Ultrix

Ultrix (officially all-caps ULTRIX) is the brand name of Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) discontinued native Unix operating systems. While ultrix is also the Latin word for avenger, the name was chosen solely for its sound.

History

The initial development of Unix occurred on DEC equipment, notably DEC PDP-7 and PDP-11 (Programmable Data Processor) systems, and the new operating system was sometimes more popular than DEC's own software. Later DEC computers, such as their VAX systems, were also popular platforms on which to run Unix, the first port to VAX, UNIX/32V, was finished in 1978 (the VAX was only released in October 1977). However DEC only supplied their own proprietary operating system, VMS, prior to officially supporting Unix.

Absolutely key to bringing Unix to inside the company, DEC's Unix Engineering Group (UEG) was started by Bill Munson with Jerry Brenner and Fred Canter, both from DEC's premier Customer Service Engineering group, Bill Shannon (from Case Western Reserve University), and Armando Stettner (from Bell Labs). Other later members of UEG included Joel Magid, Bill Doll, and Jim Barclay recruited from DEC's various marketing and product management groups.