Windows NT is an operating system produced by Microsoft. It is the base of their current flagship Windows XP. == Development == When development started in 1988, Windows NT (using protected mode) was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and International Business Machines. In addition to working on three versions of OS/2, Microsoft continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment (using real mode). When Windows 3.x 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. 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. Though neither operating system would be as immediately popular as Microsoft's DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2. Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler to build Windows NT, and many elements reflect earlier DEC experience with Virtual Memory System and RSX-11. The OS is designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures, with the kernel separated from the hardware by a hardware abstraction layer. APIs are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. Originally a microkernel design, subsequent releases have integrated more functions into the kernel for better performance. Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally. == Releases== {| | Version || Editions || Released || Build Number |- | Windows NT 3.1 || Workstation, Advanced Server || 1993 July || 528 |- | Windows NT 3.5 || Workstation, Server || 1994 September || 807 |- | Windows NT 3.51 || Workstation, Server || 1995 May || 1057 |- | Windows NT 4.0 || Workstation, Server, Server Enterprise Edition, Terminal Server, Embedded || 1996 July || 1381 |- | Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) || Professional, Server, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server || 1999 December || 2195 |- | Windows XP (NT 5.1) || Home, Professional, Media Center, Tablet PC, Starter, Embedded, 64-Bit, Reduced Media || 2001 August || 2600 |- | Windows Server 2003 (NT 5.2) || Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web || 2003 March || 3790 |- | Windows Longhorn (NT 6.0) || || 2006 ???? || ???? |} The first release was given version number 3.1 to match the contemporary 16-bit Windows; magazines of that era claimed the number was also used to make that version seem more reliable than a ".0" release. === Supported platforms=== Windows NT 3.1 ran on Intel IA-32, DEC Alpha, and MIPS architecture R4000 processors. Windows NT 3.51 added support for PowerPC processors. Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its Intergraph Clipper architecture and later SPARC, but neither version was sold to the public. Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until 1999, when Compaq stopped support for Windows NT on that architecture. Only 2 of the Windows NT 4.0 variants (IA-32 and Alpha) have a full set of service packs available. All of the other ports done by 3rd parties (Motorola, Intergraph, etc.) have few, if any, publically available updates. Windows XP 64-Bit, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter support Intel's IA-64 processors. As of April 25 2005, Microsoft had released four editions for the AMD64: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition. == "NT" designation == It is popularly believed that Dave Cutler intended the initialism "WNT" as a pun on Virtual Memory System, Caesar cipher; while this would have suited Cutler's sense of humor, the project's earlier name of NT OS/2 belies this theory. Another of the original OS/2 3.0 developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the Intel i860 processor—code-named "N-Ten"—which served as the original target hardware. Various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session [http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1998q&a/QA5-6.asp] with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters were expanded to "New Technology" for marketing purposes but no longer carry any specific meaning. The letters were dropped from the name of Windows 2000. This action ostensibly reflected Microsoft's intent to unify its home and business lines, then represented by Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0, but this goal would not be achieved until the introduction of Windows XP. Some believe this to be the result of a trademark dispute between Microsoft and Nortel. ==See also== *Architecture of Windows 2000 *Microsoft Windows *_NSAKEY *Windows Server domain *ReactOS (an open source project with the goal of providing binary and device driver-level compatibility with Windows NT) == External links == * [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Official Page] * [http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=4494 ''Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story'', discussion of ancestry of NT by Mark Russinovich] * [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1998/winntfs.asp ''A Brief History of the Windows NT Operating System'' a Microsoft PressPass Fact Sheet] * [http://hwsw.hu/oldal.php3?cikkid=958&oldal=1 The Windows NT's heredity] - a long Hungarian article about Windows NT history *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt31 GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.1 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt35 GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.5 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt40 GUIdebook: Windows NT 4.0 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces Microsoft Windows Discontinued Microsoft software ARC
There are a number of mistakes regarding the history of MS-Windows in this and related articles. First up NT, was NOT based on OS/2 v.3 which was released a few years after NT. Nor was OS/2 writen by Microsoft, it was a joint IBM/Microsoft project to produce a mature OS for the home PC market, just do a search for a famous video clip of Bill Gates in 1989 cooing over how OS/2 is going to be the OS of the 1990's. It was only after he saw the sales figures for a semi workable GUI environment that he realised selling vapour ware would be more profitable than a joint mature & working product which he'd have to share with IBM, who's engineering skills well deserved. To this end Mr Gates had his people do a universal text-processor change of the source code for OS/2 ver. 1.2 (it may have been 1.3, but I think it was 1.2) replacing the tag 'DOS' with 'WIN'; recompiled, and called that Windows-NT version 1.0 . This was the reason that NT at first 'could' run OS/2 programs, because they couldn't stop it from doing so for the first half dozen releases. You must remember OS/2 1.x was a 16 bit OS, IBM re-wrote from the ground up as a pure 32 bit OS for ver. 2.0 which had the Windows 3.0 'emulator'; which was easy as 90% of the Windows code was written by IBM code cutters under contract & that contract which gave IBM access rights was the reason that IBM also wrote bug-fixes for MS-Windows 3.0 & 3.1; however, Microsoft took IBM to court to prevent IBM from releasing the fixes & claiming IBM had no rights to any of the Windows code. The court case was bogus but MS kept in in the courts from 1992-1995 when it of course became meaningless. Basicaly, Windows NT is the Microsoft version of OS/2. MS-Windows95 on the other hand was a Desktop system mimicing the OS/2 Desktop system - complete with weaknesses as well as strengths- sitting on top of MS-Dos v.7 The modern Microsoft Windows is a Microsoft version of the OS/2 Desktop manager on top of a Microsoft version of OS/2. And OS/2 was a fine OS for its time, and for its market; but it nor anything based from it is NOT suitable for todays network environment. ----- I see no reason for editing the foregoing other than to fix the mis-spellings. The article is substantially correct in its analysis of Microsoft's game-plan. User:sjc ----- I'm no MS fan either, but I don't like the sneering tone in which this article is written. The analysis is indeed correct, but could be described in a somewhat more neutral way ----- I don't know the origins of NT well enough to write even a good stub article. I simply neutralised the comments that existed before, and took out the BSoD reference entirely --User:Colin dellow ---- IBM didn't "produce" OS/2; Microsoft did. It was released as Microsoft OS/2 1.0, a complete operating system, entirely produced by Microsoft. IBM bought it, improved upon it, and released it under their name later. My impression at the time was that MS used it as something of a "testbed" for how to write an OS, then pawned it off to IBM and started over with NT. Internally, most of the MS team who produced OS/2 were the same folks who produced NT (For example, the OS/2 component test team directly became the NT component test team, which was where I spent my brief employment at MS). --User:Lee Daniel Crocker As I recall it, it was a joint venture between the two of them. I'm sure each side would claim it did the lion's share. I recall that significant amounts of IBM code went into OS/2, including in particular the graphics system. There was plenty of disagreement, because IBM wanted it to fit into their SAA architecture, while Microsoft wanted to keep compatibility with the Win16 GDI. In any case, I know specifically that OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0 were released under both Microsoft and IBM brands. That simply could not have happened if IBM just bought it later. The schism happened after OS/2 2.0; IBM went on to release OS/2 3.0 and Microsoft released NT 3.0. That's why there was no NT 1.0 or 2.0 --User:Alan Millar I'm sure you're right about IBM being more involved; I used Microsoft OS/2 1.0, but I didn't join MS until after the team had moved to NT, so I can't speak to the details in between. I can, however, state with some confidence that the reason the first release of NT was called "3.0" was to synchronize its version number with that of the currently-popular Windows 3.0. By the way, if you have an old copy of NT 3.1 lying around, you'll find the email addresses of the team, including "leecr", in the easter egg. --LDC ---- When did Microsoft start copying the BSD Unix code into Windows NT? Was it first in W2K or before that? -- User:mike dill ---- Although I don't have it direct from Cutler, I hardly knew him and he knew me even less, I am as certain as I can be that the VMS => WNT ploy was intentional. Cutler was fond of puns and word play and worked a number of jokes into RSX, where I worked with him. See Talk:RSX-11 for some examples that are verified out of my own experience and some indications as to his personality. He was a profane and sarcastic individual who felt unappreciated by DEC and was glad to go to Microsoft. It would be absolutely like him to rub it in. So no, the VMS=> WNT thing isn't verified, but I know it happened. User:Ortolan88 20:47 Aug 4, 2002 (PDT) NT also has several different flavours not mentioned here, I think. I know that Terminal (Server) Edition also exists for NT 4.0. Advanced Server and Server exist in Windows 2000. Windows 2003 has at least Enterprise Edition. User:Jdstroy 03:07, 2004 Aug 13 (UTC) == Discontinued software? == This article was added to Discontinued Microsoft software this morning. However, is that really an accurate classification for NT?
On the one hand, Microsoft has not marketed new products in this line of software under the trademark "NT" since the release of Windows 2000. On the other hand, each release of Windows since that time has reported itself as, ''inter alia'', "Windows NT 5.0" (in Windows 2000), "Windows NT 5.1" (in Windows XP) or the like, which suggests that Microsoft continues to use the appelation "NT" at least internally.
—User:Ryanaxp 14:02, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
This category includes topics (such as computer systems, software, historical developments or notable people) related to the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Microsoft_Windows
#REDIRECT Windows NT
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Windows_NT:
Windows_NT
Windows_NT
Windows_NT
Windows_nt
Windows_NT_3.1
Windows_NT_3.5
Windows_NT_3.51
Windows_NT_4
Windows_NT_4.0
Windows_NT_4.0_Embedded
Windows_NT_4.0_Enterprise_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Terminal_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Workstation
Windows NT
Windows NT is an operating system produced by Microsoft. It is the base of their current flagship Windows XP. == Development == When development started in 1988, Windows NT (using protected mode) was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and International Business Machines. In addition to working on three versions of OS/2, Microsoft continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment (using real mode). When Windows 3.x 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. 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. Though neither operating system would be as immediately popular as Microsoft's DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2. Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler to build Windows NT, and many elements reflect earlier DEC experience with Virtual Memory System and RSX-11. The OS is designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures, with the kernel separated from the hardware by a hardware abstraction layer. APIs are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. Originally a microkernel design, subsequent releases have integrated more functions into the kernel for better performance. Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally. == Releases== {| | Version || Editions || Released || Build Number |- | Windows NT 3.1 || Workstation, Advanced Server || 1993 July || 528 |- | Windows NT 3.5 || Workstation, Server || 1994 September || 807 |- | Windows NT 3.51 || Workstation, Server || 1995 May || 1057 |- | Windows NT 4.0 || Workstation, Server, Server Enterprise Edition, Terminal Server, Embedded || 1996 July || 1381 |- | Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) || Professional, Server, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server || 1999 December || 2195 |- | Windows XP (NT 5.1) || Home, Professional, Media Center, Tablet PC, Starter, Embedded, 64-Bit, Reduced Media || 2001 August || 2600 |- | Windows Server 2003 (NT 5.2) || Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web || 2003 March || 3790 |- | Windows Longhorn (NT 6.0) || || 2006 ???? || ???? |} The first release was given version number 3.1 to match the contemporary 16-bit Windows; magazines of that era claimed the number was also used to make that version seem more reliable than a ".0" release. === Supported platforms=== Windows NT 3.1 ran on Intel IA-32, DEC Alpha, and MIPS architecture R4000 processors. Windows NT 3.51 added support for PowerPC processors. Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its Intergraph Clipper architecture and later SPARC, but neither version was sold to the public. Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until 1999, when Compaq stopped support for Windows NT on that architecture. Only 2 of the Windows NT 4.0 variants (IA-32 and Alpha) have a full set of service packs available. All of the other ports done by 3rd parties (Motorola, Intergraph, etc.) have few, if any, publically available updates. Windows XP 64-Bit, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter support Intel's IA-64 processors. As of April 25 2005, Microsoft had released four editions for the AMD64: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition. == "NT" designation == It is popularly believed that Dave Cutler intended the initialism "WNT" as a pun on Virtual Memory System, Caesar cipher; while this would have suited Cutler's sense of humor, the project's earlier name of NT OS/2 belies this theory. Another of the original OS/2 3.0 developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the Intel i860 processor—code-named "N-Ten"—which served as the original target hardware. Various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session [http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1998q&a/QA5-6.asp] with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters were expanded to "New Technology" for marketing purposes but no longer carry any specific meaning. The letters were dropped from the name of Windows 2000. This action ostensibly reflected Microsoft's intent to unify its home and business lines, then represented by Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0, but this goal would not be achieved until the introduction of Windows XP. Some believe this to be the result of a trademark dispute between Microsoft and Nortel. ==See also== *Architecture of Windows 2000 *Microsoft Windows *_NSAKEY *Windows Server domain *ReactOS (an open source project with the goal of providing binary and device driver-level compatibility with Windows NT) == External links == * [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Official Page] * [http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=4494 ''Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story'', discussion of ancestry of NT by Mark Russinovich] * [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1998/winntfs.asp ''A Brief History of the Windows NT Operating System'' a Microsoft PressPass Fact Sheet] * [http://hwsw.hu/oldal.php3?cikkid=958&oldal=1 The Windows NT's heredity] - a long Hungarian article about Windows NT history *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt31 GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.1 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt35 GUIdebook: Windows NT 3.5 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces *[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interfaces/windows/winnt40 GUIdebook: Windows NT 4.0 Gallery] - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces Microsoft Windows Discontinued Microsoft software ARC
Windows NT
There are a number of mistakes regarding the history of MS-Windows in this and related articles. First up NT, was NOT based on OS/2 v.3 which was released a few years after NT. Nor was OS/2 writen by Microsoft, it was a joint IBM/Microsoft project to produce a mature OS for the home PC market, just do a search for a famous video clip of Bill Gates in 1989 cooing over how OS/2 is going to be the OS of the 1990's. It was only after he saw the sales figures for a semi workable GUI environment that he realised selling vapour ware would be more profitable than a joint mature & working product which he'd have to share with IBM, who's engineering skills well deserved. To this end Mr Gates had his people do a universal text-processor change of the source code for OS/2 ver. 1.2 (it may have been 1.3, but I think it was 1.2) replacing the tag 'DOS' with 'WIN'; recompiled, and called that Windows-NT version 1.0 . This was the reason that NT at first 'could' run OS/2 programs, because they couldn't stop it from doing so for the first half dozen releases. You must remember OS/2 1.x was a 16 bit OS, IBM re-wrote from the ground up as a pure 32 bit OS for ver. 2.0 which had the Windows 3.0 'emulator'; which was easy as 90% of the Windows code was written by IBM code cutters under contract & that contract which gave IBM access rights was the reason that IBM also wrote bug-fixes for MS-Windows 3.0 & 3.1; however, Microsoft took IBM to court to prevent IBM from releasing the fixes & claiming IBM had no rights to any of the Windows code. The court case was bogus but MS kept in in the courts from 1992-1995 when it of course became meaningless. Basicaly, Windows NT is the Microsoft version of OS/2. MS-Windows95 on the other hand was a Desktop system mimicing the OS/2 Desktop system - complete with weaknesses as well as strengths- sitting on top of MS-Dos v.7 The modern Microsoft Windows is a Microsoft version of the OS/2 Desktop manager on top of a Microsoft version of OS/2. And OS/2 was a fine OS for its time, and for its market; but it nor anything based from it is NOT suitable for todays network environment. ----- I see no reason for editing the foregoing other than to fix the mis-spellings. The article is substantially correct in its analysis of Microsoft's game-plan. User:sjc ----- I'm no MS fan either, but I don't like the sneering tone in which this article is written. The analysis is indeed correct, but could be described in a somewhat more neutral way ----- I don't know the origins of NT well enough to write even a good stub article. I simply neutralised the comments that existed before, and took out the BSoD reference entirely --User:Colin dellow ---- IBM didn't "produce" OS/2; Microsoft did. It was released as Microsoft OS/2 1.0, a complete operating system, entirely produced by Microsoft. IBM bought it, improved upon it, and released it under their name later. My impression at the time was that MS used it as something of a "testbed" for how to write an OS, then pawned it off to IBM and started over with NT. Internally, most of the MS team who produced OS/2 were the same folks who produced NT (For example, the OS/2 component test team directly became the NT component test team, which was where I spent my brief employment at MS). --User:Lee Daniel Crocker As I recall it, it was a joint venture between the two of them. I'm sure each side would claim it did the lion's share. I recall that significant amounts of IBM code went into OS/2, including in particular the graphics system. There was plenty of disagreement, because IBM wanted it to fit into their SAA architecture, while Microsoft wanted to keep compatibility with the Win16 GDI. In any case, I know specifically that OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0 were released under both Microsoft and IBM brands. That simply could not have happened if IBM just bought it later. The schism happened after OS/2 2.0; IBM went on to release OS/2 3.0 and Microsoft released NT 3.0. That's why there was no NT 1.0 or 2.0 --User:Alan Millar I'm sure you're right about IBM being more involved; I used Microsoft OS/2 1.0, but I didn't join MS until after the team had moved to NT, so I can't speak to the details in between. I can, however, state with some confidence that the reason the first release of NT was called "3.0" was to synchronize its version number with that of the currently-popular Windows 3.0. By the way, if you have an old copy of NT 3.1 lying around, you'll find the email addresses of the team, including "leecr", in the easter egg. --LDC ---- When did Microsoft start copying the BSD Unix code into Windows NT? Was it first in W2K or before that? -- User:mike dill ---- Although I don't have it direct from Cutler, I hardly knew him and he knew me even less, I am as certain as I can be that the VMS => WNT ploy was intentional. Cutler was fond of puns and word play and worked a number of jokes into RSX, where I worked with him. See Talk:RSX-11 for some examples that are verified out of my own experience and some indications as to his personality. He was a profane and sarcastic individual who felt unappreciated by DEC and was glad to go to Microsoft. It would be absolutely like him to rub it in. So no, the VMS=> WNT thing isn't verified, but I know it happened. User:Ortolan88 20:47 Aug 4, 2002 (PDT) NT also has several different flavours not mentioned here, I think. I know that Terminal (Server) Edition also exists for NT 4.0. Advanced Server and Server exist in Windows 2000. Windows 2003 has at least Enterprise Edition. User:Jdstroy 03:07, 2004 Aug 13 (UTC) == Discontinued software? == This article was added to Discontinued Microsoft software this morning. However, is that really an accurate classification for NT?
On the one hand, Microsoft has not marketed new products in this line of software under the trademark "NT" since the release of Windows 2000. On the other hand, each release of Windows since that time has reported itself as, ''inter alia'', "Windows NT 5.0" (in Windows 2000), "Windows NT 5.1" (in Windows XP) or the like, which suggests that Microsoft continues to use the appelation "NT" at least internally.
—User:Ryanaxp 14:02, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
Windows NT
This category includes topics (such as computer systems, software, historical developments or notable people) related to the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Microsoft_Windows
Windows nt
#REDIRECT Windows NT
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
W
WA | WB | WC | WD | WE | WF | WG | WH | WI | WJ | WK | WL | WM | WN | WO | WP | WR | WS | WT | WU | WX | WY | WZ |Words begining with Windows_NT:
Windows_NT
Windows_NT
Windows_NT
Windows_nt
Windows_NT_3.1
Windows_NT_3.5
Windows_NT_3.51
Windows_NT_4
Windows_NT_4.0
Windows_NT_4.0_Embedded
Windows_NT_4.0_Enterprise_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Terminal_Server
Windows_NT_4.0_Workstation
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