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= IRIX =
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Introduction
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IRIX ( ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon
Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations
and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In
IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system and the industry-standard
OpenGL graphics API.
History
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SGI originated the IRIX name in the 1988 release 3.0 of the operating
system for the SGI IRIS 4D series of workstations and servers.
Previous releases are identified only by the release number prefixed
by "4D1-", such as "4D1-2.2". The "4D1-" prefix continued to be used
in official documentation to prefix IRIX release numbers. Prior to the
IRIS 4D, SGI bundled the GL2 operating system, based on UniSoft
UniPlus System V Unix, and using the proprietary MEX (Multiple
EXposure) windowing system.
IRIX 3.x is based on UNIX System V Release 3 with 4.3BSD enhancements,
and incorporates the 4Sight windowing system, based on NeWS and IRIS
GL. SGI's own Extent File System (EFS) replaces the System V
filesystem.
IRIX 4.0, released in 1991, replaces 4Sight with the X Window System
(X11R4), the 4Dwm window manager providing a similar look and feel to
4Sight.
IRIX 5.0, released in 1993, incorporates certain features of UNIX
System V Release 4, including ELF executables. IRIX 5.3 introduced the
XFS journaling file system.
In 1994, IRIX 6.0 added support for the 64-bit MIPS R8000 processor,
but is otherwise similar to IRIX 5.2. Later 6.x releases support other
members of the MIPS processor family in 64-bit mode. IRIX 6.3 was
released for the SGI O2 workstation only. IRIX 6.4 improved
multiprocessor scalability for the Octane, Origin 2000, and Onyx2
systems. The Origin 2000 and Onyx2 IRIX 6.4 was marketed as "Cellular
IRIX", although it only incorporates some features from the original
Cellular IRIX distributed operating system project.
The last major version of IRIX is 6.5, released in May 1998. New minor
versions of IRIX 6.5 were released every quarter until 2005, and then
four minor releases. Through version 6.5.22, there are two branches of
each release: a maintenance release (identified by an "m" suffix) that
includes only fixes to the original IRIX 6.5 code, and a feature
release (with an "f" suffix) that includes improvements and
enhancements. An overlay upgrade from 6.5.x to the 6.5.22 maintenance
release was available as a free download, whereas versions 6.5.23 and
higher required an active Silicon Graphics support contract.
A 2001 'Computerworld' review found IRIX in a "critical" state. SGI
had been moving its efforts to Linux and the Windows-based SGI Visual
Workstation but MIPS and IRIX customers convinced SGI to continue to
support its platform through 2006. On September 6, 2006, an SGI press
release announced the end of the MIPS and IRIX product lines.
Production ended on December 29, 2006, with final deliveries in March
2007, except by special arrangement. Support for these products ended
in December 2013 and they will receive no further updates.
Much of IRIX's core technology has been open sourced and ported by SGI
to Linux, including XFS.
In 2009, SGI filed for bankruptcy and then was purchased by Rackable
Systems, which was later purchased by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in
2016. All SGI hardware produced after 2007 is based on either IA-64 or
x86-64 architecture, so it is incapable of running IRIX and is instead
intended for Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
HPE has not stated any plans for IRIX development or source code
release.
Features
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IRIX 6.5 is compliant with UNIX System V Release 4, UNIX 95, and POSIX
(including 1e/2c draft 15 ACLs and Capabilities).
In the early 1990s, IRIX was a leader in Symmetric Multi-Processing
(SMP), scalable from 1 to more than 1,024 processors with a single
system image. IRIX has strong support for real-time disk and graphics
I/O. IRIX was widely used for the 1990s and 2000s in the computer
animation and scientific visualization industries, due to its large
application base and high performance. It still is relevant in a few
legacy applications.
IRIX is one of the first Unix versions to feature a graphical user
interface for the main desktop environment. IRIX Interactive Desktop
uses the 4Dwm X window manager with a custom look designed using the
Motif widget toolkit. IRIX is the originator of the industry standard
OpenGL for graphics chips and image processing libraries.
IRIX uses the MIPSPro compiler for both its front end and back end.
The compiler, also known in earlier versions as IDO (IRIS Development
Option), was released in many versions, many of which are coupled to
the OS version. The last version was 7.4.4m, designed for 6.5.19 or
later. The compiler is designed to support parallel POSIX programming
in C/C++, Fortran 77/90, and Ada. The Workshop GUI IDE is used for
development. Other tools include Speedshop for performance tuning,
and Performance Co-Pilot.
* A stacking window manager
* Uses the Motif widget library
* Applications can be launched via a menu panel
* Window decorations include borders and a titlebar
* The titlebar provides a meta button and facilities to minimize and
maximize windows
* Support for themes
4Dwm
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4Dwm is the window manager component of the IRIX Interactive Desktop
normally used on Silicon Graphics workstations running IRIX. 4Dwm is
derived from the older Motif Window Manager and uses the Motif widget
toolkit on top of the X Window System found on most Unix systems. 4Dwm
on IRIX was one of the first default graphical user interface desktops
to be standard on a Unix computer system. 4Dwm refers to "Fourth
dimension window manager" and has no relation to dwm.
Other X window managers that mimic the 4Dwm look and feel exist, such
as 4Dwm theme for IceWM and 5Dwm which is a clone/compatible
implementation of 4Dwm based on OpenMotif. 5Dwm support both the
classic SGI look and a modern/polished look and feel with anti-aliased
fonts and UTF-8 support.
See also
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* IRIX software
* Silicon Graphics Image format about .iris
External links
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* [https://techpubs.jurassic.nl Technical Publications Mirror]
* [https://www.siliconbunny.com Silicon Bunny - IRIX software and
information]
* [https://irixnet.org IRIX Network - IRIX software, information,
forums, and archive]
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060818192713/http://www.cepba.upc.es/docs/sgi_doc/SGI_Admin/books/IA_BakSecAcc/sgi_html/index.html
IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting] Document Number:
007-2862-004 February 1999
* [https://sgi.sh Silicon Graphics User Group]
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215909/http://4dwm.lumpiarze.nstrefa.pl/
4Dwm theme for Fvwm]
* [https://store.kde.org/p/1457778 Irixium theme for Plasma]
License
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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX