GNU Mach

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GNU Mach is an implementation of the Mach microkernel. It is the default microkernel in the GNU Hurd kernel of the GNU operating system. GNU Mach runs on IA-32 machines, and is expected to be ported to other computers. GNU Mach is maintained by developers on the GNU project. Anybody can use, modify, and redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

1 History
- 1.1 Version history
2 External links
3 References

[edit] History

Early versions of the Hurd were developed on top of CMU's Mach 3.0. ^[1]

In 1994, CMU stopped working on Mach, and the GNU Project switched to Utah's Mach 4. The kernel known as "GNU Mach" was derived from Mach 4 once Utah stopped development. The first ChangeLog entry by Thomas Bushnell (rather than by a Utah researcher) is from 16 Dec 1996. ^[2] ^[3] ^[4]

In 2002, Roland McGrath branched the OSKit-Mach branch from GNU Mach 1.2, intending to replace all the device drivers and some of the hardware support with code from OSKit. After the release of GNU Mach 1.3, this branch was intended to become the GNU Mach 2.0 main line; however, as of 2006, OSKit-Mach is not being developed. ^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

As of 2007, development continues on the GNU Mach 1.x branch, and is working towards a 1.4 release.^[8]

[edit] Version history

Version 1.0 was released on 14 Apr 1997.
Version 1.1.1 was released on 12 May 1997.
Version 1.1.2 was released on 10 Jun 1997.
Version 1.1.3 was released on 12 Jun 1997.
Version 1.2 was released on 21 Jun 1999.
Version 1.3 was released on 27 May 2002, and features advanced boot script support, support for disks larger than 10 gigabytes and an improved console.^[6]