PA-RISC Operating Systems
Overview
Many operating systems have been available for PA-RISC computers over the years: Unix was the majority with a few niche systems ported later. The PA-RISC platform was developed for Unix server and workstation duties, so HP shipped its own HP-UX Unix with it, starting in the 1980s.
Modern open source systems have been available for PA-RISC since the early 2000s, with ports of Linux, OpenBSD and NetBSD. These in turn were based on university research projects ported to PA-RISC, including Mach, OSF/1 and BSD. Other, more special systems were available for transactions, real-time and fault-tolerance.
Unix
The main operating system for PA-RISC is HP-UX, the native Unix for HP 9000.
- HP-UX: HP Unix developed by HP for HP PA-RISC computers, HP-UX 11i is the last version from the 2000s for 32-bit, 64-bit and Itanium 2 computers. Popular HP-UX 10.20 has broad 32-bit (and Y2K) support and there were many older HP-UX versions since the 1980s: HP-UX 1.0 to 7.0, HP-UX 8.0 and 9.0.
- NeXTSTEP: Commercial operating system for PA-RISC from NeXT, based on Mach Microkernel, Unix userland and modern GUI, supported PA-RISC in V3.3 in 1994.
- Several Games run on HP-UX, from iconic 3D to simulation and strategy.
Open Source
Several open source operating systems are available for PA-RISC, development started in the early 2000s with mostly stable support since then.
- Linux: PA-RISC support was included in mainstream Linux during the 2000s and shipped with Debian and Gentoo, now available as part of Debian-ports.
- OpenBSD/hppa: Open source BSD Unix-like operating system ported to HP PA-RISC computers focused on 32-bit workstations and some 64-bit in 32-bit mode.
- NetBSD/hppa: Open source Unix-like operating system, supports PA-RISC computers since around 2005, called NetBSD/hp700 earlier and based on OpenBSD.
- QEMU: The popular open source machine emulator supports PA-RISC since 7.1.0 for running HP-UX, BSD, NextSTEP and Linux on virtual hardware.
Research and Development
PA-RISC was used for many research projects in the late-1980s to mid-90s, many based on Mach – developed at HP, Open Group (OSF) and University of Utah:
- MkLinux: Research project from the mid-1990s by Open Group/OSF to port a Linux kernel onto a Mach microkernel, based on the MK-PA OSF/1.
- HPBSD: Original BSD Unix of the late-1980s, port from the University of Utah of 4.3BSD and later 4.4BSD to early 800s servers and 700s workstations.
- Mach: Several research ports of the Mach microkernel in the early 1990s, with HP Tut Mach 2.0 and the University of Utah with both Mach 3 and Mach 4 Lites.
- OSF/1: The third Unix flavor of the 90s, from the alliance of DEC, IBM, HP to compete with AT&T System V Unix: internal HP OSF/1 and OSF MK-PA OSF/1.
- Chorus: Early microkernel operating system, developed in France in the 1980s. Support PA-RISC in development releases in the early 1990s.
MkLinux and Mach 4/Lites were publically available, others required licenses for source code they contained. Linux and BSD ports made heavy use of their codebase.
Other commercial
There were a few specialized operating systems available for various PA-RISC computers in niche markets. This also includes a few porting attempts to PA-RISC.
- MPE/iX: Business real-time operating system for HP 3000 on PA-RISC. Not covered here – for more information see hpmuseum.net and Bob Green.
- HP-RT: Real-time operating system for HP 9000 740 VME instrumentation computers released from 1992 to 1997.
- Convex SPP/UX: Heavily modified Mach-based operating system for Convex and HP Exemplar SPP PA-RISC mainframes.
- Stratus FTX, a System V Unix, and Stratos VOS, a transaction-processing system, for fault-tolerant Stratus Continuum PA-RISC servers.
- Clones and OEMs: PA-RISC OEMs in Asia licensed HP-UX or developed their own, Hitachi with HI-UX/WE2 and HI-UX/MPP and Samsung with SS-UX (?).
- Oddball attempts like Windows NT on PA-RISC and Netware on PA-RISC in the 90s.
Support matrix
| OS | 700s | 800s | A | B | C | D | E | FGHI | J | K | L | N | R | rp | rx | SD | T | V |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP-UX 1-7 | █ | |||||||||||||||||
| HP-UX 8 | ▒ | █ | █ | |||||||||||||||
| HP-UX 9 | █ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | █ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | |||||||||
| HP-UX 10.20 | █ | ▒ | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | |||||||
| HP-UX 11.00 | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | ||||
| HP-UX 11i v1 | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | ||||
| HP-UX 11i v2 | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | ||||||||||||
| HP-UX 11i v3 | █ | █ | █ | █ | ||||||||||||||
| Linux | █ | █ | █ | █ | █ | ▒ | █ | █ | █ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | |||||
| OpenBSD | █ | ▒ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | |||||||||||
| NetBSD | █ | ▒ | █ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | ▒ | ||||||||||
| QEMU | ▒ | ▒ | ||||||||||||||||
| NeXTSTEP | ▒ | |||||||||||||||||
| Mach 3 | ▒ | |||||||||||||||||
| Mach 4 | ▒ | |||||||||||||||||
| MkLinux | ▒ | ▒ | ||||||||||||||||
| OSF/1 | ▒ | |||||||||||||||||
| MK-PA | █ | ▒ | ||||||||||||||||
| HPBSD | █ | ▒ |