mt Xinu (from the letters in "

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

™", reversed) was a

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

company founded in 1983 that produced two

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s. Its slogan "We know Unix™ backwards and forwards" is an allusion to the company's name and abilities. mt Xinu offered several products: * mt Xinu was a commercially licensed version of the

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), also known as Berkeley Unix or BSD Unix, is a discontinued Unix operating system developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berkeley, beginni ...

operating system for the DEC

VAX VAX (an acronym for virtual address extension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The V ...

. The initial version was based on 4.1cBSD; later versions were based on 4.2 and 4.3BSD. * more/BSD is mt Xinu's version of 4.3BSD-Tahoe for VAX and

HP 9000 HP 9000 is a line of workstation and server (computing), server computer systems produced by the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company. The native operating system for almost all HP 9000 systems is HP-UX, which is based on UNIX System V. The HP 9000 bra ...

, incorporating code from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

's HPBSD. It includes NFS. * Mach386 is a hybrid of Mach 2.5/2.6 and 4.3BSD-Tahoe/Reno for

386 __NOTOC__ Year 386 (Roman numerals, CCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Euodius (or, less frequently, year 1139 ''Ab urbe condita''). ...

and 486-based

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

s. mt Xinu produced interoperability software for

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

and Unix, including an AppleShare server for Unix. The company's principals were

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

students and graduates, including Bob Kridle, Alan Tobey, Ed Gould, and Vance Vaughan. Debbie Scherrer was a later contributor. mt Xinu made light-hearted Unix-themed calendars, including: * ''Command of the Month'' (1987–1988) * ''Lessons in Art'' (1989) * ''Platform of the Year'' (1990) A division of mt Xinu spawned Xinet, which was founded in 1991.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mt xinu Berkeley Software Distribution Mach (kernel) Unix history Defunct software companies of the United States