Web site: h30097.www3.hp.com (not active)
Origin: USA
Category: Server
Desktop environment: CLI
Architecture: DEC Alpha
Based on: UNIX
Wikipedia: Tru64 UNIX
Media: Install
The last version | Released: 5.1B-6 | October 1, 2010
Tru64 UNIX (also known as: DEC OSF/1, Digital UNIX) – a commercial Unix-like operating system from the System V family. Based on a Mach microkernel, it supports the 64-bit Alpha microprocessor architecture.
Regular support was discontinued by HP on December 31, 2012. It conforms to the Single UNIX Specification and is therefore allowed to use the name “UNIX” in uppercase.
The operating system (still a 32-bit system) was originally called OSF/1, later it was renamed Digital UNIX (DUNIX) and then received its present name, Tru64 UNIX.
The Tru64 UNIX variant was developed from 1993 for the Alpha processor (a RISC processor with 64-bit architecture). The Alpha processor was introduced by Digital Equipment (DEC) around 1992. When it took over DEC, Compaq took over the Alpha computers and operating system. Compaq merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2002.
With the operating system version 5 of Tru64 UNIX in 2000, the cluster technology of OpenVMS was adopted. With this TruCluster technology, this UNIX variant had the ability for multiple systems (cluster members) to use or manage hard disk and network resources together and to use a common system configuration database.
HP attempted to merge the Unix systems Tru64 UNIX and HP-UX, but this project was abandoned at the end of 2004.
The Advanced File System, or AdvFS for short, is used as the file system under Tru64. HP published the source code of AdvFS from Tru64 UNIX on June 23, 2008 under the GPLv2 for Linux.
Tru64 UNIX is an implementation of OSF/1 (R1.0 to R1.2) and, like this, uses a CMU Mach kernel version 2.5. This also contains a complete 4.3BSD kernel (Berkeley Software Distribution); only from version 3.0 onwards is Mach a complete microkernel. Components from UNIX System V and BSD 4.3 and 4.4 were also used for the operating system. Tru64 UNIX offers support for symmetric multiprocessor systems (SMP) and real-time systems, among other things.
The X Window System version 11 (“X11”) release 6.5 and Motif are used as the graphical interface.
Tru64 UNIX is designed to conform to numerous industry standards defined by the Open Group, including POSIX, while being compatible with System V programs that conform to the System V Interface Definition (SVID) and compatible with the 4.3BSD Application Programming Interface (API).
