Apple Darwin
Darwin is the core operating system of Apple Computer's Mac OS X, and runs on the open source Darwin kernel, XNU.
Darwin integrates a number of technologies, most importantly Mach 3.0, operating-system services based on 4.4BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution, particularly FreeBSD), high-performance networking facilities, and support for multiple integrated file systems.
Originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University, the Mach kernel manages all the tasks and processes the computer runs. Apple's Head of Software Engineering, Dr Avie Tevanian, worked on the Mach kernel at Carnegie-Mellon. Mac OS X owes no small part of its existence to Avie Tevanian. The Mach kernel gives Mac OS X features such as protected memory and symmetric multiple processing.
Currently Darwin is built for both Apple's PowerPC architecture as well as to the Intel architecture, though the latter only has very limited driver support.
The Darwin developers decided to take a mascot in 2000. Hexley the platypus was chosen over other contenders, such as an Aqua Darwin fish, Clarus the DogCow, and an orca.
External links
