NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Copland

Copland was a project at Apple Computer to create an updated version of the Macintosh operating system. It was to have introduced protected memory, multitasking and a number of new underlying operating system features, yet still be compatible with the vast majority of existing Mac software. Begun in 1994, it was abandoned in August of 1996. Starting around 1995 the system was also commonly referred to as System 8 or Mac OS 8, although this name was later re-used for an unrelated operating system. Apple Computer, Inc. ... Mac OS, which stands for Macintosh Operating System, is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh line of computer systems. ... Memory protection is a system that prevents one process from corrupting the memory of another process running on the same computer at the same time. ... Multitasking may refer to: Computer multitasking - the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks by a computers central processing unit. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Background

In 1989, managers at Apple had a meeting to plan the future course of Mac OS development. Ideas were written on index cards; features that seemed simple enough to implement in the short term (like adding color to the user interface) were written on blue cards, while more advanced ideas (like an object-oriented file system) were written on pink cards. Development of the ideas contained on both sets of cards was to proceed in parallel, and the two projects were known simply as "blue" and "pink". Apple intended to have the "blue" team (which came to call themselves the "Blue Meanies" after characters in Yellow Submarine) release an updated version of the existing Macintosh operating system in the 1990–1991 timeframe, and the "pink" team to release an entirely new OS around 1993. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ... In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ... Taligent was the name of an object-oriented operating system and the company dedicated to producing it. ... The Blue Meanies of Apple Computer was an engineering group primarily responsible for the architecture of System 7 during the early 1990s. ... Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated film based on the music of The Beatles. ...

The "blue" team delivered what became known as System 7 only slightly late near the end of 1991, but the "pink" team suffered from second-system effect and continued to slip its release into the indefinite future. Some of the reason for this can be traced to problems that would become endemic as time went on. As 'pink' started to become delayed, engineers on the project jumped ship to work on 'blue' instead. This left the "pink" team constantly struggling for staffing, while upper management ignored the problems. Eventually Apple semi-abandoned the "pink" project by spinning it off to form Taligent. System 7 (codenamed Big Bang) was a version of Mac OS, the operating system of the Apple Macintosh computer. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In computing, the Second-system effect or sometimes, more euphoniously, second-system syndrome is when one is designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant, and successful system, there is a tendency to become grandiose in ones success and design an elephantine feature-laden monstrosity. ... Taligent was the name of an object-oriented operating system and the company dedicated to producing it. ...

Originally intended to support a single user running a single application on a non-networked machine with a floppy disk drive for storage, many parts of the System 7 operating system simply did not scale well to the increasing demands of users. In particular the architecture of QuickDraw made it very difficult to introduce multitasking into the system, and the file system was inefficient for devices with larger storage capacities, such as hard disks. A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a ring of thin, flexible (i. ... Two quickdraws. ... In computing, multitasking is a method by which multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ...

Several attempts were made by various teams to address these issues with an updated operating system, or at least parts of one, but they ran afoul of internal politics and turf wars. John Sculley, Apple's CEO during this period, largely ignored the engineering departments while he concentrated on sales and marketing. Turf war is a term that describes a common problem in larger companies when two divisions fight for access to resources or capital. ... John Sculley (born April 6, 1939) was president of PepsiCo during the 1970s and early 1980s until he became CEO of Apple Computer on April 8, 1983. ...

Design

With System 7.5 released in autumn 1994, Apple management decided that the decade-old Macintosh operating system had run its course. The system not only lacked a number of features expected from a modern OS, but was growing increasingly unstable due to the lack of protected memory. The number of crashes suffered by users was increasing all the time, and was becoming a real concern. An entirely new operating system with more advanced features would be needed for the platform to compete with upcoming releases of Microsoft Windows. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... â€¹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ...

As System 7.5 was code-named "Mozart," the next-generation operating system that was intended to address the looming architectural issues issues was dubbed Copland after composer Aaron Copland. Copland was to run the Mac OS on top of a microkernel named Nukernel, which would basic tasks such as application startup and memory management, leaving all other tasks to a series of semi-special programs known as servers. For instance, networking and file services would not be provided by the kernel itself, but by servers which would be sent requests though interapplication communications. Copland consisted of the combination of Nukernel, various servers, and a suite of application support libraries to provide the well-known Macintosh programming interface. A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. ... Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 â€“ December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. ... Graphical overview of a microkernel A microkernel is a minimal form of computer operating system kernel providing a set of primitives, or system calls, to implement basic operating system services such as address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication. ... NuKernel was a microkernel developed at Apple Computer during the early 1990s. ... The expression Inter-process communication (IPC) describes the exchange of data between one process and another, either within the same computer or over a network. ...

Application services would be offered through a single program known as the blue box, which essentially encapsulated an existing System 7 operating system inside a single process in a single address space. Mac programs would run inside the blue box much as they did under System 7, as 'co-operative tasks' that used non-re-entrant Toolbox calls. A worst-case scenario was that an application in the blue box would crash, taking down the entire box with it. This would not result in the system as a whole going down, and the blue box could be restarted. The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... A computer program or routine is described as reentrant if it is designed in such a way that a single copy of the programs instructions in memory can be shared by multiple users or separate processes. ...

New applications, those written with Copland in mind, would be able to directly communicate with the new servers and thereby gain many advantages in terms of performance and scalability. They could also communicate with the kernel to "spin off" separate applications or threads, which would run as separate processes in protected memory, as in most modern operating systems. However, these separate applications could not use QuickDraw or other non-re-entrant calls, and thus could have no user interface. Apple suggested that larger programs could place their user interface in a normal Macintosh application, which would then start the "work threads" externally. Doing so was not easy, however, as multithreaded code is difficult to write and debug. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (982x555, 10 KB)Simple diagram showing the basic organization of the Copland runtime architechture. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (982x555, 10 KB)Simple diagram showing the basic organization of the Copland runtime architechture. ... Memory protection is a system that prevents one process from corrupting the memory of another process running on the same computer at the same time. ...

Another key feature of Copland was that it would be completely PowerPC "native." System 7 had been recompiled on the PowerPC with great success, but the system still relied on the processor having certain characteristics of a member of the Motorola 68000 processor family. In particular, the sixteen-level interrupt handlers used in the Mac OS had to be emulated, requiring an expensive call into the OS to translate these to the PowerPC's much simpler two-level system. This was true even if the code on either side of the interrupt was PowerPC native, which was increasingly true as more and more of the OS and various applications moved to new compilers. Removing this translation step would allow Copland-native applications to run much faster, as much as 50%, with no special effort on the part of the developers. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Motorola 68000 is a 32 bit CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ... In computer science, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal from hardware or software indicating the need for attention. ...

The challenge in Copland would be getting all of this to fit into an ordinary Mac. System 7.5 already used up about 2.5 megabytes of RAM, and at the time this was a significant portion of all the RAM available in most machines. Copland would be running what was essentially a complete copy of System 7.5 and an entirely separate operating system under it as well. Copland therefore was to use a fiendishly complex memory management system and rely extensively upon shared libraries, with the goal being for Copland to be only some 50% larger than 7.5. In computer science, a library is a collection of subprograms used to develop software. ...

There were also a number of features that were not a part of the the basic Copland system. Notably, Copland did not directly support multithreading in the original Mac OS libraries, although programs could be written that directly interacted with the kernel to get these services (the servers made use of this, for instance). Additionally, Nukernel did not support symmetric multiprocessing, meaning it could not natively utilize more than one processor on a multi-processor system. Both of these features were expected of a modern operating system, but for Copland it was felt that it was more important to get the new API out to developers so they could start moving their applications over to the new system. By the time these capabilities were ready, a good portion of the application base should already be running on the platform. Many programming languages, operating systems, and other software development environments support what are called threads of execution. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...

The plan was that, over time, more and more of the existing non-re-entrant code would be ported to new libraries or servers. Eventually it would become possible that new applications written to these interfaces would be able to be run completely separately as their own tasks. The follow-on system supporting these features became known internally as Gershwin. Gershin was the code name for Apple Computers next-generation operating system that was proposed to follow Apples failed Copland project for the Apple Macintosh platform. ...

Development

Parts of Copland, most notably an early version of the new file system, were demonstrated at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in May 1995. Apple also promised that a beta release of Copland would be ready by the end of the year, for full release in early 1996. Throughout the year, Apple released a number of mock-ups to various magazines showing what the new system would look like, and commented continually that the company was fully committed to this project. By the end of the year, however, the developer release was nowhere in sight. WWDC 2005, at Moscone Center The Worldwide Developers Conference, commonly abbreviated WWDC, is an annual trade show for Apple developers. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

As had happened in the past during the development of Blue/Pink, developers within Apple soon started adbandoning their own projects in order to work on the new system. Middle management and project leaders fought back, by putting their own project "into" Copland in an attempt to ensure it could not be cancelled and their employees "removed" to work on Copland. This process took on momentum over the next year.

Soon the project looked less like a new operating system than a huge collection of new technologies; QuickDraw GX, SOM and OpenDoc became core components of the system, while completely unrelated technologies like a new file management dialog box (the "open dialog") and "themes" support appeared as well. The feature list grew much faster than the features could be completed, a classic case of creeping featuritis. As the "package" grew, any hope of testing it thoroughly became increasingly difficult. Image File history File links Copland_open_file_dialog. ... QuickDraw GX was a replacement for the QuickDraw graphics engine and Printing Manager, initially released in about January 1995. ... The System Object Model is an object-oriented shared library system developed by IBM. A distributed version based on CORBA, DSOM allowed objects on different computers to communicate. ... OpenDoc was a multi-platform software componentry framework standard for compound documents, inspired by the Xerox Star system and intended as an alternative to Microsofts object linking and embedding (OLE). ... The Platinum theme in Mac OS 9 Charcoal was the new default interface font in the Platinum theme, replacing Chicago from System 7 Platinum theme in Copland Hi-Tech theme Gizmo theme In the classic Mac OS, the Appearance Manager controlled the overall look of the Mac GUI widgets and... Creeping featurism, or creeping featuritis, is a phrase used (usually within the sphere of software and information technology) to describe the (often erroneous) idea that more features make a thing or product better than the previous version. ...

At WWDC '96 Apple's new CEO, Gil Amelio, talked exclusively about Copland, now known as Mac OS 8 (the name change from "System" to "Mac OS" was a side-effect of a new licensing program). He repeatedly stated that it was the only focus of Apple engineering. Amelio announced that it would ship to developers only a few months later at the end of the summer, with a full release planned for late fall. Very few, if any, demos of the running system were shown at the conference. Instead what was demonstrated were various pieces of the technology and the user interface that would go into the package, such as a new file management dialog. Little of the technology of the core system was demonstrated; the new file system that had been shown a year earlier was absent here. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... Gil Amelio Gilbert F. Amelio (born March 1, 1943 in New York City) is an American technology executive. ...

After a number of people at the show complained about the lack of sophistication of the microkernel, notably the lack of symmetric multiprocessing, Amelio came back on stage at the end of the show and announced that they would be adding that to the feature list. This implied that the system was nowhere near ready, as such a feature is so fundamental to a kernel that it would be impossible to add it so close to the shipping date. Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...

In August 1996, 'Developer Release 0' was sent to a small number of selected partners. Far from demonstrating improved stability, it often crashed after doing nothing at all, and was completely unusable for development. In October, Apple moved the target delivery date to 'sometime,' hinting that it might be 1997. One of the groups most surprised by the announcement was Apple's own hardware team, who had been waiting for Copland to allow the PowerPC to truly shine. Members of Apple's software QA team suggested, jokingly, that given current resources and the number of bugs in the system they could clear the program for shipping some time around 2030. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Later that summer the situation was no better, and Amelio realized something serious had to be done. He hired Ellen Hancock away from National Semiconductor to take over engineering and get Copland development back on track. Ellen Hancock is a long-time techology manager, noted for her 29-year tenure at IBM where she rose to the position of senior vice president in charge of network hardware and software. ... Categories: Electronics companies of the United States | Companies based in California | Corporation stubs ...

Cancellation

After a few months on the job she realized the situation was hopeless; given current development and engineering, Copland would never ship at all. Additionally she discovered that while developers in the company were aware that Gershwin was to be the "fully modern" follow-on, no one was quite sure what "fully modern" meant exactly, at least in comparison to Copland, nor was anyone assigned to actually work on it.

She suggested that development continue on the existing Mac OS to improve its stability, while looking outside the company for a new operating system. In August 1996, just as 'Developer Release 1' was being prepared, Apple officially cancelled Copland. Among the reasons given were the slow pace of development and the many technical problems remaining to be solved.

Following Hancock's plan, development of System 7.5 continued with a number of technologies originally slated for Copland being rolled into the base OS. Stability and performance was improved by Mac OS 7.6, which dropped the "System" moniker. Eventually many features, including Copland's Platinum GUI and support for "themes", were rolled into Mac OS 8, which was initially planned as Mac OS 7.7. It was renumbered "8" in order to deliver on Apple's promise of having something called Mac OS 8 running on all existing machines. With the return of Steve Jobs, it also accomplished his goal of exploiting a legal loophole to prematurely terminate third-party manufacturers' licenses to System 7 and effectively shut down the Macintosh clone market. Later, Mac OS 8.6 added a nanokernel that could handle preemptive tasks and its interface was Multiprocessing Services 2.x and later, but there was still no process separation, the system still used cooperative multitasking between processes and even a process that was Multiprocessing Services aware still had a portion that run in the blue task, a task that also ran all programs that are not aware of it and the only task that could run 68k code. The Platinum theme in Mac OS 9 Charcoal was the new default interface font in the Platinum theme, replacing Chicago from System 7 In Mac OS terminology, Platinum was the user interface theme that Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 used. ... A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ... Mac OS 8 is a series of versions of the Mac OS that, although they introduced few remarkable new user features, supported a transition through major changes in the Apple Macintosh hardware platform. ... Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is currently the CEO of Apple Computer and is a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. ... The StarMax 3000/160MT, a Macintosh clone manufactured by Motorola. ... Screenshot of Mac OS 8. ...

At the same time, Hancock's other plan was also followed, and Apple started looking for a third-party product to buy. After lengthy discussions with Be and rumors of a merger with Sun Microsystems, many were surprised when Apple bought NeXT Computer in December 1996. The project to port OPENSTEP to the Macintosh platform was named Rhapsody and was eventually released as Mac OS X, which also uses the 'blue box' concept in the form of Classic to run applications written for older versions of Mac OS. BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Incorporated in 1991. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... The NeXT logo, designed by Paul Rand. ... Look up December in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The OPENSTEP desktop. ... a desktop showing a QuickTime movie and a drawing application Rhapsody was the code name given to Apple Computers next-generation operating system during the period of its development between Apples purchase of NeXT in late 1996 and the announcement of Mac OS X in 1998. ... Mac OS X is a proprietary operating system developed and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. ... Classic, or Classic Environment, is a hardware and software abstraction layer in Mac OS X that allows applications compatible with Mac OS 9 to run on the OS X operating system. ...

A number of features seen in Copland demos, including its advanced Find command, built-in Internet browser, and support for video-conferencing, have reappeared in recent releases of Mac OS X. There's also a reference to the project in the anime series Serial Experiments Lain, in which Lain's computer comes with a system called Copland OS. Mac OS X is a proprietary operating system developed and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. ... Serial Experiments Lain is an anime series about an adolescent girl in suburban Japan named Lain Iwakura, and her introduction to the Wired, an international computer network. ...

Contents

Background

Design

Development

Cancellation

See also

External links

Contents

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Design

Development

Cancellation

See also

External links

Background