SunOS
Encyclopedia
SunOS is a version of the Unix
operating system
developed by Sun Microsystems
for their workstation
and server
computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS. These versions were based on BSD
, while SunOS version 5.0 and later are based on UNIX System V Release 4, and are marketed under the brand name Solaris.
SunOS 1 and 2 supported the Sun-2
series systems, including Sun-1
systems upgraded with Sun-2 (68010
) CPU boards. SunOS 3 supported Sun-2 and Sun-3 (68020
) series systems. SunOS 4 supported Sun-2 (until release 4.0.3), Sun-3 (until 4.1.1), Sun386i
(4.0, 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 only) and Sun-4 (SPARC
) architectures. Although SunOS 4 was intended to be the first release to fully support Sun's new SPARC processor, there was also a SunOS 3.2 release with preliminary support for Sun-4 systems.
SunOS 4.1.2 introduced support for Sun's first sun4m-architecture multiprocessor
machines (the SPARCserver
600MP series); since it had only a single lock
for the kernel, only one CPU at a time could execute in the kernel.
The last release of SunOS 4 was 4.1.4 (Solaris 1.1.2) in 1994. The sun4
, sun4c
and sun4m
architectures were supported in 4.1.4; sun4d was not supported.
Sun continued to ship SunOS 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 until December 27, 1998; they were supported until September 30, 2003.
In 1987, AT&T
and Sun announced that they were collaborating on a project to merge the most popular Unix flavors on the market at that time: BSD (including many of the features then unique to SunOS), System V, and Xenix
. This would become System V Release 4 (SVR4).
On September 4, 1991, Sun announced that its next major OS release would switch from its BSD-derived source base to one based on SVR4. Although the internal designation of this release would be SunOS 5, from this point Sun began using the marketing name Solaris. The justification for this new "overbrand" was that it encompassed not only SunOS, but also the OpenWindows
desktop environment and Open Network Computing (ONC) functionality.
Even though the new SVR4-based OS was not expected to ship in volume until the following year, Sun immediately began using the new Solaris name to refer to the currently shipping SunOS 4 release (also including OpenWindows). Thus SunOS 4.1.1 was rebranded Solaris 1.0; SunOS 5.0 would be considered a part of Solaris 2.0. SunOS 4.1.x micro versions continued to be released through 1994, and each of these was also given a Solaris 1.x equivalent name. In practice, these were often still referred to by customers and even Sun personnel by their SunOS release names. Matching the version numbers was not straightforward:
Today, SunOS 5 is universally known as Solaris, although the SunOS name is still visible within the OS itself—in the startup banner, the output of the uname
command, and man page footers, among other places.
Matching a SunOS 5.x release to its corresponding Solaris marketing name is simple: each Solaris release name includes its corresponding SunOS 5 minor version number. For example, Solaris 2.4 incorporated SunOS 5.4. There is one small twist: after Solaris 2.6, the "2." was dropped from the Solaris name and the SunOS minor number appears by itself. The latest Solaris release is Solaris 11
and incorporates SunOS 5.11.
environments bundled with earlier versions of SunOS included SunTools (later SunView
) and NeWS
. In 1989, Sun released OpenWindows
, an OPEN LOOK
-compliant X11-based environment which also supported SunView and NeWS applications. This became the default SunOS GUI in SunOS 4.1.1.
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...
developed by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
for their workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
and server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS. These versions were based on BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
, while SunOS version 5.0 and later are based on UNIX System V Release 4, and are marketed under the brand name Solaris.
History
| SunOS version | Release date | Code base | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun UNIX 0.7 | 1982 | UniSoft UniSoft UniSoft Corporation is a former Unix vendor that now works on software for digital television development and broadcast.- History :UniSoft was founded in 1981, initially working as a Unix porting house, completing over 225 Unix ports to numerous CPU architectures. Its port of Version 7 Unix was the... UNIX v7 Version 7 Unix Seventh Edition Unix, also called Version 7 Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commercialization of Unix by AT&T in the early 1980s... |
Bundled with 68000 Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor... -based Sun-1 Sun-1 Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in May 1982. These were based on a CPU board designed by Andy Bechtolsheim while he was a graduate student at Stanford University and funded by DARPA... system |
| SunOS 1.0 | 1983 | 4.1BSD | Support for 68010 Motorola 68010 The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982. In line with the Motorola 68000 naming convention, it is usually just referred to as the 010 .... -based Sun-1 and Sun-2 Sun-2 The Sun-2 series of UNIX workstations and servers was launched by Sun Microsystems in November 1983. As the name suggests, the Sun-2 represented the second generation of Sun systems, superseding the original Sun-1 series... systems |
| SunOS 1.1 | Apr 1984 | ||
| SunOS 1.2 | Jan 1985 | ||
| SunOS 2.0 | May 1985 | 4.2BSD | Introduced virtual file system Virtual file system A virtual file system or virtual filesystem switch is an abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. The purpose of a VFS is to allow client applications to access different types of concrete file systems in a uniform way... (VFS) layer and the NFS protocol |
| SunOS 3.0 | Feb 1986 | 4.2BSD + System V IPC | coincided with release of 68020 Motorola 68020 The Motorola 68020 is a 32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1984. It is the successor to the Motorola 68010 and is succeeded by the Motorola 68030... -based Sun-3 Sun-3 Sun-3 was the name given to a series of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched on September 9th, 1985. The Sun-3 series were VMEbus-based systems similar to some of the earlier Sun-2 series, but using the Motorola 68020 microprocessor, in combination with the... series. Optional System V tape offered utilities and development libraries. |
| SunOS 3.2 | Sep 1986 | Same as 3.0, plus some 4.3BSD | First support for Sun-4 Sun-4 Sun-4 is a series of Unix workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1987. The original Sun-4 series were VMEbus-based systems similar to the earlier Sun-3 series, but employing microprocessors based on Sun's own SPARC V7 RISC architecture in place of the 68k family... series |
| SunOS 3.5 | Jan 1988 | ||
| SunOS 4.0 | Dec 1988 | 4.3BSD with System V IPC | New virtual memory Virtual memory In computing, virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels. This technique virtualizes a computer architecture's various forms of computer data storage , allowing a program to be designed as though there is only one kind of memory, "virtual" memory, which... system, dynamic linking, automounter Automounter An automounter is any program or software facility which automatically mounts filesystems in response to access operations by user programs. An automounter system utility , when notified of file and directory access attempts under selectively monitored subdirectory trees, dynamically and... , System V STREAMS STREAMS In computer networking, STREAMS is the native framework in Unix System V for implementing character devices.STREAMS was designed as a modular architecture for implementing full-duplex I/O between kernel or user space processes and device drivers. Its most frequent uses have been in developing... I/O. Sun386i Sun386i The Sun386i was a hybrid UNIX workstation/PC compatible computer system produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1988. It was based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor but shared many features with the contemporary Sun-3 series systems.... support. |
| SunOS 4.0.1 | 1988 | ||
| SunOS 4.0.2 | Sep 1989 | Sun386i only | |
| SunOS 4.0.3 | May 1989 | ||
| SunOS 4.0.3c | Jun 1989 | SPARCstation 1 SPARCstation 1 The SPARCstation 1, or Sun 4/60, is the first of the SPARCstation series of SPARC-based computer workstations sold by Sun Microsystems. It had a distinctive slim enclosure and was first sold in April 1989, with Sun's support for it ending in 1995.Based around a LSI Logic RISC CPU running at... (Sun-4c) only |
|
| SunOS 4.1 | Mar 1990 | ||
| SunOS 4.1e | Apr 1991 | Sun-4e only | |
| SunOS 4.1.1 | Mar 1990 | Bundled with OpenWindows OpenWindows OpenWindows was a desktop environment for Sun Microsystems workstations which handled SunView, NeWS, and X Window System protocols. OpenWindows was included in later releases of the operating systems SunOS 4 and Solaris, until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and... 2.0 |
|
| SunOS 4.1.1B | Feb 1991 | ||
| SunOS 4.1.1.1 | Jul 1991 | ||
| SunOS 4.1.1_U1 | Nov 1991 | Sun-3/3x only | |
| SunOS 4.1.2 | Dec 1991 | Support for multiprocessor (SPARCserver 600MP) systems; first CD-ROM-only release | |
| SunOS 4.1.3 | Aug 1992 | ||
| SunOS 4.1.3C | Nov 1993 | SPARCclassic/SPARCstation LX only | |
| SunOS 4.1.3_U1 | Dec 1993 | ||
| SunOS 4.1.3_U1B | Feb 1994 | Earliest release for which Y2K compliance patches were available | |
| SunOS 4.1.4 | Nov 1994 | Last release of SunOS 4 | |
| SunOS 5.x | Jun 1992 - | SVR4 | See Solaris article |
SunOS 1 and 2 supported the Sun-2
Sun-2
The Sun-2 series of UNIX workstations and servers was launched by Sun Microsystems in November 1983. As the name suggests, the Sun-2 represented the second generation of Sun systems, superseding the original Sun-1 series...
series systems, including Sun-1
Sun-1
Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in May 1982. These were based on a CPU board designed by Andy Bechtolsheim while he was a graduate student at Stanford University and funded by DARPA...
systems upgraded with Sun-2 (68010
Motorola 68010
The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982. In line with the Motorola 68000 naming convention, it is usually just referred to as the 010 ....
) CPU boards. SunOS 3 supported Sun-2 and Sun-3 (68020
Motorola 68020
The Motorola 68020 is a 32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1984. It is the successor to the Motorola 68010 and is succeeded by the Motorola 68030...
) series systems. SunOS 4 supported Sun-2 (until release 4.0.3), Sun-3 (until 4.1.1), Sun386i
Sun386i
The Sun386i was a hybrid UNIX workstation/PC compatible computer system produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1988. It was based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor but shared many features with the contemporary Sun-3 series systems....
(4.0, 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 only) and Sun-4 (SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
) architectures. Although SunOS 4 was intended to be the first release to fully support Sun's new SPARC processor, there was also a SunOS 3.2 release with preliminary support for Sun-4 systems.
SunOS 4.1.2 introduced support for Sun's first sun4m-architecture multiprocessor
Multiprocessor
Computer system having two or more processing units each sharing main memory and peripherals, in order to simultaneously process programs.Sometimes the term Multiprocessor is confused with the term Multiprocessing....
machines (the SPARCserver
SPARCstation
The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, deskside and rack-based form factor developed and sold by Sun Microsystems...
600MP series); since it had only a single lock
Lock (computer science)
In computer science, a lock is a synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution. Locks are one way of enforcing concurrency control policies.-Types:...
for the kernel, only one CPU at a time could execute in the kernel.
The last release of SunOS 4 was 4.1.4 (Solaris 1.1.2) in 1994. The sun4
SPARCstation
The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, deskside and rack-based form factor developed and sold by Sun Microsystems...
, sun4c
SPARCstation
The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, deskside and rack-based form factor developed and sold by Sun Microsystems...
and sun4m
SPARCstation
The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, deskside and rack-based form factor developed and sold by Sun Microsystems...
architectures were supported in 4.1.4; sun4d was not supported.
Sun continued to ship SunOS 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 until December 27, 1998; they were supported until September 30, 2003.
"SunOS" and "Solaris"
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...
and Sun announced that they were collaborating on a project to merge the most popular Unix flavors on the market at that time: BSD (including many of the features then unique to SunOS), System V, and Xenix
Xenix
Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed to Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually superseded it with SCO UNIX ....
. This would become System V Release 4 (SVR4).
On September 4, 1991, Sun announced that its next major OS release would switch from its BSD-derived source base to one based on SVR4. Although the internal designation of this release would be SunOS 5, from this point Sun began using the marketing name Solaris. The justification for this new "overbrand" was that it encompassed not only SunOS, but also the OpenWindows
OpenWindows
OpenWindows was a desktop environment for Sun Microsystems workstations which handled SunView, NeWS, and X Window System protocols. OpenWindows was included in later releases of the operating systems SunOS 4 and Solaris, until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and...
desktop environment and Open Network Computing (ONC) functionality.
Even though the new SVR4-based OS was not expected to ship in volume until the following year, Sun immediately began using the new Solaris name to refer to the currently shipping SunOS 4 release (also including OpenWindows). Thus SunOS 4.1.1 was rebranded Solaris 1.0; SunOS 5.0 would be considered a part of Solaris 2.0. SunOS 4.1.x micro versions continued to be released through 1994, and each of these was also given a Solaris 1.x equivalent name. In practice, these were often still referred to by customers and even Sun personnel by their SunOS release names. Matching the version numbers was not straightforward:
| SunOS Version | Solaris Version | OpenWindows Version |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1.1 4.1.1B 4.1.1.1 |
1.0 | 2.0 |
| 4.1.2 | 1.0.1 | 2.0 |
| 4.1.3 | 1.1 SMCC Version A | 3.0 |
| 4.1.3C | 1.1C | 3.0 |
| 4.1.3_U1 | 1.1.1 | 3.0_U1 |
| 4.1.3_U1B | 1.1.1B | 3.0_U1B |
| 4.1.4 | 1.1.2 | 3.0_414 |
Today, SunOS 5 is universally known as Solaris, although the SunOS name is still visible within the OS itself—in the startup banner, the output of the uname
Uname
uname is a software program in Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems that prints the name, version and other details about the current machine and the operating system running on it...
command, and man page footers, among other places.
Matching a SunOS 5.x release to its corresponding Solaris marketing name is simple: each Solaris release name includes its corresponding SunOS 5 minor version number. For example, Solaris 2.4 incorporated SunOS 5.4. There is one small twist: after Solaris 2.6, the "2." was dropped from the Solaris name and the SunOS minor number appears by itself. The latest Solaris release is Solaris 11
Solaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
and incorporates SunOS 5.11.
User interface
GUIGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
environments bundled with earlier versions of SunOS included SunTools (later SunView
SunView
SunView was a windowing system from Sun Microsystems developed in the early 1980s. It was included as part of SunOS, Sun's UNIX implementation; unlike later UNIX windowing systems, much of it was implemented in the system kernel...
) and NeWS
NeWS
NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal...
. In 1989, Sun released OpenWindows
OpenWindows
OpenWindows was a desktop environment for Sun Microsystems workstations which handled SunView, NeWS, and X Window System protocols. OpenWindows was included in later releases of the operating systems SunOS 4 and Solaris, until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and...
, an OPEN LOOK
OPEN LOOK
OPEN LOOK is a graphical user interface specification for UNIX workstations. It was originally defined in the late 1980s by Sun Microsystems and AT&T.-History:...
-compliant X11-based environment which also supported SunView and NeWS applications. This became the default SunOS GUI in SunOS 4.1.1.
See also
- Comparison of BSD operating systemsComparison of BSD operating systemsThere are a number of Unix-like operating systems based on or descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution series of Unix variants. The three most notable descendants in current use are FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, which are all derived from 386BSD and 4.4BSD-Lite, by various routes...
- Comparison of operating systemsComparison of operating systemsThese tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed...
- Unix warsUnix warsThe Unix wars were the struggles between vendors of the Unix computer operating system in the late 1980s and early 1990s to set the standard for Unix thenceforth.- Origins :...