DYNIX

Last updated
DYNIX
Developer Sequent Computer Systems
OS family Unix-like (BSD or SysV)
Working stateDiscontinued
Initial release1984;39 years ago (1984)
Available in English
Succeeded byDYNIX/ptx

DYNIX (DYNamic UnIX) was a Unix-like operating system developed by Sequent Computer Systems, based on 4.2BSD and modified to run on Intel-based [1] symmetric multiprocessor hardware. The third major (Dynix 3.0) version was released May, 1987; [2] by 1992 DYNIX was succeeded by DYNIX/ptx, [3] which was based on UNIX System V. [4]

IBM obtained rights to DYNIX/ptx in 1999, when it acquired Sequent [5] for $810 million. [6]

IBM's subsequent Project Monterey was an attempt, circa 1999, "to unify AIX with Sequent's Dynix/ptx operating system and UnixWare." By 2001, however, "the explosion in popularity of Linux ... prompted IBM to quietly ditch" this. [7] [8]

A version was named Dynix 4.1.4. [9]


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM AIX</span> Series of Unix operating systems from IBM

AIX is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenix</span> Discontinued Unix version published by Microsoft

Xenix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually replaced it with SCO UNIX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novell</span> 1980–2014 American multinational software and services company

Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare.

Sequent Computer Systems was a computer company that designed and manufactured multiprocessing computer systems. They were among the pioneers in high-performance symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) open systems, innovating in both hardware and software.

<i>SCO Group, Inc. v. International Business Machines Corp.</i>

SCO Group, Inc. v. International Business Machines Corp., commonly abbreviated as SCO v. IBM, is a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court of Utah. The SCO Group asserted that there are legal uncertainties regarding the use of the Linux operating system due to alleged violations of IBM's Unix licenses in the development of Linux code at IBM. The lawsuit was filed in 2003, it has lingered on through the bankruptcy of SCO Group and the adverse result in SCO v. Novell, and was reopened for continued litigation by order of a new judge on June 14, 2013. Pursuant to the court order reopening the case, an IBM Motion for Summary Judgment was filed based upon the results of the Novell decision. On December 15, 2014, the judge granted most of IBM's motion, thereby narrowing the scope of the case, which remained open. On March 1, 2016, following a ruling against the last remaining claims, the judge dismissed SCO's suit against IBM with prejudice. SCO filed an appeal later that month. In February 2018, as a result of the appeal and the case being partially remanded to the circuit court, the parties restated their remaining claims and provided a plan to move toward final judgement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SCO Group</span> Defunct American software company

The SCO Group was an American software company in existence from 2002 to 2012 that became known for owning Unix operating system assets that had belonged to the Santa Cruz Operation, including the UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, and then, under CEO Darl McBride, pursuing a series of high-profile legal battles known as the SCO-Linux controversies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldera International</span> Defunct American software company

Caldera International, Inc., earlier Caldera Systems, was an American software company that existed from 1998 to 2002 and developed and sold Linux- and Unix-based operating system products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Cruz Operation</span> Software company based in Santa Cruz, California

The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. was an American software company, based in Santa Cruz, California, that was best known for selling three Unix operating system variants for Intel x86 processors: Xenix, SCO UNIX, and UnixWare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unix wars</span> Struggles between Unix vendors to set the standard for Unix

The Unix wars were struggles between vendors to set a standard for the Unix operating system in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNIX System V</span> Early commercial UNIX operating system

Unix System V is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. System V Release 4 (SVR4) was commercially the most successful version, being the result of an effort, marketed as Unix System Unification, which solicited the collaboration of the major Unix vendors. It was the source of several common commercial Unix features. System V is sometimes abbreviated to SysV.

Trusted Operating System (TOS) generally refers to an operating system that provides sufficient support for multilevel security and evidence of correctness to meet a particular set of government requirements.

Beginning in 2003, The SCO Group was involved in a dispute with various Linux vendors and users. SCO initiated a series of lawsuits, the most known of which were SCO v. IBM and SCO v. Novell, that had implications upon the futures of both Linux and Unix. SCO claimed that Linux violated some of SCO's intellectual properties. Many industry observers were skeptical of SCO's claims, and they were strongly contested by SCO's opponents in the lawsuits, some of which launched counter-claims. By 2011, the lawsuits fully related to Linux had been lost by SCO or rendered moot and SCO had gone into bankruptcy. However the SCO v. IBM suit continued for another decade, as it included contractual disputes related to both companies' involvement in Project Monterey in addition Linux-related claims. Finally in 2021 a settlement was reached in which IBM paid the bankruptcy trustee representing what remained of SCO the sum of $14.25 million.


Merge is a software system which allows a user to run DOS/Windows 3.1 on SCO UNIX, in an 8086 virtual machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Monterey</span> 1990s UNIX coalition

Project Monterey was an attempt to build a single Unix operating system that ran across a variety of 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, as well as supporting multi-processing. Announced in October 1998, several Unix vendors were involved; IBM provided POWER and PowerPC support from AIX, Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) provided IA-32 support, and Sequent added multi-processing (MP) support from their DYNIX/ptx system. Intel Corporation provided expertise and ISV development funding for porting to their upcoming IA-64 CPU platform, which was yet to be released at that time. The focus of the project was to create an enterprise-class UNIX for IA-64, which at the time was expected to eventually dominate the UNIX server market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Unix</span>

The history of Unix dates back to the mid-1960s, when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AT&T Bell Labs, and General Electric were jointly developing an experimental time-sharing operating system called Multics for the GE-645 mainframe. Multics introduced many innovations, but also had many problems. Bell Labs, frustrated by the size and complexity of Multics but not its aims, slowly pulled out of the project. Their last researchers to leave Multics – among them Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Doug McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna – decided to redo the work, but on a much smaller scale.

In some versions of the Unix operating system, the term universe was used to denote some variant of the working environment. During the late 1980s, most commercial Unix variants were derived from either System V or BSD. Most versions provided both BSD and System V universes and allowed the user to switch between them. Each universe, typically implemented by separate directory trees or separate filesystems, usually included different versions of commands, libraries, man pages, and header files. While such a facility offered the ability to develop applications portable across both System V and BSD variants, the requirements in disk space and maintenance gave them a problematic reputation. Systems that offered this facility included Harris/Concurrent's CX/UX, Convex's Convex/OS, Apollo's Domain/OS, Pyramid's DC/OSx, Concurrent's Masscomp/RTU, MIPS Computer Systems' RISC/os, Sequent's DYNIX/ptx and Siemens' SINIX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microport Systems</span>

Microport Systems (1985–2002) was a software development group that pioneered a new approach towards software ports that dramatically reduced development costs and, consequently, the price charged for UNIX. Microport created the first ports of AT&T's UNIX System V for the IBM 286 and 386 personal computers, as well as IBM's PS/2 systems. Microport was critical to enabling the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to port its GNU C compiler (gcc) and associated utilities, onto the x86 architecture by donating a complete 386 development system to the Richard Stallman-led group. Microport also played a key role in Kevin Mitnick's first arrest, after he broke into the internal computer networks of both Microport and The Santa Cruz Operation.

Locus Computing Corporation was formed in 1982 by Gerald J. Popek, Charles S. Kline and Gregory I. Thiel to commercialize the technologies developed for the LOCUS distributed operating system at UCLA. Locus was notable for commercializing single-system image software and producing the Merge package which allowed the use of DOS and Windows 3.1 software on Unix systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unix-like</span> Operating system that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system

A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-like application is one that behaves like the corresponding Unix command or shell. Although there are general philosophies for Unix design, there is no technical standard defining the term, and opinions can differ about the degree to which a particular operating system or application is Unix-like.

References

  1. "New Version of IBM DB2 Universal Database". May 17, 1999.
  2. "Emerging Technologies Multi/Parallel Processing" (PDF).
  3. DYNIX/ptx System Administration Guide, Volume 1 (1003-59809-00). Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
  4. "The system we investigated was a NUMA-Q 2000 System from IBM running a proprietary, System V based, operating system DYNIX/ptx."Mohamed Ibrahim; Josef Küng; Norman Revell (2000). Database and Expert Systems Applications: 11th International. ISBN   3540679782.
  5. "SCO pulls second IBM Unix license". CNET.
  6. "IBM drops Intel high-end server". Computerworld. May 13, 2002.
  7. "Sequent "Project Monterey" Road Map". Computerworld. February 1, 1999. p. 28.
  8. "Caldera loads Linux apps on UnixWare". ZDNet .
  9. "Problems managing Sequent Dynix 4.1.4" . Retrieved July 5, 2019.