Games - Windows NT

Home > Listing Index > Games > Windows NT

	Games - Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. The architecture complemented versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS until 2001. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are the latest versions of Windows NT, though they are not branded as such for marketing purposes.

Development

When development started in November 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 IBM. 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 3.0 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. 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 of the design reflect earlier DEC experience with VMS and RSX-11. The operating system was designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures and multiple hardware platforms within each architecture. The platform dependencies are largely hidden from the rest of the system by a kernel mode module called the HAL.

Windows NT's kernel mode code further distinguishes between the "kernel," whose prime purpose is to implement processor-architecture-dependent functions, and the "executive." This has led some writers to refer to the kernel as a microkernel, but the Windows NT kernel does not meet many of the criteria required to be a "microkernel" and this was not the intention of Windows NT's designers. Both the kernel and the executive are linked together into a single loaded module, ntoskrnl.exe; from outside this module there is little distinction between the kernel and the executive. Routines from each are directly callable, as for example from kernel mode device drivers.

API sets in the Windows NT family are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. Windows NT was the first operating system to use Unicode internally.

Releases

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. The NT version is no longer marketed, but is said to reflect the degree of changes to the core of the operating system. The build number is an internal figure used by Microsoft's developers.

Supported platforms

Windows NT 3.1 ran on Intel IA-32 x86, DEC Alpha, and MIPS R4000 processors. Windows NT 3.51 added support for PowerPC processors. Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its 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 two 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, publicly 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 "x64" (AMD64 or EM64T): Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Windows NT ]

Games - Windows NT

Development

Releases

Supported platforms

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay