QuickTransit was a

cross-platform virtualization Cross-platform virtualization is a form of computer virtualization that allows software compiled for a specific instruction set and operating system to run unmodified on computers with different CPUs and/or operating systems, through a combination ...

program developed by Transitive Corporation. It allowed software compiled for one specific processor and

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 ...

combination to be executed on a different processor and/or operating system architecture without source code or binary changes. QuickTransit was an extension of the Dynamite technology developed by the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

Parallel Architectures and Languages research group, which now forms part of the university's Advanced Processor Technologies research group.

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

announced QuickTransit's first availability in October 2004 on its Prism visualization systems. These systems, based on

Itanium 2 Itanium (; ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). The Itanium architecture originated at Hewlett-Packard (HP), and was later jointly developed by HP and I ...

processors and the

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

operating system, used QuickTransit to transparently run application binaries compiled for previous SGI systems based on the MIPS processor and

IRIX IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...

operating system. This technology was also licensed by

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

in its transition from PowerPC to Intel (x86) CPUs, starting in 2006. Apple marketed this technology as "

Rosetta Rosetta ( ) or Rashid (, ; ) is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Rosetta Stone was discovered there in 1799. Founded around the 9th century on the site of the ancient town of Bolbitine, R ...

". In August 2006,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

announced a partnership with Transitive to run Linux/x86 binaries on its

Power ISA Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...

-based

Power Systems IBM Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines. History IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardwar ...

servers. IBM named this software System p AVE during its beta phase, but it was renamed to

PowerVM Lx86 PowerVM Lx86 was a binary translation layer for IBM's System p servers. It enabled 32-bit x86 Linux binaries to run unmodified on the Power ISA-based hardware. IBM used this feature to migrate x86 Linux servers to the PowerVM virtualized en ...

upon release. In November 2006, Transitive launched QuickTransit for

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

/ SPARC-to-Linux/

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set architecture, instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new ope ...

, which enabled unmodified Solaris applications compiled for SPARC systems to run on 64-bit x86-based systems running Linux. This was followed in October 2007 by QuickTransit for Solaris/SPARC-to-Linux/Itanium, which enabled Solaris/SPARC applications to run on Itanium systems running Linux. A third product, QuickTransit for Solaris/SPARC-to-Solaris/x86-64, was released in December 2007, enabling Solaris/SPARC applications to run on 64-bit x86 systems running Solaris. IBM acquired Transitive in June 2009 and merged the company into its Power Systems division. IBM announced in September 2011 it would discontinue marketing for the PowerVM Lx86 product in January 2012, withdrawing it from sale completely in April 2013. Apple removed Rosetta from Mac OS X starting with

Mac OS X Lion OS X Lion, also known as Mac OS X Lion, (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Speci ...

in 2011. Most of the original team now work for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

in California and

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

in Manchester.

References

External links

*
IBM PowerVM site

IBM PowerVM Lx86 Web page
* *{{cite web , url=http://apt.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ , title=Advanced Processor Technologies research group at the University of Manchester , access-date=May 9, 2018 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730134356/http://apt.cs.man.ac.uk/ , archive-date=July 30, 2012 Virtualization software Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester