Locus Computing Corporation

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Locus Computing Corporation

Locus Computing Corporation was formed in 1982 by Gerald J. Popek

Gerald J. Popek

Gerald J. Popek was an United States Computer Scientist, known for his research on Operating Systems and virtualization.With Robert P. Goldberg he proposed the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements...

to commercialize the technologies developed for the LOCUS

LOCUS (operating system)

Distributed computing

Distributed computing deals with hardware and software systems containing more than one processing element or Computer data storage element, Concurrent computing processes, or multiple programs, running under a loosely or tightly controlled regime....
operating system

Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
at UCLA. Locus was notable for commercializing single-system image

Single-system image

In distributed computing, a Single system image cluster is a cluster of machines that appears to be one single system.The interest in SSI clusters is based on the perception that they may be simpler to use and administer than more specialized clusters....
software and producing the Merge

Merge (software)

Merge is a software system which allows a user to run DOS/Windows 3.1x on SCO UNIX, in an Intel 8086 virtual machine.Merge was originally developed to run DOS under UNIX System V Release 2 on an AT&T 6300+ personal computer....
package which allowed the use of DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is a shorthand term for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me....
and Windows 3.1 software on Unix

Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
systems.

Locus was acquired by Platinum Technology

Platinum Technology

Platinum Technology Inc. was founded by Andrew Filipowski in 1987 to market and support deployment of database management software products and the applications enabled by database management technology and render related services....
Inc in 1995.

AIX for IBM PS/2 and System/370
LOCUS was commissioned by IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
to produce a version of the AIX

AIX

AIX AIX is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:*Air India Express, the budget arm of Air India*Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point...
UNIX

Unix

PS/2

Not to be confused with the Sony PlayStation 2 also known as the PS2.PS/2 may refer to:* The IBM Personal System/2, a computer released in 1987...
and System/370

System/370

The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the product announcement....
ranges.

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Encyclopedia

Locus Computing Corporation was formed in 1982 by Gerald J. Popek

Gerald J. Popek

LOCUS (operating system)

Distributed computing

Operating system

Single-system image

Merge (software)

DOS

Unix

Platinum Technology

Products

AIX for IBM PS/2 and System/370

LOCUS was commissioned by IBM

IBM

AIX

Unix

PS/2

Not to be confused with the Sony PlayStation 2 also known as the PS2.PS/2 may refer to:* The IBM Personal System/2, a computer released in 1987...
and System/370

System/370

Single-system image

LOCUS (operating system)

LOCUS was a Parallel computing operating system developed at UCLA during the 1980s. It was notable for providing an early implementation of the single-system image idea, where a cluster of machines appeared to be one larger machine....
were incorporated under the name of AIX TCF (transparent computing facility).

OSF/1 AD for the Intel Paragon

LOCUS were commissioned by Intel to produce a multiprocessor version of OSF/1 for the Intel Paragon

Intel Paragon

The Intel Paragon was a series of massively parallel supercomputers produced by Intel. The Paragon XP/S was a productized version of the experimental Touchstone Delta system built at Caltech, launched in 1992....
a massively parallel

Massively parallel

Massively parallel is a description which appears in computer science, life science, medical diagnostics, and other fields.A massively parallel computer is a distributed memory computer system which consists of many individual nodes, each of which is essentially an independent computer in itself, and in turn consists of at least one...
NORMA

Norma

*NORMA , Neumont Object-Role Modeling Architect*Norma , of the southern sky*Norma , applied to feminines and popular girl's name*Norma , a city in the province of Latina, southern Lazio, Italy...
(No Remote Memory Access) system. The system was known as OSF/1 AD, where AD stood for "Advanced Development".

To allow inter processor process migration and communication between the individual nodes of the Paragon system they re-worked the TCF technology from LOCUS

LOCUS (operating system)

LOCUS was a Parallel computing operating system developed at UCLA during the 1980s. It was notable for providing an early implementation of the single-system image idea, where a cluster of machines appeared to be one larger machine....
as Transparent Network Computing, or TNC, inventing the concept of the VPROC (virtual process) an analogy of the VNODE (virtual inode) from the SunOS

SunOS

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....
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....
.

UnixWare NonStop Clusters

LOCUS were commissioned by Tandem Computers

Tandem Computers

Tandem Computers was an early manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems, marketed to the growing number of transaction processing customers who used them for Automatic teller machines, banks, stock exchanges and other similar needs....
to include their TNC technology in a highly available

High-availability cluster

High-availability clusters are computer clusters that are implemented primarily for the purpose of providing high availability of server which the cluster provides....
single-system image

Single-system image

SCO

SCO can refer to:...
UnixWare

UnixWare

UnixWare is a Unix operating system maintained by The SCO Group . Unixware is typically deployed as a Server rather than Desktop computer. Binary distributions of UnixWare are available for x86 architecture computers....
, UnixWare NonStop Clusters

UnixWare NonStop Clusters

NonStop Clusters was an add-on package for SCO UnixWare that allowed creation of fault-tolerant single-system image cluster s of machines running UnixWare....
.

During the course of the project LOCUS were acquired by Platinum Technology

Platinum Technology

Platinum Technology Inc. was founded by Andrew Filipowski in 1987 to market and support deployment of database management software products and the applications enabled by database management technology and render related services....
Inc, who transferred the team working on NonStop Clusters to Tandem.

Tandem were later bought by Compaq

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation was an United States personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard Company....
. The UnixWare product was acquired from SCO by Caldera

Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcano feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption such as the one at Yellowstone National Park....
who discontinued commercialization of the NonStop Clusters product in favor of the simpler Reliant HA system. Compaq then decided to release the NonStop Clusters code as open source software, porting it to Linux

Linux

Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL license...
as the OpenSSI

OpenSSI

OpenSSI is an open source single-system image cluster system. It allows a collection of computers to be treated as one large system, allowing applications running on any one machine access to the resources of all the machines in the cluster....
project.

Merge

Merge (software)

DOS

Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
SVR2 operating system.

The 6300+ used an Intel 80286 processor and included special purpose circuitry to allow virtualization

Virtualization

In computing, platform virtualization is a virtualization of computers or operating systems. It hides the physical characteristics of computing platform from the users, instead showing another abstract, emulated computing platform....
of the 8086 instruction set used by DOS.

Merge was later modified to use the Virtual 8086 mode

Virtual 8086 mode

In the 80386 microprocessor and later, Virtual 8086 mode, also called virtual real mode or VM86, allows the execution of real mode applications that are protected mode#Real_mode_application_compatibility directly in protected mode....
provided by Intel 80386

Intel 80386

The Intel 80386, otherwise known as the i386 or just 386, is a microprocessor which has been used as the central processing unit of many personal computers and workstations since 1986....
processors. It was sold for Microport

Microport

Microport was a Scotts Valley, California-based computer software company which ushered in the era of low-cost UNIX technology. It later moved away from this emphasis; but nonetheless, some claim it played a key role in enabling what later became known as the Free Software movement....
SVR3 and later SCO Unix.