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SunOS is a version of the 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....
 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....
 developed by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. is a multinational corporation vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information technology services, 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)

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs , in the same or other computer. The physical computer that runs a server program is also often referred to as 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 Unix, while SunOS version 5.0 and later are based on UNIX System V Release 4, and are marketed under the brand name Solaris.

le class="wikitable">
SunOS version Release date Code base Description
Sun UNIX 0.71982UniSoft
UniSoft

UniSoft Corporation is a former Unix vendor that now works on software for digital television development and broadcast....
 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....
Bundled with 68000
Motorola 68000

The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit Complex instruction set computer microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor ....
-based Sun-1
Sun-1

Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and Server s 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 1.019834.1BSDSupport for 68010
Motorola 68010

The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982. In common 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 computer workstations and Server s 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 1.1Apr 1984 
SunOS 1.2Jan 1985 
SunOS 2.0May 19854.2BSDIntroduced 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 3.0Feb 19864.2BSD + 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 Server s 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 Motorola 68881 floating-point co-processor...
 series.






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Encyclopedia


SunOS is a version of the 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....
 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....
 developed by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. is a multinational corporation vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information technology services, 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)

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs , in the same or other computer. The physical computer that runs a server program is also often referred to as 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 Unix, 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 0.71982UniSoft
UniSoft

UniSoft Corporation is a former Unix vendor that now works on software for digital television development and broadcast....
 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....
Bundled with 68000
Motorola 68000

The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit Complex instruction set computer microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor ....
-based Sun-1
Sun-1

Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and Server s 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 1.019834.1BSDSupport for 68010
Motorola 68010

The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982. In common 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 computer workstations and Server s 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 1.1Apr 1984 
SunOS 1.2Jan 1985 
SunOS 2.0May 19854.2BSDIntroduced 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 3.0Feb 19864.2BSD + 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 Server s 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 Motorola 68881 floating-point co-processor...
 series. Optional System V tape offered utilities and development libraries.
SunOS 3.2Sep 1986 Same as 3.0, plus some 4.3BSDFirst support for Sun-4
Sun-4

Sun-4 is a series of Unix computer workstations and server s 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 processors of previous Sun models....
 series
SunOS 3.5Jan 1988 
SunOS 4.0Dec 1988 4.3BSD with System V IPC New virtual memory
Virtual memory

Virtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory , while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage....
 system, dynamic linking, automounter
Automounter

An automounter is any program or software facility which automatically mount s filesystems in response to access operations by user programs. These are system utilities which, when notified of file and directory access attempts under selectively monitored subdirectory trees, dynamically and transparently make remote or local devices accessi...
, 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, bidirectional character I/O between kernel or user space processes and device drivers....
 I/O. Sun386i
Sun386i

The Sun386i was a hybrid UNIX computer 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 4.0.11988 
SunOS 4.0.2Sep 1989Sun386i only
SunOS 4.0.3May 1989 
SunOS 4.0.3cJun 1989SPARCstation 1
SPARCstation 1

The SPARCstation 1, or Sun 4/60, is a SPARC-based computer workstation sold by Sun Microsystems as the first of its SPARCstation series. It was sold starting in April 1989, and the end of Sun's support for it was in 1995....
 (Sun-4c) only
SunOS 4.1Mar 1990 
SunOS 4.1eApr 1991Sun-4e only
SunOS 4.1.1Mar 1990Bundled 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 SunOS 4 operating system and the Solaris operating system until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and GNOME 2.0....
 2.0
SunOS 4.1.1BFeb 1991 
SunOS 4.1.1.1Jul 1991 
SunOS 4.1.1_U1Nov 1991Sun-3/3x only
SunOS 4.1.2Dec 1991Support for multiprocessor (SPARCserver 600MP) systems; first CD-ROM-only release
SunOS 4.1.3Aug 1992 
SunOS 4.1.3CNov 1993SPARCclassic/SPARCstation LX only
SunOS 4.1.3_U1Dec 1993 
SunOS 4.1.3_U1BFeb 1994Earliest release for which Y2K compliance patches were available
SunOS 4.1.4Nov 1994Last release of SunOS 4
SunOS 5.xJun 1992 - SVR4See Solaris article


SunOS 1 and 2 supported the Sun-2
Sun-2

The Sun-2 series of UNIX computer workstations and Server s 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 Server s 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 common 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 computer 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 Reduced Instruction Set Computer microprocessor instruction set Computer architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems....
) 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
SPARCstation

The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and server s 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 thread ....
 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 server s 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 server s 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 server s 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"

In 1987, AT&T
AT&T

AT&T Inc. is the largest US provider of both local and long distance telephone services, and Digital subscriber line Internet access. AT&T is the second largest provider of wireless service in the United States, with over 77 million wireless customers, and more than 150 million total customers....
 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 by Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually began distributing it as 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 SunOS 4 operating system and the Solaris operating system until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and GNOME 2.0....
 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 4.1.x / Solaris 1.x / OpenWindows Releases
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 10
Solaris Operating System

Solaris is a Unix-based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS.Solaris is known for its scalability, especially on SPARC systems, and for originating many innovative features such as DTrace and ZFS....
 and incorporates SunOS 5.10.

User interface

GUI
Graphical user interface

A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment....
 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....
. 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 SunOS 4 operating system and the Solaris operating system until its removal in Solaris 9 in favor of Common Desktop Environment and GNOME 2.0....
, an OPEN LOOK
OPEN LOOK

OPEN LOOK is a graphical user interface specification for UNIX computer workstations. It was originally defined in the late 1980s by Sun Microsystems and AT&T....
-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 systems
    Comparison of BSD operating systems

    There are a number of Unix-like operating systems based on or descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution series of Unix variants....
  • Comparison of operating systems
    Comparison of operating systems

    These tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.Due to 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 comparison....
  • Unix wars
    Unix wars

    The 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....


External links

  • (last updated February 17, 2002)