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http://os9al.com Ed# 02-03-15 18:46
/dd/history OS-9 History
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Microware Systems Corporation was founded in 1976 by Ken Kaplan.

  • 1976 - Microware forms then incorporates a year later.
  • 1977 - RT68 released. Microware ad appears in the first issue of Byte magazine.
  • 1980 - OS-9 for the Motorola 6809 processor is released.
  • 1983 - OS-9 is ported to the Motorola 68000 processor.
  • 1989 - OS-9 is rewritten mostly in 'C' for portability. The new version is titled OS-9000 and is released for the IBM-PC 386 as well as 68020 and above processors.
  • 1995 - OS-9000 is ported to the Motorola PowerPC processor.
  • 1996 - Other ports follow including: MIPS, Sparc, SH-3, SH-4, ARM, and StrongARM. (If someone could give me the years each processor port was done, I would appreciate it.)
  • 2000 - Microware begins to produce microcode for Intel's IXP1200 network processor (StrongARM core with microengines). This was significant since the microcode was OS agnostic and could be used without OS-9.
  • 2001 - SH-5 support. MIPS32 support. RadiSys announces it is purchasing Microware. On August 27, Microware becomes "Microware Communications Software Division", a wholly owned subsidiary of RadiSys.
  • 2002 - Ken Kaplan, founder of Microware, retires after 25 years.

There are many other items I would like to include in this timeline. If anyone can help me with dates for the following items, I would be most appreciative:

  • CD-RTOS released (the version of OS-9 inside the CD-i players, techically OS-9/68K v2.4).
  • MPEG video (VCD) support.
  • RAVE - Real-Time Audio Video Environment (GUI toolkit for OS-9).
  • DAVID - Digital Audio Video Interactive Decoder (set top box OS).
  • PC Bridge / Uni Bridge (cross compilers) released.
  • FasTrak (PC/Unix GUI based development environment) released.
  • Hawk (PC GUI based development environment) released.
  • GNU-C ported to OS-9 (68K).
  • OS-9 flies on the Space Shuttle.
  • Radio Shack licenses and releases OS-9 Level 1 for the TRS-80 Color Computer.
  • Radio Shack licenses and releases OS-9 Level 2 for the Tandy Color Computer 3.
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Site contents © 2001-2002 by Allen Huffman. OS-9 and all related trademarks belong to Microware Systems Corporation (or, I guess, RadiSys since they now own Microware). This site has no affiliation with Microware (or RadiSys). While I would like to think that every bit of information on this site is accurate, most likely there are many errors. If you need official information about anything discussed here, go to the manufacturer. I'm just an end user who enjoys the product. Peace.