HP-UX

HP-UX

Developer	Hewlett Packard
Source model	Closed source
Initial release	HP-UX 1.0 (1982)
Latest release	HP-UX 2405.11iv3 (31 May 2024)
Supported platforms	Itanium (formerly m68k, HP FOCUS, PA-RISC)
Kernel type	Monolithic with dynamically loadable modules
User interface	KDE, GNOME, CDE, VUE
License	Proprietary

HP-UX (Hewlett Packard Unix) is an early implementation of the Unix operating system. It was initially based on UNIX System III, and later UNIX System V. It is also the first Unix operating system to offer access-control lists for file access permissions as an alternative to the standard Unix permissions system and the first to include a built-in logical volume manager. Prior to the release of version 11.11, HP used a numbering scheme with the first number giving the major release and the number following the decimal showing the minor release. After version 11.11, the numbering scheme was changed to include 11i (the i indicates the system is internet-enabled) followed by v(decimal number).

Versions

1.0 (1982)

First release for HP 9000 Series 500. HP-UX for Series 500 was substantially different from HP-UX for any other HP machines, as it was layered atop a Series 500 specific operating system called SUNOS (not to be confused with Sun Microsystems' SunOS). Later versions were AT&T System III based and added support for the HP Integral PC (HP 9807A). The kernel runs from ROM; other commands are disk based.

2.0 (1984)

First release for HP's early Motorola 68000-based workstations (HP 9816U, HP 9826U, HP 9836U).

5.0 (1985)

AT&T System V based. Distinct versions were available for the Integral PC, the Series 200/300 and the Series 500. Introduced the proprietary Starbase graphics API for the Series 200, 300 and 500. The Series 300 5.x releases included a proprietary windowing system built on top of Starbase named HP Windows/9000, which was also available as an optional extra for Series 500 hardware.

3.x (1988)

Supported the HP 9000 Series 600/800 only.

6.x (1988)

Support for HP 9000 Series 300 only. Introduced sockets from 4.3BSD. This version (together with 3.x) also introduced the above-discussed context dependent files (CDF), which were removed in release 10 because of their security risks. Version 6.2 added support for X11. Version 6.5 allowed Starbase programs to run alongside X11 programs.

7.x (1990)

Support for HP 9000 Series 300/400, 600/700 (in 7.03) /800 HP systems. Provided OSF/Motif. Final version to include the HP Windows/9000 windowing system.

8.x (January 1991)

Support for HP 9000 Series 300/400 600/700/800 systems. Shared libraries were introduced.

9.xx (July 1992)

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) was presented in 9.00 for the Series 800. Visual User Environment desktop has been added. Support for the HP 9000 Series 300, 700 and 800 systems were implemented. System Administration Manager (SAM) was introduced.

10.0 (1995)

This major release saw a convergence of the operating system between the HP 9000 Series 700 (workstation) and Series 800 (server) systems, dropping support for previous lines. There was also a significant change in the layout in the system files and directories. Applications were removed from /usr and moved under /opt; startup configuration files were placed under /etc/rc.config.d; users were moved to /home from /users.

10.10 (1996)

Introduced the Common Desktop Environment.

10.20 (1996)

Included support for 64-bit PA-RISC 2.0 processors. Support ended on 30 June 2003.

10.30 (1997)

It provided the first support for kernel threads, with a 1:1 thread model.

11.00 (1997)

Symmetric multiprocessing, Fibre Channel, and NFS PV3 were introduced. Support for 64-bit addressing was implemented.

11.11 (2000) – 11i v1

Released in December 2000. Support for Gigabit Ethernet, NFS over TCP/IP, loadable kernel modules, dynamic kernel tunable parameters, kernel event Notifications, and protected stacks were introduced.

11.20 (2001) – 11i v1.5

Added support for Itanium processors.

11.22 (2002) – 11i v1.6

Added more dynamic kernel tunable parameters, and supported HP's Logical Volume Manager on Itanium. It was built from the 11i v1 source code stream.

11.23 (2003) – 11i v2

Released on September 2003. This release includes support for ccNUMA, web-based kernel and device configuration, IPv6, and stronger random number generation.

11.31 (2007) – 11i v3

Released on 15 February 2007. Major new features include native multipathing support, a unified file cache, NFSv4, Veritas ClusterFS, multi-volume VxFS, and integrated virtualization.