Software:IRIX

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IRIX
IRIX 6.5 desktop
DeveloperSilicon Graphics
OS familyUnix (SVR3/SVR4)
Working stateHistoric as of December 2013[1]
Source modelClosed source
Initial release1988; 38 years ago (1988)
yes|Final release|Latest release}}6.5.30 / 16 August 2006; 19 years ago (2006-08-16)
Marketing targetWorkstations, servers
PlatformsMIPS
Kernel typeMonolithic kernel
UserlandPOSIX
Default user interfaceIRIX Interactive Desktop
LicenseProprietary

IRIX (/ˈaɪrɪks/, EYE-ricks, a portmanteau of IRIS and UNIX) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system and the industry-standard OpenGL graphics API.

History

In 1986 MIPS Computer Systems released the MIPS R2000 microprocessor. SGI began utilizing it to replace their IRIS 3000 series of workstations and terminals running an OS called GL2. IRIX was based on a combination of GL2 and umips,[lower-alpha 1] the System V UNIX by MIPS Computer Systems. Until the 3.0 release, IRIX was simply referred to as 4D1. The "4D1-" prefix continued to be used in official documentation to prefix IRIX release numbers. 4D1 2.x used the MEX windowing system and was based on System V Release 3.

IRIX 3.x is based on UNIX System V Release 3 with 4.3BSD enhancements, and incorporates the 4Sight windowing system, based on NeWS and IRIS GL. SGI's own Extent File System (EFS) replaces the System V filesystem.[3]

IRIX 4.0.x was released in 1991 and introduced the Xsgi display server (based on X11R4, later R6) and an early Motif-based desktop that would in time become known as the IRIX Interactive Desktop.

IRIX 5.0, released in 1993, incorporates certain features of UNIX System V Release 4, including ELF executables. IRIX 6.0 was released shortly after, adding R8000 support but otherwise being similar to IRIX 5.0 and 5.1 releases. IRIX 5.3 introduced the XFS journaling file system.

IRIX 6.1 was released in 1995. It dropped support for Common Object File Format (COFF) binaries used in IRIX 4.0 and prior, introduced XFS, and proper 64-bit kernel and ABI support. IRIX 6.2 was the final point release of this version, and IRIX 6.3 and 6.4 are special versions of 6.2 for the O2, and Onyx2, Origin2000 and Octane systems respectively.

IRIX 6.5 was released in 1998. Point releases were offered roughly every quarter. IRIX 6.5 included USB HID support, OpenGL 1.2 support, full NUMA support, rudimentary firewire support, Gigabit ethernet support, and XVM logical volume support.[4]

The final release was IRIX 6.5.30, released on August 16th, 2006. On September 6, 2006, SGI announced the end of the MIPS and IRIX product lines. Production ended on December 29, 2006, with final deliveries in March 2007, except by special arrangement.[5] Security patches and stability updates continued until December 2013, at which time support ended.[6] SGI migrated customers to SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its Altix line. As of 2016, IRIX was part of the purchase of Silicon Graphics International by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).[7] Much of IRIX's core technology has been open sourced and ported by SGI to Linux, including XFS.

Much of IRIX's core technology has been open sourced and ported by SGI to Linux,[8][9][10][11][12] including XFS.[13][14][15]

In 2009, SGI filed for bankruptcy and then was purchased by Rackable Systems,[16][17][18] which was later purchased by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2016.[19][20] All SGI hardware produced after 2007 is based on either IA-64 or x86-64 architecture, so it is incapable of running IRIX and is instead intended for Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.[21][22][23][24][25] HPE has not stated any plans for IRIX development or source code release.

Features

IRIX 6.5 is compliant with UNIX System V Release 4, UNIX 95, and POSIX (including 1e/2c draft 15 ACLs and Capabilities).[26]

In the early 1990s, IRIX was a leader in Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP), scalable from 1 to more than 1,024 processors with a single system image. IRIX has strong support for real-time disk and graphics I/O. IRIX was widely used for the 1990s and 2000s in the computer animation and scientific visualization industries, due to its large application base and high performance. It still is relevant in a few legacy applications.

IRIX is one of the first Unix versions to feature a graphical user interface for the main desktop environment. IRIX Interactive Desktop uses the 4Dwm X window manager with a custom look designed using the Motif widget toolkit.[27] IRIX is the originator of the industry standard OpenGL for graphics chips and image processing libraries.[10][28][29][30][31]

IRIX uses the MIPSPro compiler for both its front end and back end[32]. The compiler, also known in earlier versions as IDO (IRIS Development Option)[33], was released in many versions, many of which are coupled to the OS version. The last version was 7.4.4m, designed for 6.5.19 or later. The compiler is designed to support parallel POSIX programming in C/C++, Fortran 77/90. The Workshop GUI IDE is used for development. Other tools include Speedshop for performance tuning, and Performance Co-Pilot.[34]

4Dwm

4Dwm is the window manager component of the IRIX Interactive Desktop normally used on Silicon Graphics workstations running IRIX. 4Dwm is derived from the older Motif Window Manager and uses the Motif widget toolkit on top of the X Window System found on most Unix systems.[27][35][36] 4Dwm on IRIX was one of the first default graphical user interface desktops to be standard on a Unix computer system. 4Dwm refers to "Fourth dimension window manager" and has no relation to dwm.

Other X window managers that mimic the 4Dwm look and feel exist, such as 4Dwm theme for IceWM and MaxxDesktop[27] which is a clone/compatible implementation of 4Dwm based on OpenMotif. MaxxDesktop supports both the classic SGI look and a modern/polished look and feel with anti-aliased fonts and UTF-8 support.

Features

  • A stacking window manager
  • Uses the Motif widget library via C++ Viewkit.
  • Applications can be launched via a menu panel
  • Window decorations include borders and a titlebar
  • The titlebar provides a meta button and facilities to minimize and maximize windows
  • Support for themes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SGI Support of MIPS IRIX Products Continues to December 2013". Silicon Graphics. http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html. 
  2. ↑ RISC/os (UMIPS) - User's Reference Manual Volume I (System V). MIPS Computer Systems. March 1989. https://bitsavers.org/pdf/mips/RISCos/3204DOC_RISC_os_Users_Reference_Manual_Volume_I_System_V_Mar1989.pdf. Retrieved January 24, 2026. 
  3. ↑ "History of IRIX". http://ryan.tliquest.net/sgi/irix_versions.html. 
  4. ↑ "Key New Features or Changes". https://www.tech-pubs.net/misc/previous.html. 
  5. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (September 8, 2006). "SGI's Unix variant fading into history". CNET. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/sgis-unix-variant-fading-into-history/. 
  6. ↑ {{cite web|title=SGI Support of MIPS® IRIX® Products Changes December 2013 | publisher=Silicon Graphics |url=https://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html | access-date=January 24, 2026 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140303000000/https://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html | archive-date=March 3, 2014}
  7. ↑ "IRIX Operating System (Unix)". https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-irix.htm. 
  8. ↑ George Koharchik (January 31, 2001). "Porting from IRIX to Linux". Linux Journal. https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4421. Retrieved August 20, 2024. 
  9. ↑ Silicon Graphics (2001). "Load Sharing Facility". http://www.sgi.com/software/lsf/. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Seddon, Chris (2005). "History of OpenGL". OpenGL Game Development. Wordware. p. 43. ISBN 1-55622-989-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=ahb5bqeLROAC&q=IRIS+GL&pg=PA43. 
  11. ↑ "SGI – OpenGL Overview". http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/overview.html. 
  12. ↑ "OpenGL ARB to Pass Control of OpenGL Specification to Khronos Group" (in en). July 31, 2006. https://www.khronos.org/news/press/opengl_arb_to_pass_control_of_opengl_specification_to_khronos_group. 
  13. ↑ "Porting XFS to Linux". 2000-07-21. https://olstrans.sourceforge.net/release/OLS2000-xfs/OLS2000-xfs.html. 
  14. ↑ "Linux kernel 2.4.25 changelog". 2004-02-18. https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.25. 
  15. ↑ Daniel Robbins (January 1, 2002). "Common threads: Advanced filesystem implementor's guide, Part 9, Introducing XFS". Developer Works. IBM. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-fs9/index.html. 
  16. ↑ "Rackable Systems Announces Agreement to Acquire Silicon Graphics Inc" (Press release). Silicon Graphics. April 1, 2009. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  17. ↑ "Rackable Systems Completes Acquisition of Silicon Graphics Assets" (Press release). Rackable Systems. May 11, 2009. Archived from the original on May 11, 2009. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  18. ↑ "Rackable Systems Receives Court Approval to Purchase Silicon Graphics Assets" (Press release). Rackable Systems. April 30, 2009. Archived from the original on May 14, 2009. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  19. ↑ "Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Acquire SGI to Extend Leadership in High-Growth Big Data Analytics and High-Performance Computing" (Press release). Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 2016-08-11. Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  20. ↑ "Hewlett Packard Enterprise Completes Acquisition of SGI" (Press release). Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 2016-11-01. Archived from the original on 2016-11-03. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  21. ↑ "New Deskside Silicon Graphics Prism System Offers Double the Memory of IBM and HP Systems". News release. April 26, 2005. http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2005/april/prism_deskside.html. 
  22. ↑ Silicon Graphics, Inc. (14 November 2005). SGI Launches New Flagship Altix 4000 Platform. (Press release).
  23. ↑ "End of General Availability for MIPS IRIX Products". Silicon Graphics. http://www.sgi.com/support/mips_irix.html. 
  24. ↑ "Back to the Future: SGI Returns to Visualization". HPCwire. 2008-04-11. http://www.hpcwire.com/features/Back_to_the_Future_SGI_Returns_to_Visualization.html. Retrieved 2024-08-20. 
  25. ↑ "SGI Unveils Altix UV, the World's Fastest Supercomputer". www.sgi.com. Silicon Graphics International. 2009-11-16. Archived from the original on November 21, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091121150316/http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2009/november/altix_uv.html. Retrieved 2024-08-20. 
  26. ↑ "IRIX Operating System (Unix)". https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-irix.htm. 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 5Dwm, The Window Manager
  28. ↑ Kilgard, Mark (2008). "OpenGL Prehistory: IRIS GL (slide from SIGGRAPH talk)". https://www.slideshare.net/Mark_Kilgard/sigraph-asia-2008-modern-opengl-presentation/13-13OpenGLs_PrehistoryIRIS_GL_1Window_system. 
  29. ↑ "SGI – OpenGL Overview". http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/overview.html. 
  30. ↑ Peddie, Jon (July 2012). "Who's the Fairest of Them All?". Computer Graphics World. http://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2012/Volume-35-Issue-4-June-July-2012/Who-s-the-Fairest-of-Them-All-.aspx. 
  31. ↑ "OpenGL ARB to Pass Control of OpenGL Specification to Khronos Group" (in en). July 31, 2006. https://www.khronos.org/news/press/opengl_arb_to_pass_control_of_opengl_specification_to_khronos_group. 
  32. ↑ "MIPSPro - TechPubs Wiki". https://tech-pubs.net/wiki/index.php/MIPSPro. 
  33. ↑ "IRIS Development Option - TechPubs Wiki". https://tech-pubs.net/wiki/index.php/IRIS_Development_Option. 
  34. ↑ "Performance Co-Pilot IRIX® Base Software Administrator's Guide". Silicon Graphics, Inc.. https://irix7.com/techpubs/007-3964-002.pdf. 
  35. ↑ IRIX Interactive Desktop Integration guide (Silicon Graphics, 1998)
  36. ↑ Motif 2.1 Porting Guide (Silicon Graphics, 1998)




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