. [13]

In May 2006, he joined the board of Tellme Networks, which was later sold to Microsoft. [14] [15] On January 12, 2010, he became managing director of Elevation Partners. [16] In July 2015, he cofounded NextEquity Partners and as of 2017 is serving as Managing Director. [17]

Related Research Articles

Mach is a kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University by Richard Rashid and Avie Tevanian to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computing. Mach is often considered one of the earliest examples of a microkernel. However, not all versions of Mach are microkernels. Mach's derivatives are the basis of the operating system kernel in GNU Hurd and of Apple's XNU kernel used in macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NeXT</span> American technology company (1985–1997)

NeXT, Inc. was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later developed web software. It was founded in 1985 by CEO Steve Jobs, the Apple Computer co-founder who had been forcibly removed from Apple that year. NeXT debuted with the NeXT Computer in 1988, and released the NeXTcube and smaller NeXTstation in 1990. The series had relatively limited sales, with only about 50,000 total units shipped. Nevertheless, the object-oriented programming and graphical user interface were highly influential trendsetters of computer innovation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NeXTSTEP</span> Operating system from NeXT Computer

NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer, founded by Steve Jobs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprietary workstation computers such as the NeXTcube. It was later ported to several other computer architectures.

Darwin is the core Unix-like operating system of macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, iPadOS, audioOS, visionOS, and bridgeOS. It previously existed as an independent open-source operating system, first released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code derived from NeXTSTEP, FreeBSD, other BSD operating systems, Mach, and other free software projects' code, as well as code developed by Apple. Darwin's official mascot is Hexley the Platypus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenStep</span> Defunct object-oriented application programming interface specification

OpenStep is an object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification developed by NeXT. It provides a framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and developing software applications. OpenStep was designed to be platform-independent, allowing developers to write code that could run on multiple operating systems, including NeXTSTEP, Windows NT, and various Unix-based systems. It has influenced the development of other GUI frameworks, such as Cocoa for macOS, and GNUstep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TextEdit</span> Open-source word processor and text editor

TextEdit is an open-source word processor and text editor, first featured in NeXT's NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. It is now distributed with macOS since Apple Inc.'s acquisition of NeXT, and available as a GNUstep application for other Unix-like operating systems such as Linux. It is powered by Apple Advanced Typography.

NeXT Computer is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of US$6,500, aimed at the higher-education market. It was designed around the Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 floating-point coprocessor, with a clock speed of 25 MHz. Its NeXTSTEP operating system is based on the Mach microkernel and BSD-derived Unix, with a proprietary GUI using a Display PostScript-based back end. According to the Science Museum Group, "The enclosure consists of a 1-foot die-cast magnesium cube-shaped black case, which led to the machine being informally referred to as 'The Cube'."

The history of macOS, Apple's current Mac operating system formerly named Mac OS X until 2011 and then OS X until 2016, began with the company's project to replace its "classic" Mac OS. That system, up to and including its final release Mac OS 9, was a direct descendant of the operating system Apple had used in its Mac computers since their introduction in 1984. However, the current macOS is a UNIX operating system built on technology that had been developed at NeXT from the 1980s until Apple purchased the company in early 1997.

Jean-Louis Gassée is a business executive. He is best known as a former executive at Apple Computer, where he worked from 1981 to 1990. He also founded Be Inc., creators of the BeOS computer operating system. After leaving Be, he became Chairman of PalmSource, Inc. in November 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac OS X 10.0</span> First major release of Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.0 is the first major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It was released on March 24, 2001, for a price of $129 after a public beta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XNU</span> Computer operating system kernel

XNU is the computer operating system (OS) kernel developed at Apple Inc. since December 1996 for use in the Mac OS X operating system and released as free and open-source software as part of the Darwin OS, which, in addition to being the basis for macOS, is also the basis for Apple TV Software, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stevenote</span> Keynote speeches given by Steve Jobs

Stevenote is a colloquial term for keynote speeches given by Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, at events such as the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Macworld Expo, and Apple Expo. Because most Apple product releases were first shown to the public at these keynotes, "Stevenotes" caused substantial swings in Apple's stock price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhapsody (operating system)</span> Apple operating system

Rhapsody is an operating system that was developed by Apple Computer after its purchase of NeXT in the late 1990s. It is the fifth major release of the Mach-based operating system that was developed at NeXT in the late 1980s, previously called OPENSTEP and NEXTSTEP. Rhapsody was targeted to developers for a transition period between the Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X. Rhapsody represented a new and exploratory strategy for Apple, more than an operating system, and runs on x86-based PCs and on Power Macintosh.

Mac OS X Server 1.0 is an operating system developed by Apple, Inc. released on March 16, 1999. It was the first version of Mac OS X Server.

Bertrand Serlet is a French software engineer and businessman; he worked first at the Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA) before leaving France for the United States in 1985. He was the Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interface Builder</span> Developer Application for MacOS

Interface Builder is a software development application for Apple's macOS operating system. It is part of Xcode, the Apple Developer developer's toolset. Interface Builder allows Cocoa and Carbon developers to create interfaces for applications using a graphical user interface. The resulting interface is stored as a .nib file, short for NeXT Interface Builder, or more recently, as an XML-based .xib file.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of macOS</span> Layers of the operating system

The architecture of macOS describes the layers of the operating system that is the culmination of Apple Inc.'s decade-long research and development process to replace the classic Mac OS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Forstall</span> American software engineer (born 1969)

Scott James Forstall is an American software engineer, known for leading the original software development team for the iPhone and iPad. Having spent his career first at NeXT and then Apple, he was the senior vice president (SVP) of iOS Software at Apple Inc. from 2007 until October 2012.

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Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series.

References

  1. 1 2 "Avie Tevanian Named Chief Software Technology Officer of Apple". University of Rochester. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Was Steve Jobs' genius also a fatal flaw?". BBC News. 8 March 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Polishing Apple". Rochester Review V60 N2. University of Rochester. 1997. Archived from the original on May 2, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
  4. ↑ Mezoian, Anthony (2006). "A Brief History of Portland's Armenian Settlement". Armenian Cultural Association of Maine History. Armenians of Maine. Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
  5. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "Mac Missiles! (Avadis Tevanian 1984)". YouTube . 21 September 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Next Equity Bio" . Retrieved December 8, 2017.
  7. ↑ Heilemann, John (November 2000). "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth". Wired. Condé Nast Publications. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  8. ↑ Souppouris, Aaron (2014-02-05). "Steve Jobs wanted Sony VAIOs to run OS X". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  9. ↑ "sony-turned-down-offer-from-steve-jobs-to-run-mac-os-on-vaio-laptops-says-ex-president".
  10. ↑ "The tales of Steve Jobs & Japan #02: casual friendship with Sony | Steve Jobs and Japan | nobi.com (EN)". nobi.com (in Japanese). 2014-02-05. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  11. ↑ Saracevic, Alan (March 27, 2006). "Adios Avie". The Tech Chronicles. SFGate. Archived from the original on June 8, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  12. ↑ "Avadis Tevanian Jr.: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  13. ↑ Carreyrou, John (May 2018). Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 35–40. ISBN   9781524731656.
  14. ↑ Fried, Ina (May 7, 2006). "Former Apple exec joins Tellme board". CNet. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  15. ↑ "Leadership Team". Tellme Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on November 14, 2006. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  16. ↑ Partners, Elevation (January 12, 2010). "Former Apple Software Chief Avie Tevanian Joins Elevation Partners as Managing Director". Elevation Partners (Press release). PR Wire. Archived from the original on January 15, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Former Apple execs Fred Anderson, Avie Tevanian raise NeXT-themed venture capital fund". AppleInsider. 5 April 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
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