| Windows NT 3. 1 | |
| (Part of the Microsoft Windows family) | |
| Screenshot | |
 Windows NT 3. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. 1 desktop | |
| Developer | |
| Microsoft | |
| Release information | |
| Release date: | July 27, 1993 |
| Current version: | 3. Events 1214 - Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) 10. 528 SP3, November 10, 1994 |
| Source model: | Closed source |
| License: | Microsoft EULA |
| Kernel type: | Hybrid kernel |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported as of December 31, 2001 | |
Windows NT 3. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS Hybrid kernel is a kernel architecture based on combining aspects of Microkernel and Monolithic kernel architectures used in Computer Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. 1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on July 27, 1993. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Events 1214 - Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of the similar visual appearance of the user interface. In computing an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a Command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Two editions of NT 3. 1 were made available, Windows NT 3. 1 and Windows NT Advanced Server. It was succeeded by Windows NT 3.5 in September 1994. Windows NT 35 is the second release of the Microsoft Windows NT Operating system.
It could run on Intel x86, DEC Alpha, and MIPS R4000 CPUs. See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed MIPS (originally an acronym for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) is a RISC microprocessor architecture developed by MIPS Technologies
Contents |
Development
- See also: History of Microsoft Windows
Development of Windows NT started in November 1988, after Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler. In 1983 Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a Graphical user interface (GUI for its own Operating system ( MS-DOS) that had shipped Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry David Neil Cutler Sr (born March 13, 1942) is a noted American Software engineer, designer and developer Many elements of the design reflect earlier DEC experience with VMS and RSX-11. Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server RSX-11 is a family of Real-time operating systems mainly for PDP-11 computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC common in the late 1970s The operating system was designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures and multiple hardware platforms within each architecture. An instruction set is a list of all the instructions and all their variations that a processor can execute The platform dependencies are largely hidden from the rest of the system by a kernel mode module called the HAL. A hardware abstraction layer ( HAL) is an Abstraction layer, implemented in software between the physical hardware of a Computer and
Windows NT was originally intended to be OS/2 3. OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively 0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology When Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990, it was so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still-unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. Windows 30 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, and came out on 22 May 1990 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of Application programming interfaces (APIs available in the Microsoft Windows Operating This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM, and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone, while Microsoft continued work on the newly-renamed Windows NT.
The first public demonstration of Windows NT, at the time called "Windows Advanced Server for Lan Manager", was at a developer conference in August 1991,[1] and the product was formally announced at the Spring 1993 Comdex in Atlanta, Georgia.
Application programming interfaces in Windows NT are implemented as subsystems atop the undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. The Native API (with capitalized N is the publicly incompletely documented Application programming interface used internally by the Windows NT family of Operating Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's Windows NT introduced the Win32 API, a 32-bit implementation of the 16-bit Windows API. The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of Application programming interfaces (APIs available in the Microsoft Windows Operating Most 16-bit Windows applications could be ported to the new system with minimal changes and a recompile. Win32 also provided native API support for many new features, such as networking and multithreading.
The project had a codename of just "NT OS", which is preserved in the filename of the Windows NT kernel, ntoskrnl. A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word exe. Since it was targeted to become the next version of OS/2, a more official name of the project was "NT OS/2". This name is preserved up to now in some Windows NT driver development kit files. A software development kit ( SDK or " devkit " is typically a set of development tools that allows a Software engineer to create applications
System Support
NT was designed from the ground up to be portable to other platforms. All kernel and subsystem code was written in C/C++. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured C++ (" C Plus Plus " ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs is a general-purpose Programming language. Any differences in core hardware architecture that could not be resolved by a simple recompile (e. g. memory architecture, multi/uniprocessor support, etc) were offloaded to the HAL. A hardware abstraction layer ( HAL) is an Abstraction layer, implemented in software between the physical hardware of a Computer and
Also, NT's boot architecture borrowed heavily from the ARC initiative, particularly on non-x86 platforms. not to be confused with Advanced RISC Machines Advanced RISC Computing ( ARC) is a specification promulgated
i860
Originally, NT was targeted at the Intel i860 CPU, codenamed N10 (or "N-Ten"). The Intel i860 (also 80860) was a RISC Microprocessor from Intel, first released in 1989. However, the i860 was "horribly behind schedule", so the NT team used an emulator before i860 prototype systems designed in-house (code-named Dazzle) was available. Support for the other platforms followed later and no public release of NT for i860 systems was made. The rationale for targeting the i860 first was to improve portability and avoid producing an x86-centric design. [2]
x86
NT 3. 1 supported the Intel x86 32-bit family (80386 and later). Compared to 16-bit Windows 3. x, NT's driver support was somewhat limited, but most 386 and 486 machines could run NT at least minimally.
MIPS
Windows NT also supported the MIPS R4000 processor; specifically MIPS systems following the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) specification. MIPS (originally an acronym for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) is a RISC microprocessor architecture developed by MIPS Technologies not to be confused with Advanced RISC Machines Advanced RISC Computing ( ARC) is a specification promulgated
Alpha
Early in the NT beta cycle, support was added for the DEC Alpha processor. Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed However, because the Alpha itself wasn't released, Microsoft's developers didn't have access to production Alpha machines to develop on until shortly before NT shipped. Thus, NT didn't initially ship with Alpha support out of the box: the first packages of NT included a mail-in coupon to receive a free CD of NT 3. 1 with Alpha support.
Application Compatibility
16-bit Windows
Windows NT provided a 16-bit compatibility subsystem, called "Windows on Windows" (aka WOW), which allowed most Windows 3. Windows on Windows, commonly referred to as WOW or WoW, is a critical component for Backward compatibility of Legacy code in Windows NT x applications to run unmodified on NT. Applications which made direct access to hardware, or depended on DOS-level drivers, were not supported.
In NT 3. 1, all 16-bit applications ran within a single WOW process. This meant that a single badly-behaving 16-bit application could shut down the WOW session (and any other 16-bit applications running). However, the operating system itself was insulated, so the WOW process could simply be killed and restarted — a significant step forward for Windows' stability.
32-bit Windows
NT also introduced Win32, a 32-bit implementation of the Windows API. The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of Application programming interfaces (APIs available in the Microsoft Windows Operating This permitted many 16-bit Windows applications to be recompiled for the system with minimal changes. Win32 also allowed the growing body of 16-bit Windows programmers to leverage their skills on the new system. The Win32 API was maintained (with some modifications) with Windows 95, further solidifying its role as Microsoft transitioned users off of the 16-bit platform. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system.
Win32 is a comprehensive API, offering OS services ranging from memory management to UI access. NT prevents all user-level applications from directly accessing hardware. This increases system reliability, at the cost of performance. However, this also means that virtually all Win32 applications relied exclusively on the C/C++ Win32 API; the upshot is that porting such an application to another NT-supported system architecture (e. g. moving from x86 NT to MIPS NT) usually required no more than a recompile (some applications might require minor tweaking, such as if assumptions were made in code about endianness).
OS/2
Though "NT OS/2" was finally released as "Windows NT", it is largely compatible with HPFS disk volumes and the x86 version supports character-mode 16-bit OS/2 applications. HPFS or High Performance File System is a File system created specifically for the OS/2 Operating system to improve upon the limitations TUI short for Text User Interface or Textual User Interface (and sometimes Terminal User Interface) is a Retronym that was coined sometime Many of the OS/2 APIs (particularly NetBIOS/LANMan networking APIs) already existed in almost identical forms in both 16-bit OS/2 and DOS/Windows, so these were incorporated into the Win32 API. For most 16-bit OS/2 programs, minimal code changes were necessary to recompile as NT console applications. Win32 console is a Plain text window for Console applications within the system of Windows API. This article refers to applications with text input consoles See Console game for more information about applications that can run on Video game consoles
OS/2 and Windows also share the concept of Dynamic-Link Libraries (DLLs). Dynamic-link library (also written without the hyphen or DLL, is Microsoft 's implementation of the Shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows Although the implementation varies somewhat between Windows and OS/2 DLLs, this additional similarity meant that even complex OS/2 applications could usually be converted to NT with little change to the overall design.
POSIX
Windows NT 3. 1 included a subsystem that was minimally POSIX-compatible. POSIX (ˈpɒzɪks or "Portable Operating System Interface" is the collective name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define This was added largely to help spur sales in US government contracts, as many government agencies mandated POSIX compatibility for consideration.
Note that POSIX compatibility is an API-level requirement. That is, one POSIX operating system won't necessarily be able to execute binary files compiled for a different system, even though both are POSIX compliant. POSIX simply specifies that the source code should compile correctly for each system.
The POSIX subsystem in NT 3. 1 primarily provided support for UNIX-style file system permissons and long filenames (including permitting filename characters that are otherwise illegal for Windows files, and denying some that are normally legal). Most modern File systems have methods of administering permissions or access rights to specific users and groups of users Long filenames ( LFN) spelled "long file names" by Microsoft are longer and therefore more descriptive Filenames supported by the Microsoft
Internet Explorer
Microsoft offered Internet Explorer starting with IE2, and released up to Internet Explorer 5.0 for Windows NT 3. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical Microsoft Internet Explorer 2 (Internet Explorer 20 is a graphical Web browser released in November 1995 by Microsoft for Windows 95 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (abbreviated IE5) is a graphical Web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows x. Also, a IE 1. 5 supported NT, but this patch was actually released after IE2 came out.
Editions
- Windows NT Advanced Server
- Windows NT
Networking
NT 3. 1 included support for three network protocols: NBF (using the NetBEUI API), TCP/IP, and DLC. In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing NetBIOS Frames or NBF protocol is a non- Routable network- and transport-level data protocol most commonly used as one of the layers of Microsoft Windows NetBIOS ( is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks In the OSI networking model Data Link Control ( DLC) is the service provided by the Data link layer. It is worth noting that Windows NT 3. 1 was rated TCSEC C2 — but only if the system was not connected to a network. Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria ( TCSEC) is a United States Government Department of Defense (DoD standard that sets basic requirements
NBF
At the time of NT's release, NBF was the most common protocol on Microsoft LAN Manager/IBM LAN Server networks. The LAN Manager (not to be confused with NTLM) was a Network Operating System (NOS from Microsoft developed in cooperation with 3Com. IBM LAN Server started as a close cousin of Microsoft LAN Manager and first shipped in early 1988. In NT 3. 1, it was the only supported protocol for networking with legacy LAN Manager networks, as well as other NT systems. Using NBF, NT could participate in file/print sharing, and NT Advanced Server could act as a Domain Controller (even sharing DC duties with OS/2 LAN Manager servers). On Windows Server Systems a domain controller (DC is a server that responds to security authentication requests (logging in checking permissions etc
TCP/IP
NT 3. 1 was the first Windows operating system to include TCP/IP support as standard. The TCP/IP stack used was SpiderTCP, developed by Spider Systems. Spider Systems Ltd was a Computer network products company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was replaced in NT 3. 5 with a new stack developed in-house. [3]
It should be noted that the TCP/IP stack included WinSock and STREAMS support, but it was not supported for networking among Microsoft LAN Manager or NT systems. In computing, the Windows Sockets API, which was later shortened to Winsock, is a technical specification that defines how Windows network In Computer networking, STREAMS is the native framework in Unix System V for implementing Character devices STREAMS was designed as a modular architecture Also, DHCP was not available, so IP addresses had to be manually configured. Support for NBT, DHCP, and WINS was added in NT 3. NetBIOS over TCP/IP ( NBT, or sometimes NetBT) is a networking protocol that allows legacy computer applications relying on the NetBIOS 5.
DLC
Out of the box, DLC was only supported as a transport protocol for communicating with network printers, such as those using an HP JetDirect interface. JetDirect is the name of a technology sold by Hewlett-Packard that allows Computer printers to be directly attached to a Local Area Network. It could also be used by Microsoft SNA Server for communication with IBM mainframe systems. IBM mainframes, though perceived as synonymous with Mainframe computers in general due to their marketshare are now technically and specifically IBM 's line of business
Further reading
- G. Pascal Zachary (1994). "Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft", Free Press, ISBN 0029356717
References
- ^ Windows Products and Technologies History. Microsoft.
- ^ Windows A Software Engineering Odyssey
- ^ Microsoft, TCP/IP, Open Source, and Licensing. Kuro5hin.
External links
- GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.1 Gallery - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces
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