IRIX
IRIX 6.5 Desktop
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| Developer | Silicon Graphics |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix |
| Working state | Retired (supported until December 2013) |
| Source model | Closed source |
| Initial release | 1988 |
| Final release | 6.5.30 / August 16, 2006 |
| Marketing target | Workstations, servers |
| Platforms | MIPS |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| Default user interface | IRIX Interactive Desktop |
| License | Proprietary |
| Official website | www |
IRIX is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run natively on their MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.
The last major version of IRIX was 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 as a free download, whereas versions 6.5.23 and higher require an active Silicon Graphics support contract, despite only running on Silicon Graphics hardware.
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-", e.g. "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.
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.
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