Computer Systems Research Group
Encyclopedia
The Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) was a research group at the University of California, Berkeley
that was dedicated to enhancing AT&T
Unix
operating system
and funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
.
of Berkeley
(University of California
) acquired a UNIX license from AT&T in 1974. Berkeley started to adjust UNIX and distributed their version of UNIX as BSD. In 1980 Professor Fabry signed a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
to develop UNIX even further to accommodate the specific requirements of the ARPAnet
. With the funding of DARPA, Fabry created the Computer Systems Research Group. The BSD Sockets
API and Berkeley Fast File System are some of the most noteworthy innovations of the group.
During the 1970s and 1980s, AT&T
raised the licensing fee for UNIX to $100,000–$200,000. This became a big problem for small research labs and companies who used BSD and the CSRG set up a goal for themselves to replace all the source code that originated from AT&T. They succeeded in 1994, but AT&T didn't agree and took Berkeley to court
. After the settlement in 1994, CSRG distributed its last versions, called 4.4BSD-Lite (BSD-licensed) and 4.4BSD-Encumbered (UNIX-licensed).
The group was disbanded in 1995, though not without leaving a legacy - OpenBSD
, NetBSD
and FreeBSD
are all based on the 4.4BSD-Lite distribution and continue to play an important role in the open-source UNIX community today, including dictating the style of C programming used via KNF
in the style man page.
Together with the Free Software Foundation
and Linux
, the CSRG laid the foundations of the contemporary open source
community.
Noted former members of the CSRG include Keith Bostic
, Bill Joy
and Marshall Kirk McKusick
.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
that was dedicated to enhancing AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military...
.
History
Professor Bob FabryBob Fabry
Bob Fabry, while a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, conceived of the idea of obtaining DARPA funding for a radically improved version of AT&T Unix and started the Computer Systems Research Group.- References :...
of Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
) acquired a UNIX license from AT&T in 1974. Berkeley started to adjust UNIX and distributed their version of UNIX as BSD. In 1980 Professor Fabry signed a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military...
to develop UNIX even further to accommodate the specific requirements of the ARPAnet
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
. With the funding of DARPA, Fabry created the Computer Systems Research Group. The BSD Sockets
Berkeley sockets
The Berkeley sockets application programming interface comprises a library for developing applications in the C programming language that perform inter-process communication, most commonly for communications across a computer network....
API and Berkeley Fast File System are some of the most noteworthy innovations of the group.
During the 1970s and 1980s, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
raised the licensing fee for UNIX to $100,000–$200,000. This became a big problem for small research labs and companies who used BSD and the CSRG set up a goal for themselves to replace all the source code that originated from AT&T. They succeeded in 1994, but AT&T didn't agree and took Berkeley to court
USL v. BSDi
USL v. BSDi was a lawsuit brought in the United States in 1992 by Unix System Laboratories against Berkeley Software Design, Inc and the Regents of the University of California over intellectual property related to UNIX...
. After the settlement in 1994, CSRG distributed its last versions, called 4.4BSD-Lite (BSD-licensed) and 4.4BSD-Encumbered (UNIX-licensed).
The group was disbanded in 1995, though not without leaving a legacy - OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
, NetBSD
NetBSD
NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
are all based on the 4.4BSD-Lite distribution and continue to play an important role in the open-source UNIX community today, including dictating the style of C programming used via KNF
Kernel Normal Form
Kernel normal form, or KNF, is the coding style used in the development of code for the BSD operating systems. Based on the original KNF concept from the Computer Systems Research Group, it dictates a programming style to which contributed code should adhere prior to its inclusion into the codebase...
in the style man page.
Together with the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, the CSRG laid the foundations of the contemporary open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
community.
Noted former members of the CSRG include Keith Bostic
Keith Bostic
Keith Bostic is a computer programmer from the United States.In 1986, Bostic joined the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley. He was one of the principal architects of the Berkeley 4.4BSD and 4.4BSD-Lite releases...
, Bill Joy
Bill Joy
William Nelson Joy , commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003...
and Marshall Kirk McKusick
Marshall Kirk McKusick
Marshall Kirk McKusick is a computer scientist, known for his extensive work on BSD, from the 1980s to FreeBSD in the present day. He was president of the USENIX Association from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2004, and still serves on the board. He is also on the editorial board of...
.