Unix System Laboratories: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:41, 29 September 2022

Revision as of 05:25, 13 October 2022

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AT&T announced the creation of the '''UNIX Software Operation''' (USO) – a separate and distinct AT&T business unit responsible for the development, marketing, and licensing of UNIX System V software – in January 1989.<ref name="signals-91">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY0-AQAAIAAJ | magazine=Signals | date=1991 | pages=61–66| title=Signals }}</ref> This was done, as a subsequent press release stated, "in order to separate AT&T's UNIX System source code business from its computer systems business,"<ref name="pr-rosetta"/> the latter a reference to [[AT&T Computer Systems]]. USO included the AT&T Data Systems Group organizations responsible for UNIX product planning and management, licensing, and marketing.<ref name="pr-uso"/> [[Peter J. Weinberger]] was named chief scientist of USO while also retaining his job in the computing science research center at [[Bell Labs]]; no other Bell Labs assets were transferred to USO.<ref name="pr-uso">{{cite press release | url=http://tech-insider.org/unix/research/1989/0104.html | title=AT&T Names President Of Unix Software Operation | publisher=PR Newswire | date=January 4, 1989 | access-date=March 28, 2021 | archive-date=January 19, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119060705/http://tech-insider.org/unix/research/1989/0104.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The head of USO was Larry Dooling, who had been a vice-president in sales and marketing in the AT&T Data Systems Group.<ref name="pr-uso"/>

Unlike the original Unix work, which had been done in the Bell Labs facility in [[Murray Hill, New Jersey|Murray Hill]], USO and the commercialization work was done a few miles away in [[Summit, New Jersey]].<ref name="negus"/><ref name="lat-novell"/> This AT&T Bell Labs ___location was known as SF for Summit Facility.<ref>{{cite journal | author2-first=Paul S. | author2-last=Putter | author1-first= Neal R. | author1-last=Wagner | title= Error Detecting Decimal Digits | journal=Communications of the ACM | volume=32 | number= 1 | date=January 1989 | pages= 106–110 | doi=10.1145/63238.63246 | s2cid=805863 }}</ref>

UNIX System Laboratories, Inc., came into being as a separate subsidiary of AT&T in November 1989 and was assigned all U.S.-based AT&T Unix and USO assets.<ref name="pr-rosetta"/>

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Another unit within USL, called the Open Solutions Software business unit and headed by Joel A. Appelbaum, was responsible for other system software that in some way worked in conjunction with Unix.<ref name="pr-rosetta"/>

The [[Tuxedo (software)|Tuxedo transaction processing middleware]] had also been transferred from elsewhere in AT&T to USL. It had originated as the [[Loop maintenance operations system|Loop Maintenance Operations System]] (LMOS) followed by the Unix Transaction System (UNITS) and was used for projects internally within AT&T. It was then renamed by USL and, as Release 4.0 of what was now called Tuxedo, in 1989 was offered for the first time as a commercial product.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/zdanh_test_031_tuxedosystemsoft00juan| url-access=registration<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=Of6BdiZu9lUC&pg=PT27--> | first1=Juan M. | last1=Andrade | first2=Mark T. | last2=Carges | first3=Terence J. | last3=Dwyer | first4= Stephen D. | last4=Felts | title=The TUXEDO System: Software for Constructing and Managing Distributed Business Applications | publisher=Addison-Wesley | ___location=Reading, Massachusetts | year=1996 | pages=xxxiii–xxxvi| isbn=9780201634938 }}</ref>

USL also developed and marketed the OSI Communications Platform, which was an implementation of the [[OSI model|OSI protocols]] for Unix-based networking.<ref name="nw-knowhow">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 | title=Novell buys into AT&T unit to gain Unix net know-how | first=Ellen | last=Messmer | newspaper=Network World | date=April 15, 1991 | page=9 | access-date=March 28, 2021 | archive-date=March 28, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328062602/https://books.google.com/books?id=cBAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 | url-status=live }}</ref>