Thanks to novel design and Internet-wide support structure, new releases of Unix-like OSs offer engineering performance and media functions tailored to new generation multi-CPU PCs. Although advanced Unix variants (notably Compaq/DEC's Ultrix, HP-UX and Sun's Solaris) provide a breadth of OS features few PC-based operating systems can match, the tide might be changing for those engineering on legacy Unix systems.
The prime PC motivator, Intel's inexorable march towards peak multiprocessor performance, results in multi-Pentium II/Xenon units capable of housing efficient multiprocessing operating systems. Thus, recent releases of BeOS and Linux run significantly faster on multiprocessor Intel and PowerPC hardware compared to their performance on single CPU systems. And as alternative operating systems, they aren't required to include legacy features and can implement performance enhancements that stretch CPU performance while maintaining source-code compatibility across a range of PC platforms. Whether running on a single-processor PowerPC Macintosh or Intel-based multiprocessing hardware, alternative OSs help engineers configure custom systems capable of high-bandwidth audio, video and data-acquisition tasks.
BeOS, which the vendor Be designed from the ground up to implement multi-threaded tasks within a multi-CPU system, provides the most radical implementation of new features. Dubbed the media-OS, it can animate audio, video and communication tasks in real time. The vendor's December release of BeOS R4, which includes versions for both Intel and PowerPC systems as well as a Metrowerk's C/C++ compiler, might prove to be its watershed. However, BeOS Intel has only limited hardware support. To help developers get Be-specific Intel-based systems, BeMachines now offers Dual Pentium II and Quad Xenon systems that it builds from standard components. Unfortunately, the PowerPC future of BeOS is uncertain (currently BeOS PowerPC only runs on pre-G3 MacOS machines), due to Apple Computer's resistance to provide Be with technical specifics on G3 Mac systems.
Designed primarily as a server OS, Linux version 2.2 offers kernel improvements for more-efficient symmetric multiprocessing, faster file access, flexible firewall setup, broader hardware support and remote-system message services. Because of its open source code, Linux users can choose from a variety of hardware platforms, peripheral drivers and OS services. In step with the recent OS update, Computerworld reports that Hewlett Packard will partner with Linux distributor Red Hat Software and port Linux to Intel's 64-bit processor, the IA-64 (Merced).
Futures aside, despite Intel's momentum in supplementing processor speed and multi-CPU connectivity, the architecture's legacy instruction set inevitably complicates development. Keeping pace, IBM has plans for a 580-MHz PowerPC built with its proprietary silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure. And that keeps Apple in the running.
Not to be outdone by Intel platforms, Apple's G3 series of Macintoshes offer top single-processor performance under both Linux and Mac OS X Server (Apple's port of the Next OS). LinuxPPC president Jeff Carr, in an interview with MacCentral, reports that his company has ported Linux to most Apple PowerPC platforms and offers a feature whereby users can boot Linux from the MacOS. Due at the end of this month, the $999 Mac OS X Server runs on any G3 PowerMac, supports UFS disk formats, runs Apache Web Server 1.3.3 and includes Netboot, through which iMacs can boot completely from the OS X Server without requiring an OS on the iMac disk.
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