Table of Contents
Tru64 UNIX
Tru64 UNIX was the UNIX operating system for Alpha from Digital, and later from Compaq and HP. It was called DEC OSF/1 until 1995 and Digital UNIX until 1999. 1) The first Alpha release, DEC OSF/1 V1.2, reached customers in March 1993, and the last, V5.1B, in late 2002, followed by patch releases up to V5.1B-6 (see Releases). After acquiring Compaq, HP made HP-UX its UNIX 2) and did not port Tru64 UNIX to Itanium. 3) HP's engineering support ended at the end of 2012, after which it offered Mature Product Support without further releases. 4)
Tru64 UNIX and Linux
Tru64 UNIX and Linux can be installed on the same machine, since both boot from the SRM console; see Operating Systems: Dual booting, which also covers installing aboot on a disk labeled by Tru64 UNIX.
HP did not port vrestore to Linux, so vdump archives can only be restored on a Tru64 system; tar, pax, and cpio archives are portable to Linux. 5) Linux reads Tru64 UNIX disk labels and UFS file systems, but not AdvFS; see Operating Systems: Exchanging files.
Linux 5.17 and earlier could run some Tru64 UNIX programs, such as Netscape and Acrobat, through the kernel's a.out and ECOFF binary support together with Tru64 UNIX shared libraries. 6) Linux 5.18 stopped building that support on Alpha, 7) and Linux 6.1 removed it. 8) Current kernels keep the OSF/1 system calls in the Alpha system call table, but cannot load Tru64 UNIX programs. 9)
Origins and names
DEC OSF/1 was based on the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1 Release 1.0.4. 10) It was renamed Digital UNIX in March 1995, with Version 3.2, 11) and Tru64 UNIX in February 1999, with V4.0F. 12)
Supported systems
The Tru64 UNIX V4.0F Software Product Description lists these supported systems: 13)
- DEC 2000, DEC 3000, DEC 4000, and DEC 7000
- AlphaServer 300, 400, 800, 1000, 1000A, 1200, 2000, 2100, 2100A, 4000, 4100, 8200, 8400, DS20, ES40, GS60, and GS140
- AlphaStation 200, 250, 255, 400, 500, 600, and 600A, the Personal Workstation au series, and the Professional Workstation XP1000
- the AXPpci 33, AXPvme and Alpha VME boards, and the single board computers EB66+, EB164, AlphaPC 64, AlphaPC 164, AlphaPC 164LX, and AlphaPC 164SX
The list omits some systems that V4.0F did support, such as the AlphaServer DS10, 14). Which operating systems each system supports is summarized in Operating Systems: Support by system.
Releases
Lettered releases mostly added support for new hardware. 15) Dates are when a release reached customers in the United States, as reported at the time.
| Version | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DEC OSF/1 V1.2 | March 1993 | First Alpha release. 16) |
| V1.3 | 1993 | 17) |
| V2.0 | March 1994 | 18) |
| V3.0 | August 1994 | 19) |
| Digital UNIX V3.2 | March 1995 | The first release under the Digital UNIX name. 20) |
| V3.2B, V3.2C | 1995 | 21) |
| V3.2D-1, V3.2D-2 | January 1996 | V3.2D-2 added the single board computers. 22) |
| V3.2G | 1996 | Bug-fix release of V3.2C, and the last V3.2 release. 23) |
| V4.0 | April 1996 | 24) V4.0A was a bug-fix release. 25) |
| V4.0C | May 1997 | Intended only for the Personal Workstation au series. 26) |
| V4.0D | 19 January 1998 | Full Year 2000 support. 27) |
| V4.0E | 1998 | The first release to support EV6 processors. 28) |
| Tru64 UNIX V4.0F | 7 May 1999 | Added new EV6 systems. 29) |
| V5.0 | 1999 | Announced in the first week of April 1999. 30) |
| V5.0A | April 2000 | Introduced TruCluster Server. 31) |
| V4.0G | June 2000 | The last V4.0 release. 32) Supported until 30 June 2003. 33) |
| V5.1 | September 2000 | 34) Support ended on 28 February 2003. 35) |
| V5.1A | 5 September 2001 | 36) Prior version support ran from 1 March 2004 to 30 June 2007. 37) |
| V5.1B | late 2002 | Added EV7 support. 38) The first release for which sites without a support contract had to buy an update license. 39) |
| V5.1B-1 to V5.1B-6 | 2004 and later | V5.1B with patch kits and new hardware support. 40) V5.1B-6 is the final release. 41) 42) |
Minimum versions
New hardware generally needed a new release:
| System | Minimum version |
|---|---|
| DEC 3000 Model 600 | DEC OSF/1 V1.3A 43) |
| AlphaServer 2100 | DEC OSF/1 V2.0B 44) |
| AlphaServer 2100A | Digital UNIX V3.2D-2 45) |
| Personal Workstation au series | Digital UNIX V4.0C 46) |
| AlphaServer DS20, GS60, GS140 (EV6) | Digital UNIX V4.0E; V4.0D supports neither the 21264 nor the Tsunami chipset 47) 48) |
| AlphaServer DS10, ES40 | Tru64 UNIX V4.0F 49) 50) |
| AlphaServer ES45 | Tru64 UNIX V5.1A; V4.0G is not supported 51) |
| AlphaServer DS25 | Tru64 UNIX V5.1A with NHD 5 52) |
| AlphaServer DS15 | Tru64 UNIX V5.1A or V5.1B with the latest patch and NHD kit 53) |
| AlphaServer ES47, ES80, GS1280 | Tru64 UNIX V5.1B 54) |
Minimum versions on the OEM motherboards were Digital UNIX 4.0 for the AlphaPC 164, 55) 4.0D for the AlphaPC 164SX and 164LX, 56) 57) and Tru64 UNIX 4.0E for the AlphaPC 264DP. 58)
End of support for older systems
V5.1 is the last release supported on the older DEC-branded systems without PCI buses (the DEC 2000, DEC 4000, and DEC 7000/10000); Compaq recommended V4.0G to their owners because of that release's planned long service life. 59) 60) On the TURBOchannel DEC 3000, V5.0A is the last supported release; 61) V5.1 runs on it without support, and V5.1A, from which all TURBOchannel code was removed, does not run. 62)
Licensing
Compaq, and later HP, sold inexpensive licenses and media for non-commercial use, comparable to the OpenVMS hobbyist program. 63) 64) By 2011 the program had ended, and HP no longer sold hobbyist licenses. 65)
See also
Tru64 UNIX Operating System, Version 4.0F, SPD 41.61.22, Compaq, April 1999, Hardware Support Tables