EVOLUTION OF LATEST OS MAC OS X

                                                    

Mac OS X, successor of Mac OS 9, is a family of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed by Apple Inc. It is the world’s most advanced Operating System. The first version of Mac OS X (Version 10.0), Cheetah, was released on March 24, 2001. It introduced a number of new capabilities to provide a more reliable and stable platform than Mac OS 9.

Certain parts from NetBSD’s and FreeBSD’s implementation of Unix were integrated in NeXTSTEP. NeXTSTEP is the core of the MAC OS X, which was developed by Steve Jobs (when he left the Apple in 1985 and opened a new company NeXT). Eventually, OPENSTEP, NeXT’s OS, was chosen to be the base for Apple’s next operating system. When Jobs returned to Apple, he altered the OPENSTEP into a system that would be accepted by Apple’s computer users. This project was named as Rhapsody and was later changed to MAC OS X.

As Mac OS X evolved, it moved away from the legacy Mac OS, to an emphasis on new apps like integrated home entertainment, enhanced business applications and the iLife suite. Each version also included modifications of Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Several features of Mac’s architecture are inspired from OPENSTEP. This architecture employs a layered framework, which helps in rapid development of the applications by giving existing code for common tasks. This operating system includes its own software development tools, most importantly an integrated desktop environment known as Xcode. It provides interfaces to compilers that support many programming languages like Java, Objective-C, C++ and C.

The Mac OS kernel is called XNU, which is based on Mach. The BSD subsystem is part of the kernel and so are several other subsystems, which are typically implemented as user-space servers in microkernel systems. HFS+ (Hierarchical File System) is the preferred file system on Mac OS X, which supports aliases, hard and symbolic links, multiple encoding, finding information in metadata, byte range locking, quotas, journaling, etc. New versions of Mac OS X are capable of reading and writing to the legacy FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. However, they are capable of reading NTFS file system, but not writing.

Apple today previewed Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimised for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Snow Leopard delivers unrivalled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named Grand Central, making it easy for developers to create programmes that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X’s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16Tb of RAM.

Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimises support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organisations of any size.

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