From sdo@cs.purdue.edu Wed Aug 12 16:50:56 1992 From: sdo@cs.purdue.edu (Shawn Ostermann) Newsgroups: comp.os.xinu Subject: Re: What is XINU? Date: 11 Aug 92 15:33:13 GMT Organization: The Internet Brian> Just wondering if XINU is a free os. i've see the books, but Brian> also heard its a commerical implementaion. what platforms does Brian> it support in any case? ====================================================================== XINU FAQ - V1.0 ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ What is Xinu? ------------------------------------------------------------ Xinu is a small, elegant operating system designed by Douglas Comer at Purdue University. Xinu is a recursive acronym standing for "Xinu Is Not Unix". It was designed in conjunction with and is well documented in the following textbooks: Operating System Design Vol. 1 The Xinu Approach, 1984 By: Douglas Comer ISBN 0-13-637539-1 Operating System Design Vol. 1 The Xinu Approach (PC Edition), 1988 By: Comer & Fossum ISBN 0-13-638180-4 Software ISBN 0-13-638271-1 Operating System Design Vol. 1 The Xinu Approach (Macintosh Edition), 1989 By: Comer & Munson ISBN 0-13-638529-X Software ISBN 0-13-638545-1 Operating System Design Vol. II Internetworking with Xinu, 1987 ISBN 0-13-637414-X Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture, 1991 (2nd Edition) ISBN 0-13-470154-2 Operating System Design Vol. II Internetworking with Xinu, 1987 By: Douglas Comer ISBN 0-13-637414-X Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. II Design, Implementation, and Internals, 1991. By: Comer & Stevens ISBN 0-13-472242-6 Software Title Code 472332 Xinu supports timeslicing, threads (processes executing in the same address space), semaphores (counting and mutex), and asynchronous process communication. ------------------------------------------------------------ What Does Xinu Support? ------------------------------------------------------------ Xinu kernels come in the following versions/flavors: Version 6 V6 was the first public release. It corresponds to the code in Vol. 1 of the textbook. Version for the LSI/PDP family, Sun 3/50, and PC are available. Version 7 V7 Xinu includes the original networking code from Vol. II of the textbook series. It is available for the Sun 3/50. It includes IP routing code and UDP/IP networking code as well as a user shell and a remote file system. Version 7.9 V7.9 is from "Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. II". It is a full TCP/IP implementation. The full kernel is available for the Sun 3/50. Version 8.0 Version 8 Xinu is the current research platform. It is not currently documented in any text. It was originally designed and implemented by Jim Griffioen as part of his PhD research. Current research versions support remote paging, a Unix emulation library, virtual memory, RPC clients, NFS remote file access, SRMP MIB I. Jim's original code is available for the Sun 3/50. Current work is taking place on the DecStation3100/Mips platform. A Sparc port is also under way. ------------------------------------------------------------ How Do I Find Out More? ------------------------------------------------------------ Information about Xinu is exchanged through electronic mail and gatewayed unto a Usenet news group (comp.os.xinu). To have your name added to the mailing list, send to xinu-info-request@cs.purdue.edu. To send mail to the Xinu list, address it to xinu-info@cs.purdue.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------ How Do I Get Xinu? ------------------------------------------------------------ The PC and 7.9 versions of Xinu are most easily available directly through Prentice Hall. Orders for software through Purdue will be send via magnetic media and include a distribution fee. Ordering information for any of the software is available through the mail address "xinu-librarian@cs.purdue.edu". ------------------------------------------------------------ Is Xinu Copyrighted? ------------------------------------------------------------ The source code for Xinu is copyrighted, but we consider it to be in the public domain in the sense that it may be altered for personal use. However, Xinu may not be redistributed without permission from Comer. The C library sources and the UNIX compiler found on some distribution tapes may not be redistributed. We grant permission for anyone to give away Xinu with products. However, because Xinu was developed with some support from the National Science Foundation, you should make it clear that you are charging for the product and not for Xinu itself (i.e., you can only charge for your mods to Xinu or your applications that use it.) I ask people to talk to me before redistributing Xinu just to avoid a problem that happened early on (someone typed in the code >from the book along with many typos, posted it to the net, and I was swamped with calls about bugs). ------------------------------------------------------------ How is Purdue Xinu Related to Mt. Xinu? ------------------------------------------------------------ The Purdue Xinu project and the Mt. Xinu folks at Berkeley both came up with the name at roughly the same time. The 2 projects are unrelated. ------------------------------------------------------------ Is Xinu A Commercial Product? ------------------------------------------------------------ No, Xinu is not a commercial product. It has, however, been used as the base or basis of many products by companies not associated with Purdue University. ------------------------------------------------------------ How Is Xinu Supported? ------------------------------------------------------------ Xinu is not currently a funded project. Dr. Comer and several graduate students and researchers here at Purdue and elsewhere are doing work on the code. We try to answer all the questions that come up on the news group and mailing list, but sometimes they fall between the cracks of our various areas of experience. ------------------------------ FAQ version 1.0 Tue Aug 11, 1992 Shawn Ostermann