History
The first version ("OS-9 Level One"), which dates back to 1979–1980, was written in assembly language for the Motorola 6809 CPU, and all of its processes ran within the 64KB address space of the CPU without a memory management unit. It was developed as a supporting operating system for the BASIC09 project, contracted for by Motorola as part of the 6809 development. A later 6809 version ("Level Two") takes advantage of memory mapping hardware, supported up to 2 MB of memory (ca. 1980) in most implementations, and included a GUI on some platforms.
In 1983, OS-9/6809 was ported to Motorola 68000 assembly language and extended (called OS-9/68K); and a still later (1989) version was rewritten mostly in C for further portability. The portable version was initially called OS-9000 and was released for 80386 PC systems around 1989, then ported to PowerPC around 1995. These later versions lack the memory mapping facilities of OS-9/6809 Level Two simply because they do not need them. They used a single flat address space that all processes share; memory mapping hardware, if present, is mostly used to ensure that processes access only memory they have the right to access. The 680x0 and 80386 (and later) MPUs all directly support far more than 1 MB of memory in any case.
As a consequence of early pervasive design decisions taking advantage of the easily used reentrant object code capabilities of the 6809 processor, programs intended for OS-9 are required to be reentrant; compilers produce reentrant code automatically and assemblers for OS-9 offer considerable support for it. OS-9 also uses position-independent code and data because the 6809 also supports it directly; compilers and assemblers support position independence. The OS-9 kernel loads programs (including shared code), and allocates data, wherever sufficient free space is available in the memory map. This allows the entire OS and all applications to be placed in ROM or Flash memory, and eases memory management requirements when programs are loaded into RAM and run. Programs, device drivers, and I/O managers under OS-9 are all 'modules' and can be dynamically loaded and unloaded (subject to link counts) as needed.
OS-9/6809 runs on Motorola EXORbus systems using the Motorola 6809, SS-50 Bus and SS-50C bus systems from companies such as SWTPC, Tano, Gimix, Midwest Scientific, and Smoke Signal Broadcasting, STD-bus 6809 systems from several suppliers, personal computers such as the Fujitsu FM-11, FM-8, FM-7 and FM-77, Hitachi MB-S1 [ jp ], and many others.
System Industries, a third-party provider of DEC compatible equipment, used a 68B09E processor running OS9 in its QIC (quarter-inch cartridge) tape backup controllers in VAX installations.
The best known hardware (due to its low price and broad distribution) was the TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) and the similar Dragon series. Even on the CoCo, a quite minimalist hardware platform, it was possible under OS-9/6809 Level One to have more than one interactive user running concurrently (for example, one on the console keyboard, another in the background, and perhaps a third interactively via a serial connection) as well as several other non-interactive processes. A second processor implementation for the BBC Micro was produced by Cumana. It included on-board RAM, SCSI hard disk interface and a MC68008 processor. [1]
OS-9 was also ported to the Commodore SP-9000 or SuperPET, which had a 6809 in addition to the 6502 of the base 8032 model, as well as 64 KB more. The Toronto PET Users Group sponsored a HW/SW project which included a daughter board with an MMU as well as the OS-9 distribution disks. With two processors, 96 KB, a 25×80 screen and serial, parallel and IEEE-488 ports and many peripherals this was one of the most capable OS-9 systems available.
OS-9's multi-user and multi-tasking capabilities make it usable as a general-purpose interactive computer system. Many third-party interactive applications have been written for it, such as the Dynacalc spreadsheet, the VED text formatter, and the Stylograph and Screditor-3 WYSIWYG word processors. TSC's nroff emulating formatter was ported to OS-9 by MicroWay, as well.
In mid 1980s, OS-9 was selected for the CD-i operating system. Around the same time, Microsoft approached Microware for acquisition of the company primarily because it was attracted by CD-RTOS, the CD-i operating system. The negotiation failed and no deal was made; Microware decided to remain independent.
In late 1980s, Microware released OS-9000, a more portable version of the operating system. The vast majority of the operating system kernel was rewritten in C leaving a handful of hardware-dependent parts in assembly language. A few "more advanced features" were added such as tree-like kernel module name space. OS-9000 was initially ported to the Motorola 680x0 family CPUs, Intel 80386, and PowerPC. The OS-9000/680x0 was a marketing failure and withdrawn very quickly, probably because few customers wanted to try the fatter and slower operating system over the existing OS-9/680x0 proven record of stability. That the Motorola 680x0 family and VME board computer system vendors were nearing their end of life might have affected the unpopularity of OS-9000/680x0. Microware later started calling all of its operating systems — including what had been originally called OS-9000 — simply OS-9, and started shifting its business interest towards portable consumer device markets such as cellphones, car navigation, and multimedia.
In late 1980s and early 1990s, the Character Generators computers used in Broadcast Systems used OS-9 and OS-9000 extensively. The now defunct Pesa Electronica used OS-9 on their CGs such as CG 4722 and CG4733.
Name conflicts and court decisions
In 1999, nineteen years after the first release of OS-9, Apple Computer released Mac OS 9. Microware sued Apple that year for trademark infringement, [2] although a judge ruled that there would be little chance for confusion between the two. Some Macintosh users who are unaware of Microware's lesser known OS-9 have posted to the comp.os.os9 newsgroup not realizing what OS-9 is.
In 2001, RadiSys purchased Microware to acquire the Intel IXP-1200 network processor resources. This acquisition infused Microware with capital and allowed Microware to continue OS-9 development and support.
On February 21, 2013, Microware LP (a partnership formed by Freestation of Japan, Microsys Electronics of Germany and RTSI LLC of the USA) announced that they signed an Asset Purchase Agreement to buy the rights to the names Microware, OS-9 and all assets from RadiSys.
Comparisons with Unix
OS-9's notion of processes and I/O paths is quite similar to that of Unix in nearly all respects, but there are some significant differences. Firstly, the file system is not a single tree, but instead is a forest with each tree corresponding to a device. Second, OS-9 does not have a Unix-style fork() system call—instead it has a system call which creates a process running a specified program, performing much the same function as a fork-exec or a spawn. Additionally, OS-9 processes keep track of two "current directories" rather than just one; the "current execution directory" is where it will by default look first to load programs to run (which is similar to the use of PATH environment variable under UNIX). The other is the current data directory.
Another difference is that in OS-9, grandparent directories can be indicated by repeating periods three or more times, without any intervening slashes (a feature also found in 4DOS/4OS2/4NT/TC). For example, ..../file in OS-9, is similar to ../../../file in Unix. But . and .., with just one or two periods, each work the same in both OS-9 and Unix.
OS-9 has had a modular design from the beginning, influenced by notions of the designers of the 6809 and how they expected software would be distributed in the future (see the three-part series of articles in January-March 1979 Byte by Terry Ritter, et al. of Motorola who designed the CPU).
The module structure requires more explanation: OS-9 keeps a "module directory", a memory-resident list of all modules that are in memory either by having been loaded, or by having been found in ROM during an initial scan at boot time. When one types a command to the OS-9 shell, it will look first in the current module directory for a module of the specified name and will use it (and increase its link count) if found, or it will look on disk for an appropriately named file if not. In OS-9/6809 and OS-9/68000, the module directory is flat, but OS-9000 made the module directory tree-structured. The OS-9000 shell looks in one's alternative module directory for a MODPATH environment variable, analogous to the PATH variable in all versions, indicating the sequence of module directories in which to look for pre-loaded modules.
Modules are not only used to hold programs, but can also be created on the fly to hold data, and are the way in which OS-9 supports shared memory. OS-9/non-68000 supports POSIX threads. A single process can start any number of threads.
