Linux

Developer:	Linus Torvalds (creator) and others
Latest release:	2.6.18.3 / 19 November 2006
Use:	Kernel
License:	GNU General Public License
Website:	http://www.kernel.org/

The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel best known for its use in the Linux operating system. Released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and developed by contributors worldwide, Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software. Image File history File links Tux. ... Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a software product. ... Linus Benedict Torvalds (born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ... November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A kernel connects the software and hardware of a computer. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... This page as shown in the AOL 9. ... A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. ... A kernel connects the software and hardware of a computer. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... Free and Open Source Software, also F/OSS or FOSS, is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. ...

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991. At the time, the GNU Project had created many of the components required for a free operating system, but its own kernel, GNU Hurd, was incomplete and unavailable. The BSD operating system had not yet freed itself from legal encumbrances. This left a space for the Linux kernel to fill, and despite the limited functionality of the early versions it rapidly accumulated developers and users. Early on, the Minix community contributed code and ideas to the Linux kernel, and today it has received contributions from thousands of programmers. Linus Benedict Torvalds (born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... The GNU logo, drawn by Etienne Suvasa The GNU Project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. ... GNU Hurd logo Hurd redirects here. ... Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the Unix derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. ... This article is about the operating system in general. ...

History

• April 1991 - Linus Torvalds, then 21 years old, starts working on some simple ideas for an operating system. He starts with a task switcher in 386 assembly and a terminal driver.
• 25 August 1991 - Torvalds posts to comp.os.minix:

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months [...] Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. Intel 80386 DX, 33MHz, foreground The Intel 80386 is a microprocessor which was used as the central processing unit (CPU) of many personal computers from 1986 until 1994 and later. ... Image File history File links Cquote1. ... // Overview The exposed die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor. ... [...] It's mostly in C, but most people wouldn't call what I write C. It uses every conceivable feature of the 386 I could find, as it was also a project to teach me about the 386. As already mentioned, it uses a MMU, for both paging (not to disk yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386 dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies). [...] Some of my "C"-files (specifically mm.c) are almost as much assembler as C. [...] Unlike minix, I also happen to LIKE interrupts, so interrupts are handled without trying to hide the reason behind them.[1]

• September 1991 - Linux version 0.01 is released (10,239 lines of code).
• October 1991 - Linux version 0.02 is released.^[2]
• December 1991 - Linux 0.11 is released. This version is the first that is self-hosted - Linux 0.11 can be compiled under Linux 0.11.
• January 19, 1992 - First post to alt.os.linux newsgroup. ^[3]
• March 31, 1992 - The newsgroup comp.os.linux is created. ^[4]
• March 1992 - Linux version 0.95 is the first to be capable of running the X Window System.
• During the whole of 1993, and early 1994 - 15 development versions 0.99.
• March 14, 1994 - Linux 1.0.0 is released (176,250 lines of code).
• March 1995 - Linux 1.2.0 is released (310,950 lines of code).
• May 9, 1996 - Tux the penguin is suggested as mascot for Linux.
• June 9, 1996 - Linux 2.0.0 is released (777,956 lines of code).
• January 25, 1999 - Linux 2.2.0 is released (1,800,847 lines of code).
• December 18, 1999 - IBM mainframe patches for 2.2.13 published, allowing Linux to be used on enterprise-class machines.
• January 4, 2001 - Linux 2.4.0 is released (3,377,902 lines of code).
• December 17, 2003 - Linux 2.6.0 is released (5,929,913 lines of code).
• April 24, 2006 - Linux 2.6.16.11 is released (6,981,110 lines of code).^[5]

Image File history File links Cquote2. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... KDE 3. ... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... 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 by United Nations. ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... 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 concepts behind Tux, the Linux mascot, were developed in email exchanges on a public mailing list. ... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Old Farts by the Sometimes-United Nations. ... In the Gregorian Calendar, December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years), at which point there will be 13 days remaining to the end of the year. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Old Farts by the Sometimes-United Nations. ... SAS 8 on an IBM mainframe under 3270 emulation An IBM mainframe is a mainframe computer made by IBM. // From 1952 into the late 1960s, IBM manufactured and marketed several large computer models, known as the IBM 700/7000 series. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Pronounciation

In 1992, Torvalds explained how he pronounces the word Linux:

An audio file of Torvalds saying "Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux" can be found here. Note that in English, "Linux" and "Minix" are usually pronounced with a short i (IPA: /ɪ/) sound that is different from Torvalds' Finland Swedish pronunciation of these words. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Areas where Finland-Swedish populations are found shown in yellow Finland-Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Finland-Swedes as a first language. ...

Legal aspects

Licensing terms

Initially, Torvalds released Linux under a license which forbade any commercial exploitation. This was soon changed to the GNU General Public License (GPL). This license allows distribution and even sale of possibly modified versions of Linux but requires that all those copies be released under the same license and be accompanied by source code.

Torvalds has described licensing Linux under the GPL as the "best thing I ever did."^[6]

Firmwares controversy

One point of licensing controversy is the Linux's use of firmware "binary blobs" to support some hardware devices. Richard Stallman claims that these blobs make Linux partially non-free, and that distributing Linux may even be violating the GPL (which requires "complete corresponding source code" to be available).^[7] In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. ... In computer science, a binary blob is an opaque binary object for which no source code is available. ... Richard Matthew Stallman (nickname RMS) (born March 16, 1953) is both an acclaimed activist and hacker. ... Proprietary software is a pejorative term used by the Free Software Foundation to describe software in which the user does not control what it does or cannot study or edit the code, in contrast to free software. ...

GPL version 3

Currently, Linux is licensed under version 2 of the GPL, and there is some controversy over how easily it could be changed to use later GPL versions such as the upcoming version 3 (and whether this is desirable).^[8] Torvalds himself indicated in version 2.4.0 that his own code is only under version 2.^[9] However, the terms of the GPL state that if no version is specified, then any version may be used, and Alan Cox pointed out that very few other Linux contributors have specified a particular version of the GPL.^[10] Alan Cox (born 1968) is a programmer heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel since its early days (1991). ...

Loadable Kernel Modules licensing

It is debated whether Loadable Kernel Modules (LKMs) should be considered derivative works under copyright law, and thereby fall under the terms of the GPL. Torvalds has stated his belief that LKMs using only a limited, "public" subset of the kernel interfaces can sometimes be non-derived works, thus allowing some binary-only drivers and other LKMs not obeying the GPL. Not all Linux contributors agree with this interpretation, however, and even Torvalds agrees that many LKMs are clearly derived works, and indeed he writes that "kernel modules ARE derivative 'by default'". On the other hand Torvalds has also said that "one gray area in particular is something like a driver that was originally written for another operating system (ie. clearly not a derived work of Linux in origin). [...] THAT is a gray area, and _that_ is the area where I personally believe that some modules may be considered to not be derived works simply because they weren't designed for Linux and don't depend on any special Linux behaviour."^[11] Especially proprietary graphics drivers are heavily discussed. Ultimately, such questions can only be resolved by a court. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Trademark

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and some other countries. This is the result of an incident in which William Della Croce, Jr., who was not involved in the Linux project, trademarked the name and subsequently demanded royalties for its use. Several Linux backers retained legal counsel and filed suit against Della Croce, who agreed in 1998 to assign the trademark to Torvalds. A trademark, trade mark, ™ or ®[1] is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the business and its products or services from those of other businesses. ... A royalty is a sum paid to the creator of performance art for the use of that art. ...

SCO litigation

In March 2003, the SCO Group (SCO) filed a lawsuit against IBM claiming that IBM had contributed some portions of SCO's copyrighted Unix source code to Linux in violation of IBM's license to use that Unix source code. Additionally, SCO sent letters to a number of companies warning that their use of Linux without a license from SCO may be a violation of copyright law, and claimed in the press that they would be suing individual Linux users. This controversy has generated lawsuits by SCO against Novell, DaimlerChrysler (partially dismissed in July, 2004), and AutoZone, and retaliatory lawsuits by Red Hat and others against SCO. The SCO-Linux controversies are a series of legal and public disputes between the software company SCO Group (SCO) and various Linux vendors and users. ... The SCO Group, Inc. ... On March 6, 2003, the SCO Group (formerly known as Caldera Systems) filed a $1 billion lawsuit in the US against IBM for allegedly devaluing its version of the UNIX operating system. ... now. ... Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... Novell was also the name of a road bicycle racing team. ... DaimlerChrysler AG headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and Auburn Hills, Michigan (USA), is a prominent automobile and truck manufacturer and financial services provider (through DaimlerChrysler Financial Services). ... AutoZone NYSE: AZO is a Fortune 500 corporation based in Memphis, Tennessee which is engaged primarily in the business of the retail sale of automotive parts and accessories. ... Red Hat, Inc. ...

Technical features

Linux supports true preemptive multitasking (both in user mode and kernel mode), virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, memory management, the Internet protocol suite, and threading. 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... User mode refers to two similar concepts in computer architecture. ... In processors with memory protection, kernel mode (as opposed to user mode) is the mode in which the operating system kernel runs. ... The memory pages of the virtual address space seen by the process, may reside non-contiguously in primary, or even secondary storage. ... Illustration of an application which may use libvorbisfile. ... In computer operating systems, demand paging is a simple method of implementing virtual memory. ... Copy-on-write (sometimes referred to as COW) is an optimization strategy used in computer programming. ... Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. ... The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet and most commercial networks run. ... A thread in computer science is short for a thread of execution. ...

Architecture

Linux is a monolithic kernel. Device drivers and kernel extensions run in kernel space (ring 0), with full access to the hardware, although some exceptions run in user space. The GNU/Linux graphics subsystem (the X Window System) is not part of the kernel, is optional, and runs in user space, in contrast with Microsoft Windows. Graphical overview of a monolithic kernel A monolithic kernel defines a high-level virtual interface over the hardware, with a set of primitives or system calls to implement operating system services such as process management, concurrency, and memory management in several modules that run in supervisor mode. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or a software driver is a specific type of computer software, typically developed to allow interaction with hardware devices. ... In computer engineering the kernel is the core of an operating system. ... A protection ring is one of two or more hardware-enforced levels of privilege within the architecture of a computer CPU. Rings were among the more revolutionary and visible concepts introduced by the Multics operating system, a highly secure predecessor of todays UNIX family of operating systems (however, most... An operating system usually segregates the available system memory into kernel space and user space. ... KDE 3. ... An operating system usually segregates the available system memory into kernel space and user space. ...

Kernel mode preemption means device drivers can be preempted under certain conditions. This latter feature was added to handle hardware interrupts correctly, and to improve support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). Preemption also improves latency, increasing responsiveness and making Linux more suitable for real-time applications. In processors with memory protection, kernel mode (as opposed to user mode) is the mode in which the operating system kernel runs. ... In computing, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal from hardware or software indicating the need for attention. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...

The fact that Linux is not a microkernel was the topic of the famous Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate is a famous debate started in 1992 by Andrew S. Tanenbaum with Linus Torvalds regarding Linux and kernel architecture in general on Usenet discussion group comp. ...

Unlike traditional monolithic kernels, device drivers are easily configured as modules, and loaded or unloaded while running the system. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Kernel panic

Main article: Kernel panic

In Linux, a "panic" is an unrecoverable system error detected by the kernel as opposed to similar errors detected by user space code. It is possible for kernel code to indicate such a condition by calling the panic function located in the header file sys/system.h. However, most panics are the result of unhandled processor exceptions in kernel code, such as references to invalid memory addresses. These are typically indicative of a bug somewhere in the call chain leading to the panic. They can also indicate a failure of hardware, such as a failed RAM cell or errors in arithmetic functions in the processor caused by a processor bug, overheating/damaged processor, or a soft error. The Mac OS X kernel panic alert Kernel panic on a Linux 2. ... An operating system usually segregates the available system memory into kernel space and user space. ... Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of some condition that changes the normal flow of execution. ... A computer bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working as intended, or produces an incorrect result. ... On October 30, 1994, Professor Thomas Nicely who was then at Lynchburg College reported a bug in the Pentium floating point unit. ... In electronics and computing, an error is a signal or datum which is wrong. ...

Programming languages

Linux is written in that version of the C programming language which is supported by GCC (which has introduced a number of extensions and changes to standard C), together with a number of relatively short sections of code written in the assembly language (in GCC's "AT&T-style" syntax) of the target architecture. Because of the extensions to C it supports, GCC was for a long time the only compiler capable of correctly building Linux. Recently, Intel claims to have modified its C compiler so that it is also capable of correctly compiling it.^[12] Wikibooks has a book on the topic of C Programming The C programming language (often, just C) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ... The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of programming language compilers produced by the GNU Project. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ...

Many other languages are used in some way, primarily in connection with the kernel build process (the methods whereby the bootable image is created from the sources). These include Perl, Python, and various shell scripting languages. Some drivers may also be written in C++, Fortran, or other languages, but this is strongly discouraged. Linux's build system only officially supports GCC as a kernel and driver compiler. In the field of computer software, the term software build refers either to the process of converting source code files into executable code or the result of doing so. ... Perl, also Practical Extraction and Report Language (a backronym, see below) is a dynamic procedural programming language designed by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... Python is an interpreted programming language created by Guido van Rossum in 1990. ... A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command interpreter, of an operating system. ... C++ (generally pronounced /si plÊŒs plÊŒs/) is a general-purpose, high-level programming language with low-level facilities. ... Fortran (previously FORTRAN[1]) is a general-purpose[2], procedural,[3] imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. ...

Portability

While not originally designed to be portable, Linux is now one of the most widely ported operating system kernels, running on a diverse range of systems from the iPAQ (a handheld computer) to the IBM System z9 (a massive mainframe server that can run hundreds or even thousands of concurrent Linux instances). Linux runs as the main operating system on IBM's Blue Gene supercomputers. As of June 2006, Linux is the OS on 75% of systems on the Top 500 supercomputers list, including the top two on the list. Torvalds included, perhaps humorously, BogoMips into the kernel as a performance pseudo-comparison tool. In computer science, porting is the adaptation of a piece of software so that it will function in a different computing environment to that for which it was originally written. ... iPAQ presently refers to a Pocket PC and personal digital assistant first unveiled by Compaq in April 2000; the name was borrowed from Compaqs earlier iPAQ Desktop Personal Computers. ... IBM System z9 System z9 is the newest and most powerful line of IBM mainframes. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Blue Gene/L Blue Gene is a computer architecture project designed to produce several next-generation supercomputers, designed to reach operating speeds in the petaflops range, and currently reaching speeds over 280 teraflops (sustained). ... A supercomputer is a computer that leads the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation, at the time of its introduction. ... BogoMips (from bogus and MIPS) are an unscientific measurement of CPU speed made by the Linux kernel when it boots, to calibrate an internal busy-loop. ...

It is important to note that Torvalds' efforts were also directed successfully at a different sort of portability. Portability, according to Torvalds, was the ability to easily compile applications from a variety of sources on his system; thus Linux originally became popular in part because it required the least effort to get popular free software and other open source applications running. A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language, multi-target compiler. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...

Linux supports the following machine architectures:

• Argonaut RISC Core (ARC) from ARC International

• ARM architecture:
  • Acorn Archimedes and Risc PC series
  • DEC StrongARM
  • Marvel (formerly Intel) XScale
  • Sharp Zaurus
  • iPAQ
  • Palm, Inc.'s Tungsten Handheld^[13]
  • Gamepark Holdings' GP2X
  • Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
  • gumstix
  • Nintendo DS via DSlinux

• Atmel AVR32
• Axis Communications' ETRAX CRIS
• Fujitsu FR-V

• Alpha architecture:
  • DEC Alpha
  • Samsung Alpha CPU.

• Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC family

• H8 architecture from Renesas Technology, formerly Hitachi.
  • H8/300
  • H8/500

• Intel IA-64 Itanium, Itanium II.

• IBM's S/390 (31-bit)
• IBM's zSeries and System z9 mainframes (64-bit)

• x86 architecture:
  • 8086, 8088, 80186, 80188 and 80286 CPUs is under development (the ELKS fork)^[14]
  • Intel 80386, 80486, and their AMD, Cyrix, Texas Instruments and IBM variants
  • The entire Pentium series
  • AMD 5x86, K5, K6, Athlon (all 32-bit versions), Duron, Sempron
  • x86-64: AMD's 64-bit processor architecture now known as AMD64 or EM64T (Intel); supported by the Athlon 64, Opteron and Intel Core 2 processors, among others
  • Cyrix 5x86, 6x86 (M1), 6x86MX and MediaGX (National/AMD Geode) series
  • VIA Technologies Eden (Samuel II), VIA C3, and VIA C7 processors
  • Microsoft's Xbox (Pentium III processor), through the Xbox Linux project
  • SGI Visual Workstation (Pentium II/III processor(s) with SGI chipset)
  • Sun Microsystem x86 Workstation (80386 and 80486).

• M32R from Mitsubishi.

• MIPS architecture:
  • Jazz
  • Cobalt Qube, Cobalt RaQ
  • DECstation
  • Godson (MIPS-like), Godson II, and Godson IIE from BLX IC Design Ltd (China).
  • Some PlayStation 2 models, through the PS2 Linux project

• Freescale (formerly Motorola) 68K architecture (68020, 68030, 68040, 68060):
  • Some Amigas: A1200, A2500, A3000, A4000
  • Apple Macintosh II, LC, Quadra, Centris and early Performa series
  • Sun Microsystems 3-series workstations (experimental, uses Sun-3 MMU) ^{[citation needed]}

• NEC v850e^{[citation needed]}

• Power Architecture:
  • IBM Servers.

• PowerPC architecture:
  • IBM's CELL
  • Most newer Apple Computers (all PCI-based Power Macintoshes, limited support for the older NuBus Power Macs)
  • Clones of the PCI Power Mac marketed by Power Computing, UMAX and Motorola
  • Amigas upgraded with a "Power-UP" card (such as the Blizzard or CyberStorm)
  • AmigaOne motherboard from Eyetech Group Ltd (UK)
  • Samantha from Soft3 (Italy).
  • Amy'05 PowerPC motherboard from Troika.
  • IBM RS/6000, iSeries and pSeries systems
  • Pegasos I and II boards from Genesi.
  • Nintendo GameCube, through Gamecube Linux
  • Project BlackDog from Realm Systems, Inc.
  • Sony Playstation 3 (PS3).
  • V-Dragon CPU from Culturecom.
  • Virtex II Pro Field Programmable Array (FPGA) from Xilinx with PowerPC cores.

• SPARC:
  • Sun-4 series^{[citation needed]}
  • SPARCstation/SPARCserver^{[citation needed]}
  • Sun Ultra series
  • Sun Blade
  • Sun Fire
  • Clones made by the Tatung Company and others^{[citation needed]}

• SuperH

ARC International plc is a company that designs computer processors. ... The ARM architecture (previously, the Advanced RISC Machine, and prior to that Acorn RISC Machine) is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture that is widely used in a number of embedded designs. ... The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own 24-bit ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ... The Risc PC (codenamed Medusa) was Acorn Computers Ltds next generation RISC OS/Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched in 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. ... DEC StrongARM SA-110 Microprocessor The StrongARM microprocessor is a faster version of the Advanced RISC Machines ARM design. ... XScale is Intels name for their line of StrongARM-based RISC microprocessors and microcontrollers, which they aquired from DECs Digital Semiconductor division as the side-effect of a lawsuit between the two companies. ... Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 running OpenZaurus and OPIE, with docking cradle and stylus The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) made by Sharp Corporation. ... iPAQ presently refers to a Pocket PC and personal digital assistant first unveiled by Compaq in April 2000; the name was borrowed from Compaqs earlier iPAQ Desktop Personal Computers. ... Palm, Inc. ... Palm Tungsten T5 The Tungsten series was Palm, Inc. ... GamePark Holdings is a Korean company responsible for creating the GP2X that was founded by former employees of the game maker GamePark. ... The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player created and sold by GamePark Holdings of South Korea. ... The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a wireless touchscreen internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York on May 25, 2005. ... Gumstix computer Gumstix is a tradename for a very small SBC (Single-board computer) based on Intel XScale processors (200MHz and 400MHz). ... The Nintendo DS ) (sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, also as iQue DS in China) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in 2004. ... The DSLinux Logo DSLinux is a port of the Linux operating system to the Nintendo DS. It is currently in its early stages. ... Atmel ATMEGA32 microcontroller Atmel AT90S2333 microcontroller Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) is a manufacturer of semiconductors, founded in 1984 by George Perlegos. ... The AVR32 is a 32-bit RISC microprocessor architecture designed by Atmel. ... Axiss products include this webcam, which can be connected directly to a network or the internet, via an RJ45 connector on its rear. ... Axis ETRAX CRIS Family of processors produced by Axis Communications. ... For the district in Saga, Japan, see Fujitsu, Saga. ... This page is about the Fujitsu Microprocessor. ... DEC Alpha AXP 21064 Microprocessor The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp (DEC). ... The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is a very large, global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. ... HP PA-RISC 7300LC Microprocessor PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packards Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hitachi H8. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... In computing, IA-64 (or ia64, short for Intel Architecture-64) is a 64-bit processor architecture developed in cooperation by Intel and Hewlett-Packard, implemented by processors such as Itanium and Itanium 2. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... ESA/390 (Enterprise Systems Architecture/390) is IBMs 31-bit mainframe computing design, copied by Amdahl, Hitachi, and Fujitsu among other competitors. ... Since December, 2001, IBM designates all its mainframes with the name eServer zSeries, with the e depicted in IBMs well-known red trademarked symbol. ... IBM System z9 System z9 is the newest and most powerful line of IBM mainframes. ... In computing, a 64-bit component is one in which data are processed or stored in 64-bit units (words). ... x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... It has been suggested that Microprocessor 8086 be merged into this article or section. ... An Intel 8088 microprocessor The Intel 8088 is an Intel microprocessor based on the 8086, with 16-bit registers and an 8-bit external data bus. ... An Intel 80186 Microprocessor The 80186 architecture. ... The Intel 80188 is a version of the Intel 80186 microprocessor with an 8 bit external data bus, instead of 16 bit. ... An Intel 80286 Microprocessor AMD 80286 with 12 Mhz. ... Categories: Fraternal and Service Organizations ... // Overview The exposed die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor. ... Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... Cyrix corporate logo Cyrix was a CPU manufacturer that began in 1988 as a specialist supplier of high-performance math co-processors for 286 and 386 systems. ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ... Pentium logo, with MMX enhancement The Pentium is a fifth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel. ... AMD 5K86-P90 (SSA/5) Microprocessor The K5 was developed by AMD to compete with Intels Pentium microprocessor range. ... History 1997 saw the arrival of AMDs K6 microprocessor. ... Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic, was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intels competing processors for a significant... The AMD Duron was an x86-compatible computer processor manufactured by AMD. It was released on June 19, 2000 as a low-cost alternative to AMDs own Athlon processor and the Pentium III and Celeron processor lines from rival Intel. ... AMD Sempron Logo Socket-A Sempron 3000+ Sempron is, as of 2006, AMDs entry-level desktop CPU, replacing the Duron processor and competing against Intels Celeron D processor. ... The AMD64 or x86-64 is a 64-bit processor architecture invented by AMD. It is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. ... The Athlon 64 is an eighth-generation, AMD64 architecture microprocessor produced by AMD, released on September 23, 2003[1]. It is the third processor to bear the name Athlon, and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP[2]. The second processor (after the Opteron) to implement AMD64 architecture and the... AMDs Opteron It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a free one. ... Core 2 Duo brand logo Core 2 Extreme brand logo Core 2 is an eighth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor produced by Intel, and is based on an all-new CPU architecture called the Intel Core microarchitecture, which is the successor of the NetBurst microarchitecture that has powered most Intel processors... The Cyrix 6x86 is a sixth-generation, 32-bit 80x86_compatible microprocessor designed by Cyrix and manufactured by IBM and SGS_Thomson. ... Cyrix Media GX Microprocessor Introduced in 1997, the MediaGX CPU was an x86 processor manufactured by designed by Cyrix and manufactured by National Semiconductor. ... VIA Technologies logo VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. ... The VIA C3 is an x86 central processing unit for personal computers produced by VIA Technologies. ... The VIA C3 is an x86 central processing unit for personal computers. ... The Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... The Xbox was a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft, first released on November 15, 2001 in North America, then released on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and on March 14, 2002 in Europe. ... Xbox Linux booting Xbox Linux is a project that ported the GNU/Linux project to the Microsoft Xbox gaming console. ... SGI Visual Workstation 320 The SGI Visual Workstation series was a line of computer workstations manufactured by SGI and designed to run Windows NT and Linux. ... Sun Microsystems (Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... The Renesas M32R is a 32-bit embedded RISC microcontroller originally developed and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, succeeded by a FPGA-implemented MMUed M32R variant named mappi which runs Debian/GNU Linux, and is supported by the GNU Compiler Collection. ... Mitsubishi Logo The Mitsubishi Group ), Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies, all refer to a large grouping of independently operated Japanese companies which share the Mitsubishi brand name. ... A MIPS R4400 microprocessor made by Toshiba. ... The Jazz computer architecture was a motherboard and chipset design originally developed by Microsoft for use in developing Windows NT. The design was eventually used as the basis for most MIPS-based Windows NT systems. ... Cobalt RaQ 550 The Cobalt RaQ is a 1U rackmount server product line developed by Cobalt Networks, Inc. ... A DECstation 5000/120 The DECstation was a brand of computers built by DEC, and refers to two distinct lines of computer systems—the first released in the 1970s as a word processing system, and the second (and more widely known) released in 1989 as computer workstations based on the... The Godson series, or Dragon chip for its origin, is an architecture of general CPUs developed at CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). ... PS2 redirects here. ... The Linux Kit for PlayStation 2 was released by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2002 and included the Linux software, keyboard, mouse, VGA adapter, Network Adaptor (Ethernet only) and a 40 GB hard disk drive (HDD). ... American corporation Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ... The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with Commodore 1080 monitor The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ... An Amiga 1200 with a standard mouse and two external floppy disk drives. ... The Amiga 2500, also known as the A2500, was not a distinct Amiga model, but simply a marketing name for a Commodore Amiga 2000 bundled with a Motorola 68020 or 68030-based accelerator card. ... The Amiga 3000T, a towerized version of the A3000. ... Amiga 4000T The A4000, or Commodore Amiga 4000, was the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... Macintosh II was the first personal computer model of the Macintosh II series in the Apple Macintosh line. ... Macintosh LC sans display, keyboard or mouse The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computers product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. ... Quadra 800 Quadra was the name used by Apple Computer for most of its Macintosh computers built around the Motorola 68040 CPU. The product manager for the Quadra family was Frank Casanova who was also the Product Manager for the Macintosh IIfx. ... The Macintosh Centris 660AV, the last computer to use the Centris name Macintosh Centris was a set of three 1993 Macintosh models that were built around the Motorola 68LC040 and 68040 CPUs. ... A Macintosh Performa 5200, an all-in-one desktop similar to the iMac. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... NEC Corporation (Japanese 日本電気株式会社 Nippon Denki Kabushiki Gaisha; TYO: 6701 , NASDAQ: NIPNY) is a multi-national information technologies company headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. ... The NEC Electronics Corporation V850 is a 32-bit embedded RISC microcontroller originally developed and manufactured by NEC, succeeded by V850 variants named V850E, and V850E2 which run uClinux, and is supported by GNU_Compiler_Collection. ... The Power Architecture logo Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar instruction sets for RISC microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM, Freescale, AMCC, Tundra and P.A. Semi. ... now. ... IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... A cell is a single unit or compartment, enclosed by a border, wall or membrane. ... Power Macintosh, or Power Mac, is the name of a line of Apple Macintosh personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors. ... NuBus is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT as a part of the NuMachine workstation project, and eventually used by Apple Computer and NeXT Computer. ... Power Computing was a short-lived manufacturer of Apple Macintosh-compatible computers. ... Umax, currently a manufacturer of consumer and professional scanners, digital cameras, and a number of Bluetooth networking products, was formerly a maker of Apple Macintosh clones. ... Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is an American international communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. ... AmigaOne is the name used for a series of motherboards for PowerPC CPUs mainly intended to run AmigaOS version 4. ... The IBM pSeries, formerly called RS/6000 (for RISC System/6000), is IBMs current RISC/UNIX-based workstation and server computer line. ... Enterprise class server and the successor to the AS/400. ... The IBM pSeries, formerly called RS/6000 (for RISC System/6000), is IBMs current RISC/UNIX-based workstation computer line. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Nintendo GameCube ) (GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the sixth generation–era. ... Gamecube Linux is a project to port GNU/Linux to the Nintendo GameCube. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Sony PlayStation 3 (colloquially known as the PS3) will be the new video game console in Sonys PlayStation series. ... The Power Architecture logo PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC-processor cores built using Power Architecture technology. ... A field-programmable gate array or FPGA is a gate array that can be reprogrammed after it is manufactured, rather than having its programming fixed during the manufacturing — a programmable logic device. ... Xilinx, Inc. ... Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor ARChitecture) is a pure big-endian RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ... Sun-4 was the name given to a series of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1987. ... Sun SPARCstation 1+ pizzabox, 25mhz RISC processor, early 1990s SPARCstation was the name given to a series of SPARC-based computer workstations developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... SPARCstation was the name given to a series of SPARC-based computer workstations developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... The Sun Ultra series is the name given to a series of UltraSPARC-based computer workstations and servers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... The Sun Blade series was a computer workstation line developed and sold by Sun Microsystems from 2000 to 2006. ... The Sun Fire series is the name given to a a series of UltraSPARC-based computer servers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... Tatung Company is a leader in the design and manufacturing of a vast array of digital consumer products, including consumer PCs, LCD TVs PDPs, network-connected devices, storage-based media players, videophones and home appliances. ... The SuperH (or SH) is a microprocessor architecture. ...

Supported binary formats

Until version 1.2, the a.out binary format was used. Now the default format is ELF, or Executable and Linkable Format. Linux supports many other binary formats. a. ... In computing, the Executable and Linkable Format (ELF, formerly called Extensible Linking Format) is a common standard file format for executables, object code, shared libraries, and core dumps. ...

Versions

Further developing his own code and integrating changes made by other programmers, Linus Torvalds keeps releasing new versions of the Linux kernel. These are called "vanilla" kernels, meaning they have not been modified by anyone. Many Linux operating system vendors modify the kernels of their product, mainly in order to add support for drivers or features which have not officially been released as stable, while some distributions, such as Slackware, rely on vanilla kernels. Slackware was one of the earliest Linux distributions, and is the oldest distribution still being maintained. ...

Version numbering

The version number of the Linux kernel currently consists of four numbers, following a recent change in the long-standing policy of a three-number versioning scheme. For illustration, let it be assumed that the version number is composed thus: A.B.C[.D] (e.g. 2.2.1, 2.4.13 or 2.6.12.3).

• The A number denotes the kernel version. It is changed least frequently, and only when major changes in the code and the concept of the kernel occur. It has been changed twice in the history of the kernel: In 1994 (version 1.0) and in 1996 (version 2.0).

• The B number denotes the major revision of the kernel.
  • Prior to the Linux 2.6.x series, even numbers indicate a stable release, i.e. one that is deemed fit for production use, such as 1.2, 2.4 or 2.6. Odd numbers have historically been development releases, such as 1.1 or 2.5. They were for testing new features and drivers until they became sufficiently stable to be included in a stable release.
  • Starting with the Linux 2.6.x series, there is no significance to even or odd numbers, with new feature development going on in the same kernel series. Linus Torvalds has stated that this will be the model for the foreseeable future.

• The C number indicates the minor revision of the kernel. In the old three-number versioning scheme, this was changed when security patches, bugfixes, new features or drivers were implemented in the kernel. With the new policy, however, it is only changed when new drivers or features are introduced; minor fixes are handled by the D number.

• A D number first occurred when a grave error, which required immediate fixing, was encountered in 2.6.8's NFS code. However, there were not enough other changes to legitimize the release of a new minor revision (which would have been 2.6.9). So, 2.6.8.1 was released, with the only change being the fix of that error. With 2.6.11, this was adopted as the new official versioning policy. Bug-fixes and security patches are now managed by the fourth number, whereas bigger changes are only implemented in minor revision changes (the C number).

Also, sometimes after the version there will be some more letters such as 'rc1' or 'mm2'. The 'rc' refers to release candidate and indicates a non-official release. Other letters are usually (but not always) the initials of a person. This indicates a development branch of the kernel by that person. e.g. ck stands for Con Kolivas, ac stands for Alan Cox, whereas mm stands for Andrew Morton. In mathematics, the parity of an object refers to whether is is even or odd. ... In mathematics, the parity of an object refers to whether is is even or odd. ... Network File System (NFS) is a protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984 and defined in RFCs 1094, 1813, and 3530 (obsoletes 3010), as a distributed file system which allows a computer to access files over a network as easily as if they were on its local disks. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Development stage#Release candidate. ... In software engineering, a project fork or branch happens when a developer (or a group of them) takes a copy of source code from one software package and starts to independently develop a new package. ... Con Kolivas Con Kolivas (born in Melbourne, Australia) is a practicing doctor in Australia. ... Alan Cox (born 1968) is a programmer heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel since its early days (1991). ... Andrew Morton is a Linux kernel developer. ...

The development model for Linux 2.6 was a significant change from the development model for Linux 2.5. Previously there was a stable branch (2.4) where only relatively minor and safe changes were merged, and an unstable branch (2.5), where bigger changes and cleanups were allowed. This meant that users would always have a well-tested 2.4 version with the latest security and bug fixes to use, though they would have to wait for the features which went into the 2.5 branch. The 2.5 branch was then eventually declared stable and renamed to 2.6. But instead of opening an unstable 2.7 branch, the kernel developers elected to continue putting major changes into the 2.6 "stable" branch. This had the desirable effect of not having to maintain an old stable branch, making new features quickly available, and getting more testing of the latest code.

However, the new 2.6 development model also meant that there was no stable branch for people just wanting security and bug fixes, and not needing the latest features. Fixes were only put into the latest version, so if a user wanted a version with all known bugs fixed they would also get all the latest features, which had not been well tested, and risked breaking things which had previously worked. A partial fix for this was the previously mentioned fourth version number digit (y in 2.6.x.y), which are series of point releases created by the stable team (Greg Kroah-Hartman, Chris Wright, maybe others). The stable team only released updates for the most recent kernel however, so this did not solve the problem of the missing stable kernel series. Linux distribution vendors, such as Red Hat and Debian, maintain the kernels which ship with their releases, so a solution for some people is to just follow a vendor kernel. Greg Kroah-Hartman is a Linux kernel hacker. ... Chris Wright is the name of: Chris Wright (Managing Director) of Freehand - Freehands Website Chris Wright (footballer) of Boston United F.C. Chris Wright (producer) of Chrysalis Group Chris Wright (comics artist), author of Grandfather Clause Chris Wright (kickboxer) from the UK Chris Wright (Author) of School Textbooks See... A Linux distribution is a Unix-like operating system comprising the Linux kernel and other assorted free software/open-source software, and possibly proprietary software. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... Debian, organized by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ...

As a response to the lack of a stable kernel tree where people could coordinate the collection of bugfixes, in December of 2005 Adrian Bunk announced that he would keep releasing 2.6.16.y kernels when the stable team moved on to 2.6.17 [1]. He also plans to include driver updates, making the maintainance of the 2.6.16 series very similar to the old rules for maintainance of a stable series such as 2.4 [2].

Maintenance

While Linus Torvalds supervises code changes and releases to the latest kernel versions, he has delegated the maintenance of older versions to other programmers:

Other Linux kernel programmers include Robert Love and Ingo Molnar. (See the Linux MAINTAINERS file). Marcelo Tosatti is a Linux kernel developer. ... Andrew Morton is a Linux kernel developer. ... Linus Benedict Torvalds (born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... Robert Love with a piñata Robert Matthew Love (born September 25, 1981) is an author, speaker, and open source hacker. ... Ingó Molnár, currently employed by Red Hat, is a Hungarian Linux kernel hacker. ...

Stable version history

• Version 1.0 of March 1994 supported only single-processor i386 machines.
• Version 1.2 of March 1995 added support for Alpha, Sparc and MIPS.
• Version 2.0 of June 1996 added support for more processors and included SMP support.
• Version 2.2 of January 1999 (The Wonderful World of Linux 2.2).

• Version 2.4.0 of January 2001^[15]
  • CPU support: Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC processor, Axis Communications' ETRAX CRIS ("Code Reduced Instruction Set") processors
  • added ISA Plug-and-Play
  • added USB and PC Card support
  • 2.4.6: added Bluetooth support
  • Filesystem and data storage
    • added Logical Volume Manager (LVM) version 1
    • support for RAID devices
    • 2.4.15: Support for InterMezzo filesystem were added.

• Version 2.6 - current (December 17, 2003 to the present)^[16]
  • integrated uClinux (for microcontrollers) ^{[citation needed]}
  • CPU support: with support for Hitachi's H8/300 series, the NEC v850, and Motorola's embedded m68k processors, NUMA support, support for NCR's Voyager architecture, support for Intel's hyperthreading and Physical Address Extension (PAE)
  • integrated the ALSA sound driver
  • OS support:
    • Improved APIC support.
    • Increased the maximum number of users and groups each from 65,536 to over 4 billion.
    • Increased the maximum number of process ids from 32,768 to over 1 billion.
    • Increased the maximum number of device types (major device) from 255 to 4095 and the maximum number of devices of each type (minor device) from 255 to more than a million.
    • Improved 64-bit support and filesystems of up to 16 terabytes on common hardware.
    • Improvements to the "overall responsiveness" for interactive processes (the kernel became fully pre-emptible and the I/O scheduler was rewritten).
    • Support for futexes, a rewrite of threading infrastructure to allow the Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL) to be used.
    • An improved module loader.
    • User-mode Linux integration.
    • 2.6.11 Infiniband support
  • Storage Support:
    • LVM version 2
    • support for SGI's XFS filesystem.
    • A new "system filesystem" called sysfs, destined to relieve procfs of its system related information.
    • 2.6.12 (17 June 2005) iSCSI support
    • 2.6.13 inotify support
    • 2.6.14 9P support
    • 2.6.14 FUSE support

Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is a very large, global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. ... PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packards Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. ... Axiss products include this webcam, which can be connected directly to a network or the internet, via an RJ45 connector on its rear. ... Axis ETRAX CRIS Family of processors produced by Axis Communications. ... Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) is a computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers. ... Plug and Play is a term used in the computer field to describe a computers ability to have new devices, normally peripherals, added to it without having to restart the computer. ... The USB (Type A and B) Connectors A USB Series “A” plug Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to interface devices. ... The PCMCIA is the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an industry trade association that creates standards for notebook computer peripheral devices. ... Bluetooth logo Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs), also known as IEEE 802. ... LVM is an implementation of a logical volume manager for the Linux kernel. ... In computing, a redundant array of inexpensive disks, also later known as redundant array of independent disks (commonly abbreviated RAID) is a system which uses multiple hard drives to share or replicate data among the drives. ... InterMezzo is a distributed file system written for Linux, distributed with a GPL licence. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... μClinux (which stands for MicroControllerLinux and is pronounced as you-see-Linux) is a fork of the Linux kernel for microcontrollers (µCs, embedded systems) without a memory management unit (MMU). ... The integrated circuit from an Intel 8742, a 8-bit microcontroller that includes a CPU running at 12 MHz, 128 bytes of RAM, 2048 byte of EPROM, and I/O in the same chip. ... It has been suggested that Hitachi Works be merged into this article or section. ... H8 is the name of a large family of 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers made by Renesas Technology Corp. ... NEC Corporation (Jp. ... The NEC Electronics Corporation V850 is a 32-bit embedded RISC microcontroller originally developed and manufactured by NEC, succeeded by V850 variants named V850E, and V850E2 which run uClinux, and is supported by GNU_Compiler_Collection. ... Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is an American international communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. ... The Motorola 680x0, 0x0, m68k, or 68k family of CISC microprocessor CPU chips were 32-bit from the start, and were the primary competition for the Intel x86 family of chips. ... Non-Uniform Memory Access or Non-Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA) is a computer memory design used in multiprocessors, where the memory access time depends on the memory location relative to a processor. ... NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a technology company specializing in solutions for the retail and financial industries. ... The NCR Voyager was an SMP computer platform produced by the NCR Corporation. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Hyper-Threading (HTT = Hyper Threading Technology) is Intels trademark for their implementation of the simultaneous multithreading technology on the Pentium 4 microarchitecture. ... In computing, Physical Address Extension (PAE) refers to a feature of x86 processors that allows for up to 64 gigabytes of physical memory to be used in 32-bit systems, given appropriate operating system support. ... A screenshot of alsamixer ALSA (an acronym for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System for providing drivers for sound cards. ... The Intel APIC Architecture is a system of Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APICs) designed by Intel for use in Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) computer systems. ... See Filing system for this term as it is used in libraries and offices 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. ... A terabyte (derived from the binary prefix tera-) is a measurement term for data storage capacity equal to 1024 gigabytes. ... Pre-emption as used with respect to operating systems means the ability of the operating system to preempt or stop a currently scheduled task in favour of a higher priority task. ... A futex (short for fast userspace mutex) is a basic tool to realize locking and building higher-level locking abstractions such as semaphores and POSIX mutexes on Linux. ... In the Linux operating system, the Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL) is a software feature that enables the Linux kernel to run programs written to use POSIX Threads very efficiently. ... User-mode Linux (UML) allows multiple virtual Linux systems (known as guests) to run as an application within a normal Linux system (known as the host). ... InfiniBand is a high-speed serial computer bus, intended for both internal and external connections. ... Silicon Graphics, Inc. ... XFS is a high-performance journaling file system created by Silicon Graphics for their IRIX operating system. ... Sysfs is a virtual file system provided by the 2. ... On Unix-like computer systems, procfs is short for process filesystem: a pseudo-filesystem which is used to access kernel information about processes. ... June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is a network protocol standard, officially ratified on 2003-02-11 by the Internet Engineering Task Force, that allows the use of the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP networks. ... inotify is a Linux kernel subsystem that provides file system event notification. ... Client and server implementations of the 9P distributed file system protocol for Unix-based operating systems. ... Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a Free (GPL and LGPLed) Unix kernel module that allows non-privileged users to create their own file systems without the need to write any kernel code. ...

References

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary is a humorous biography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, co-written with David Diamond. ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the computing term. ...

See also

• menuconfig — a tool for configuring Linux prior to building it from source
• Revolution OS — a documentary on the history of Linux featuring several interviews with prominent hackers, including Torvalds

A shortened form of the command make menuconfig, menuconfig is an ncurses-based target for the Linux kernel Makefile. ... Promotional poster for two disc edition of Revolution OS Revolution OS is a documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, Free Software and the Open Source movement. ...

External links

Free software Portal

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Linux kernel

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Inside Linux Kernel

• kernel.org - The Linux Kernel Archives, the official kernel repository
• Linux Kernel HowTo
• Linux kernel install mini-howto
• Kernel Traffic, a summary of the high-traffic Linux kernel mailing list up to 10-Nov-2005
• KernelTrap
• LWN.net kernel page
• Linux Kernel Source Code Viewer
• Linux Kernel Janitor
• Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition
• Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd Edition (Book)
• Linux: The GPL And Binary Modules

The following are to be merged Image File history File links Floss_draft. ... Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ...

• http://web.archive.org/web/19990117070510/www.forbes.com/forbes/98/0810/6203094a.htm
• http://old.lwn.net/2001/features/Timeline/
• http://www.nd.edu/~ljordan/linux/tuxhistory.html
• http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6000
• https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rhasan/linux

CPU Ports

• Alpha
• ARC
• ARM
• IA-64
• Motorola/Freescale 68000
• MIPS
• PA-RISC
• PowerPC
• S/390
• SPARC
• VAX

Linux 2.6

• Upgrade to 2.6 kernel
• The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6; Joseph Pranevich; December 2003
• Understanding the Linux 2.6.8.1 CPU Scheduler; Josh Aas, 17 February 2005
• LinuxChanges