{{redirect|AIX}}
{{Infobox OS|
|name = AIX
|screenshot = [[Image:Aix logo.gif]]
|caption =
|developer = IBM
|family = [[UNIX System V]]
|source_model = [[Closed source]]
|latest_release_version = 6.1
|latest_release_date = November, 2007
|kernel_type = [[Monolithic kernel|Dynamic Extendable]]
|ui = [[Common Desktop Environment]]
|license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|working_state = Current
|website = [http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/ IBM AIX 5L]
}}
'''''AIX''''' ('''Advanced Interactive eXecutive''') is the name given to a series of [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] [[operating system]]s sold by [[IBM]] for several of its computer system platforms, based on [[UNIX System V]] with [[4.3BSD]]-compatible command and programming interface extensions.

The AIX 5L 5.3 release supports up to 64 [[IBM POWER]] or [[PowerPC]] architecture [[central processing unit]]s and two [[terabyte]]s (TB) of [[random access memory]]. The [[IBM Journaled File System 2 (JFS2)|JFS2]] [[file system]] - first introduced by IBM as part of AIX - supports [[computer file]]s and [[Partition (computing)|partition]]s over 16 TB in size (though that's the tested limit and recommended maximum).

==History==
AIX Version 1, introduced in 1986 for the [[IBM 6150 RT]] [[computer workstation|workstation]], was based on [[UNIX System V]] Releases 1 and 2. In developing AIX, IBM and [[INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation]] (whom IBM contracted) also incorporated source code from 4.2 and 4.3[[BSD]] UNIX.

Among other variants, IBM later produced AIX Version 3 (also known as '''AIX/6000'''), based on System V Release 3, for their [[IBM POWER]]-based [[RS/6000]] platform. Since [[1990]], AIX has served as the primary operating system for the RS/6000 series (now called ''System p'' by IBM).

AIX Version 4, introduced in 1994, introduced support for [[symmetric multiprocessing]] with the introduction of the first RS/6000 SMP servers. AIX Version 4 continued to evolve though the 1990s culminating with the introduction of AIX 4.3.3 in 1999.

In the late 1990s, under [[Project Monterey]], IBM and the [[Santa Cruz Operation]] planned to integrate AIX and [[UnixWare]] into a single [[32-bit]]/[[64-bit]] multiplatform UNIX with particular emphasis on supporting the [[Intel]] [[IA-64]] architecture. This never came to fruition, though a [[beta test]] version of AIX 5L for IA-64 systems was released.

AIX 6 was announced in May 2007 and ran an open beta from June 2007 until the general availability (GA) of AIX 6.1 on November 9th, 2007. Major new features in AIX 6.1 are full [[RBAC]], Workload Partitions ([[WPAR]]) enabling application mobility, and Live Partition Mobility on the new POWER6 hardware.

=== SCO lawsuit ===
{{see also|SCO v. IBM|SCO v. Novell}}
In the [[SCO v. IBM|SCO v. IBM lawsuit]] filed in 2003, the [[SCO Group]] alleged that (among other infractions) IBM misappropriated licensed [[source code]] from [[UNIX System V]] Release 4 for incorporation into AIX; SCO subsequently withdrew IBM's license to develop and distribute AIX. IBM maintains that their license was irrevocable, and continues to sell and support the product pending the outcome of litigation.

On the 10th August, 2007 a U.S. district court judge ruled that SCO does not own the copyrights to the Unix operating system. The court informed Novell that it could now force SCO to waive its lawsuit against IBM. Further, the court ruled that SCO must pay Novell most of the license revenue that SCO secured from Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for their use of Unix technologies.

Many people feel that this ruling is the death-knell in SCO's legal fight.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}

==Supported architectures==
===IBM 6150 RT===
The original AIX (sometimes called '''AIX/RT''') was developed for the IBM 6150 RT workstation by IBM in conjunction with [[INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation]], who had previously ported [[UNIX System III]] to the [[IBM PC]] for IBM as PC/IX. Installation media consisted of eight [[Floppy disk|1.2M floppy disk]]s. The RT was based on the [[ROMP]] chip, the first commercial [[RISC]] chip, based on a design, the [[IBM 801]], pioneered at IBM Research.

One of the novel aspects of the RT design was the use of a [[microkernel]], called Virtual Resource Manager (VRM). The keyboard, mouse, display, disk drives and network were all controlled by a microkernel, which allowed multiple operating systems to be booted and run at the same time. One could "hotkey" from one operating system to the next using the Alt-Tab key combination. Each OS in turn would get possession of the keyboard, mouse and display. Besides AIX v2, the [[PICK OS]] also utilized this microkernel.

Much of the AIX v2 kernel was written in the [[PL/I]] programming language, which proved troublesome during the migration to AIX v3. AIX v2 included full [[TCP/IP]] networking support, as well as [[Systems Network Architecture|SNA]], and two networking file systems: [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]], licensed from [[Sun Microsystems]], and [[Distributed Services]] or DS. DS had the distinction of being built on top of SNA, and thereby being fully compatible with DS on the IBM midrange [[IBM System i|AS/400]] and mainframe systems. For the graphical user interfaces, AIX v2 came with the X10R3 and later the X10R4 and X11 versions of the [[X Window System]] from MIT, together with the [[Xaw|Athena widget set]]. Compilers for [[Fortran]] and [[C (programming language)|C]] were available. One of the more popular desktop applications was the [[PageMaker]] [[desktop publishing]] software.

=== IBM PS/2 series===
'''AIX PS/2''' (also known as '''AIX/386''') was developed by [[Locus Computing Corporation]] under contract to IBM. AIX PS/2, first released in 1989, supported [[IBM PS/2]] [[personal computer]]s with [[Intel 386]] or later processors.

===IBM mainframes===
In 1988, IBM announced '''AIX/370''', also developed by Locus Computing. AIX/370 was IBM's first attempt to offer Unix-like functionality for their mainframe line, specifically the [[System/370]]. AIX/370 was released in 1990 with functional equivalence to System V Release 2 and 4.3BSD as well as IBM enhancements. With the introduction of the [[ESA/390]] architecture, AIX/370 was replaced by '''AIX/ESA''' in 1991, which was based on [[OSF/1]], and also ran on the [[System/390]] platform. This development effort was made partly to allow IBM to compete with [[Amdahl]] UTS. Unlike AIX/370, AIX/ESA ran both natively as the host operating system, and as a guest under [[VM (Operating system)|VM]]. AIX/ESA, while technically advanced, had little commercial success, partially because UNIX functionality was added as an option to the existing mainframe operating system, [[MVS]], which became [[MVS/ESA|MVS/ESA OpenEdition]] in 1999.

===POWER/PowerPC-based systems ===
The release of AIX version 3 (sometimes called '''AIX/6000''') coincided with the announcement of the first IBM RS/6000 models. The RS/6000 was unique in that it not only outperformed all other machines in integer compute performance, but also beat the competition by a ''factor of 10'' in floating-point performance. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}

Releases of AIX version 3 also took advantage of the developments in the POWER architecture.

AIX v3 innovated in several ways on the software side. It was the first operating system to introduce the idea of a [[journalling file system]], [[IBM Journaled File System 2 (JFS2)|JFS]], which allowed for fast boot times by avoiding the need to [[fsck]] the disks on every reboot. Another innovation was the introduction of [[shared library|shared libraries]], which avoided the need for an application to statically link to the libraries it used. The resulting smaller binaries used less of the hardware RAM, to run, and used less of the disk space to install. Besides improving performance, it was a boon to developers: executable binaries could be in the 10s of [[kilobyte]]s instead of a megabyte for an executable statically linked to the [[C library]]. AIX v3 also ditched the microkernel of AIX v2, a contentious move that resulted in v3 being somewhat more "pure" (and containing no PL/1 code) than v2.

Other notable subsytems included:
* [[IRIS GL]], a 3D rendering library, the progenitor of [[OpenGL]]. IrisGL was licensed by IBM from [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], then a small company which had sold only one thousand machines to date. SGI also provided the low-end graphics card for the RS/6000, capable of drawing 20,000 [[Gouraud shading|Gouraud-shaded]] triangles per second. The high-end graphics card was designed by IBM, a follow-on to the mainframe-based [[IBM 5080]], capable of rendering 990K vectors per second.
* [[PHIGS]], another 3D rendering API, popular in automotive CAD/CAM circles, and at the core of [[CATIA]].
* Full support for version 11 of the X Window System, together with [[Motif (widget toolkit)|Motif]] as the recommended widget collection and window manager.
* Network file systems: [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]] from Sun; AFS, the [[Andrew File System]]; and DFS, the [[Distributed File System]].
* NCS, the [[Network Computing System]], licensed from [[Apollo Computer]] (later purchased by [[Hewlett-Packard|HP]])
* The [[NeXT]] windowing system (NeXT DPS). This was notable as a "plan B", in case the X11/Motif/IrisGL combination failed in the marketplace. In almost every way, NeXT was a better technology, and had better and more interesting features than X11/Motif. However, it was highly proprietary: it hadn't been licensed to any other Unix vendor. This, in the face of the [[Open system (computing)|open system]]s challenge of X11/Motif and its lack of 3D support, cemented its failure in the marketplace.

As of 2007, the current release of AIX supports the RS/6000 and System p, [[BladeCenter]] JS-series, [[IntelliStation]] POWER, and [[System i5]] platforms.

====Apple Network Servers====
The [[Apple Network Server]] systems were PowerPC-based systems designed by [[Apple Computer]] to have numerous high-end features that standard Apple hardware did not have, including swappable hard drives, redundant power supplies, and external monitoring capability. These systems were more or less based on the [[Power Macintosh]] hardware available at the time but were designed to use AIX (versions 4.1.4 or 4.1.5) as their native operating system.

AIX was only compatible with the Network Servers and was not ported to standard Power Macintosh hardware. Not to be confused is [[A/UX]], Apple's earlier version of Unix for [[68k]]-based [[Macintosh]]es.

=== IA-64 systems ===
As part of [[Project Monterey]], a [[beta test]] version of AIX 5L was released for the IA-64 ([[Itanium]]) architecture in 2001, but this was abandoned before it became an official product.

==Versions==
===POWER/PowerPC releases===
* AIX 6.1, [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/p/os/aix/v61/index.html November 9, 2007]
** [[Workload Partitions]]
** Live Application Mobility
** Role Based Access Control [[RBAC]]
** AIX Security Expert hardening tool
** Trusted AIX
** Integrated Electronic Service Agent(tm) for auto error reporting
** Encrypting JFS2 filesystem
** Trusted Execution
** Concurrent Kernel Maintenance
** Kernel exploitation of POWER6 storage keys
** probevue dynamic tracing
** Systems Director Console for AIX
** Integrated filesystem snapshot
** Partition mobility on [[POWER6]]
* AIX 5L 5.3, [http://www-306.ibm.com/software/support/systemsp/lifecycle/ August 13, 2004]
** [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]] Version 4 support
** Advanced Accounting
** Virtual [[SCSI]]
** Virtual Ethernet
** [[Simultaneous multithreading]] (SMT) support
** [[Micro-Partitioning]] support
** POWER5 support
** [[IBM Journaled File System 2 (JFS2)|JFS2]] quota support
** JFS2 filesystem shrink support
* AIX 5L 5.2, [http://www-306.ibm.com/software/support/systemsp/lifecycle/ October 18, 2002]
** Introduced support for the IBM [[BladeCenter]] JS20 with the [[PowerPC 970]].
** Minimum level required for POWER5 hardware
** Support for [[multipath I/O|MPIO]] [[Fibre Channel]] disks
** [[iSCSI]] Initiator software
** [[Dynamic Logical Partitioning|Dynamic LPAR]] support
* AIX 5L 5.1, May 4,2001
** Introduced support for the [[IA-64]] architecture, although this never went beyond beta,[http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-0404.html]
** Minimum level required for POWER4 hardware and the last release that supported [[Micro Channel architecture]]
** Introduction of [[64-bit]] [[Kernel (computer science)|kernel]], installed but not activated by default
** JFS2
** introduced [[DLPAR|Logical Partitioning]] on [[POWER4]]
** The L stands for [[Linux]] affinity
** [[Trusted Computing Base]] (TCB)

* AIX 4.3.3, September 17,1999
** Added online [[backup]] function
** Workload Management (WLM)
* AIX 4.3.2, October 23,1998
* AIX 4.3.1, April 24,1998
* AIX 4.3, October 31,1997
** Support for 64-bit [[CPU design|architecture]]
** Support for [[IPv6]]
* AIX 4.2.1, April 25,1997
** [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]] Version 3 support
* AIX 4.2, May 17,1996
* AIX 4.1.5, November 8,1996
* AIX 4.1.4, October 20,1995
* AIX 4.1.3, July 7,1995
** [[Common Desktop Environment|CDE]] 1.0 became the default GUI environment, replacing [[Motif (widget toolkit)|Motif]] [[X Window System|X Window]] Manager.
* AIX 4.1.1, October 28,1994
* AIX 4.1, August 12,1994
* AIX 4.0, 1994
**Introduced support for RS/6000 systems with [[PowerPC]] processors and [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]] busses.
* AIX 3.2 1992
* AIX 3.1
** Introduction of Journaled File System ([[IBM Journaled File System 2 (JFS2)|JFS]])
* AIX 3.0, February 1990
** LVM (Logical Volume Manager) was incorporated into OSF/1.
** [[IBM AIX SMIT|SMIT]] was introduced.

=== IBM PS/2 releases ===
* AIX PS/2 v1.1, 1989
** last version was 1.3, 1992.

=== IBM 6150 RT releases ===
* AIX v1.0, 1986
* AIX v2.0
** last version was 2.2.1.

==User interfaces==
===Graphical===
The [[Common Desktop Environment]] (CDE) is AIX's default [[graphical user interface]]. As part of Linux Affinity and the free AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications (ATLA), open-source [[KDE]] and [[GNOME]] desktop are also available.

===System Management Console===
[[IBM AIX SMIT|SMIT]] is the System Management Interface Tool for AIX. It allows a user to navigate a menu hierarchy of commands, rather than using the command line. Invocation is typically achieved with the command <code>smit</code>. Experienced system administrators make use of the <code>F6</code> function key which generates the command line that SMIT will invoke to complete the proposed task.

SMIT also generates a log of commands that are performed in the <code>smit.script</code> file. The <code>smit.script</code> file automatically records the commands with the command flags and parameters used. The <code>smit.script</code> file can be used as an executable shell script to rerun system configuration tasks. SMIT also creates the <code>smit.log</code> file, which contains additional detailed information that can be used by programmers in extending the SMIT system.

<code>smit</code> and <code>smitty</code> refer to the same program, though <code>smitty</code> invokes the text-based version, while <code>smit</code> will invoke an X Window based interface if possible; however, if <code>smit</code> determines that X Window capabilities are not present, it will present the text-based version instead of failing. Determination of X Window capabilities is typically performed by checking for the existence of the <code>DISPLAY</code> variable.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
*[[Academic Operating System|AOS]], IBM's educational-market port of [[Berkeley Software Distribution|4.3BSD]]

==External links==
*[http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/aix/6/beta.html AIX 6 open beta page]
*[http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/ IBM AIX page]
*[http://www.ibm.com/collaboration/wiki/display/WikiPtype/Home AIX Wiki]
*[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/dw_forum.jsp?forum=747&cat=56 AIX 5L Technical Forum]
*[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/ AIX & UNIX dW Zone]
*[http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp AIX 5.3 Documentation]
*[http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/ AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications]
*[http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/unixservers/aixfixes.html AIX fixes]
*[http://rootvg.net/index.php RootVG.net Independent portal for AIX & System p infomation]
*[http://www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/public/applications/publications/cgibin/pbi.cgi?CTY=US&FNC=SRX&PBL=GC23-3059-01 AIX/ESA V2R2 General Information]
*[http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/aix/aixprggd/genprogc/toc.htm AIX Version 4.3 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs]
*[http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic IBM Electronic Service Agent]
{{IBM}}
{{unix-like}}

[[Category:IBM operating systems|AIX]]
[[Category:System V]]
[[Category:Power Architecture|AIX]]

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