IRIX

Infobox_OS
name = IRIX


caption = IRIX 6.5 Desktop
developer = Silicon Graphics
family = Unix
version_number = Varies
source_model = Closed source
working_state = Current
latest_release_version = 6.5.30
latest_release_date = August 16 2006
kernel_type = Monolithic kernel
ui = IRIX Interactive Desktop
license = Proprietary
working_state = Current (EOL)
website = [http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/ SGI IRIX]

IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. Based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions, it is capable of extremely long uptimes, and its XFS file system is regarded as one of the most advanced journaling file systems in the industry.Fact|date=January 2007

The current major version of IRIX is IRIX 6.5 which was released in May 1998. New minor versions of IRIX 6.5 were released every quarter until 2005; since then there have been four further minor releases. Through version 6.5.22, there were two branches of each release: a maintenance release (identified by an "m" suffix to the version number) that included only fixes to the original IRIX 6.5 code, and a "feature" release (with an "f" suffix) that included improvements and enhancements. An overlay upgrade from 6.5.x to the 6.5.22 maintenance release is available for free download, while version 6.5.23 and higher require an active Silicon Graphics support contract, despite only running on Silicon Graphics hardware.

History

The IRIX name was first used around the time of release 3.0 of the operating system for SGI's IRIS 4D series of workstations and servers, in 1988. Previous releases were identified only by the release number prefixed by "4D1-", eg. "4D1-2.2". The 4D1- prefix continued to be used in official documentation to prefix IRIX release numbers.

IRIX 3.x was based on UNIX System V Release 3 with 4.3BSD enhancements, and incorporated the 4Sight windowing system, based on NeWS and IRIS GL. SGI's own Extent File System (EFS) replaced the System V filesystem.cite web
url=http://ryan.tliquest.net/sgi/irix_versions.html
title=History of IRIX
accessdate=2007-11-02
date=2007-01-18]

IRIX 4.0, released in 1991, replaced 4Sight with the X Window System (X11R4), the 4Dwm window manager providing a similar look and feel to 4Sight.

IRIX 5.0, released in 1993, incorporated certain features of UNIX System V Release 4, including ELF-format executables. [cite newsgroup
title = Silicon Graphics announces compliance of MIPS ABI
author = Tracy Perkins
date = 1993-05-25
newsgroup = comp.sys.sgi.announce
id = 1tu614$[e-mail]
url = http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.sgi.announce/msg/a9d6123abddf42d8
accessdate = 2007-11-02] IRIX 5.3 introduced the XFS journaling file system.

In 1994, IRIX 6.0 added support for the 64-bit MIPS R8000 processor, but was otherwise similar to IRIX 5.2. Later 6.x releases supported other members of the MIPS processor family in 64-bit mode. IRIX 6.3 was released for the SGI O2 workstation only. [cite web
url=http://sgistuff.g-lenerz.de/software/irixversions.php
title=SGIstuff : Software : Irix Versions
accessdate=2007-11-02] IRIX 6.4 improved multiprocessor scalability for the Octane, Origin 2000, and Onyx2 systems. The Origin 2000 and Onyx2 IRIX 6.4 was marketed as "Cellular IRIX", although it only incorporated some features from the original Cellular IRIX distributed operating system project. [cite newsgroup
title = Re: Blue Mountain / Origin 2000
author = Dave Olson
date = 1999-11-04
newsgroup = comp.sys.super
id = JQbU3.135$[e-mail]
url = http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.super/msg/5fcdb27da037de98
accessdate = 2007-11-02] IRIX 6.4 had severe reliability issues, limiting its adoption. IRIX development stabilized with IRIX 6.5, released in 1998. The current version of IRIX is 6.5.30, released in August 2006.

Features

IRIX 6 is compliant with UNIX System V Release 4, UNIX 95 and POSIX (including 1e/2c draft 15 ACLs and Capabilities).

IRIX has strong support for real-time disk and graphics I/O. IRIX was one of the first Unix versions to feature a graphical user interface for the main desktop environment. IRIX was widely used in the computer animation industry and for scientific visualization due to its once-large application base.

IRIX was a leader in Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP), scalable from 1 to greater than 1024 processors with a single system image.

IRIX uses the Indigo Magic Desktop, which by default uses the 4Dwm X window manager with a custom look designed using the Motif widget toolkit.

IRIX retirement

SGI announced the end of the MIPS/IRIX-based product line in a press release on 6 September 2006. [cite web
url=http://www.sgi.com/support/mips_irix.html
title=SGI - Services & Support: End of General Availability for MIPS IRIX Products
accessdate=2007-11-02] Production ended on 29 December 2006 with last deliveries in March 2007, except by special arrangement. Support for these products will end no sooner than December 2013. All current SGI computer systems run Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Enterprise Linux Server.

References

See also

*

External links

* [http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/ Overview of information related to the IRIX operating system]
* [http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/init.cgi Technical Publications Library]
* [http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/datasheet.pdf IRIX Datasheet]
* [http://www.siliconbunny.com/ Silicon Bunny - IRIX software and information]
* [http://www.nekochan.net/ Nekochan - IRIX open source software, information and forums]
* [http://www.cepba.upc.es/docs/sgi_doc/SGI_Admin/books/IA_BakSecAcc/sgi_html/index.html IRIX® Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting] Document Number: 007-2862-004 February 1999