As you pass from an “enterprise calculator” to an “home computer” well as you change the type of OS.

After the 60’s the most of the calculators were made by IC and the performances were better  than the old generation systems.  The main issue was the difficulty to transfer the technology to the common people for two reasons: the high cost of  the integrated electronic components and the  cost of  the software to be installed. The most of the calculators were only  “enterprise calculators” and  the “home computers”  were produced  only  between the 70’s and 80’s.  In the 80’s  Andrew  Stuart  Tanenbaum,  an American professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam, understood  the modern home computers needed a minimal and multitasking operating system.

Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum

Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum

He  designed the microkernel of  MINIX (Minimal Unix) for educational purpose, then  the first edition of  it was released  under a  FREE BSD license (Not open source nor totally free). Different OS editions followed and different license editions, the 3d edition was released under a commercial BSD license.  Tanenbaum described the architecture of MINIX 3.0 and the source code in a book of him: “ Operating Systems Design and Implementation- 3/E”.

The MINIX book

The MINIX book

The software architecture is made by 4 layers: the kernel, the device drivers, the server processes, the user processes. MINIX was originally designed for IBM PC/AT, IBM PC, Atari ST, Motorola 68000, Commodore Amiga, Sparc Station, Apple Macintosh. In the last version it is released for x86 and in  phase of development for embedded processors such as: Power Pc, ARM7. The MINIX mascot is a  Raccoon.

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