Common Hardware Reference PlatformCommon Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) is a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems published jointly by IBM and Apple in 1995. Like its predecessor PReP, it was conceptualized as a design to allow various operating systems to run on an industry standard hardware platform, and specified the use of Open Firmware and RTAS for machine abstraction purposes.
PowerPCPowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has been named Power ISA since 2006, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture–based processors.
Mac (computer)Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh apple. As of 2026, the product lineup includes the MacBook Neo, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Studio desktops. Macs are currently sold with Apple's Unix-based macOSoperating system, which is not licensed to other manufacturers and exclusively bundled with Mac computers.
IBM AIXSeries of Unix operating systems from IBM Operating system AIXScreenshot of IBM AIX version 7.3DeveloperIBMWritten inCOS familyUnix (System V)Working stateCurrentSource modelClosed source; formerly source availableInitial releaseFebruary 1986; 40 years ago (1986-02)Latest release7.3 TL4 (7.3.4) / December 2025; 9 months ago (2025-12)Marketing targetWorkstation, ServerSupported platformsCurrent: Power ISAFormer: IBM ROMP, IBM POWER, PowerPC, x86 (IBM PS/2), System/370, ESA/390, IA-64 (Itanium)Kernel typeMonolithic with dynamically loadable modulesUserlandPOSIX / SUSDefaultuser interfaceKornShell (ksh88), Common Desktop Environment,(Plasma Workspaces and GNOME optional)LicenseProprietaryOfficial websiteibm.com/products/aix History of IBM mainframe operating systems Early mainframe computer OSes GM OS & GM-NAA I/O (1955) BESYS (1957) UMES (1958) SOS (1959) IBSYS (1960) MIT CTSS (1961) 7040/7044 Operating System (16/32K) (7040-PR-150) 1410/7010 Operating System(1410-PR-155) Miscellaneous S/360 line OSes BOS/360 (1965) TOS/360 (1965) TSS/360 (1967) MTS (1967) ORVYL (1967) RACS (1965) RAX (1966) MUSIC (1972) MUSIC/SP (1985) DOS/360 and successors (1966) DOS/360 (1965) DOS/VS (1972) DOS/VSE (1979) VSE/AF (1979) VSE/SP (1983, 1985) VSE/ESA (1991) z/VSE (2005) VSEn (2021) OS/360 and successors (1966) MFT (1966) MFT II (1968) OS/VS1 (1972) OS/VS1 BPE MVT (1967) 65MP OS/VS2R1 (SVS) (1972) MVS (OS/VS2R2 and later) (1974) MVS/SE (1978) MVS/SE 2 (1979) MVS/SP Version 1 (1980) MVS/XA (1983) MVS/ESA (1988) OS/390 (1995) z/OS (2000) VM line CP-40/CMS (1967) CP-67/CMS (1967) VP/CSS (1968) VM/370 (1972) VM/BSE (BSEPP) VM/SE (SEPP) VM/SP (1980) VM/XA MA (1984) VM/XA SF (1985) VM/XA SP (1988) VM/ESA (1990) z/VM (2000) TPF line ACP (1967) TPF (1979) z/TPF (2005) UNIX and Unix-like UTS (1981) AIX/370 (1990) AIX/ESA (1991) MVS/ESA OpenEdition (1993) VM/ESA OpenEdition (1995) OS/390 UNIX System Services (1996) Linux (1999) z/VM OpenExtensions (2000) z/OS UNIX System Services (2001) OpenSolaris (2008) vte AIX (pronounced /ˌeɪ.aɪ.ˈɛks/ ay-eye-EKS) is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM since 1986.
Windows NTWindows NT is a proprietarygraphicaloperating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, originally released for the workstation, office, and server markets as Windows NT 3.1 on July 27, 1993, and later available to consumers since the release of Windows XP in 2001.
Apple Inc.American multinational technology companyApple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley, and known for consumer electronics, software and online services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year.
OS/2OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a discontinued proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, intended as a replacement for DOS. The first version was released in 1987. A feud between the two companies beginning in 1990 led to Microsoft's leaving development solely to IBM, which continued development on its own.
TaligentSoftware company (1992–1998)Taligent Inc. (a portmanteau of "talent" and "intelligent") was an American software company. Based on the Pinkobject-oriented operating system conceived by Apple in 1988, Taligent Inc. was incorporated as an Apple/IBM partnership in 1992, and was dissolved into IBM in 1998. In 1988, after launching System 6 and MultiFinder, Apple initiated the exploratory project named Pink to design the next generation of the classic Mac OS.
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, doing business asIBM (nicknamed Big Blue), is an American multinationaltechnology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is a publicly traded company and one of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Systems architectureA system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and views of a system. An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structures and behaviors of the system. A system architecture can consist of system components and the sub-systems developed, that will work together to implement the overall system.
Reference implementationLook up in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Oracle SolarisUnix operating system originally developed by Sun MicrosystemsOperating systemOracle Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system offered by Oracle for SPARC and x86-64 based workstations and servers. Originally developed by Sun Microsystems as Solaris, it superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993 and became known for its scalability, especially on SPARC systems, and for originating many innovative features such as DTrace, ZFS and Time Slider.
PowerPCPowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has been named Power ISA since 2006, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture–based processors.Mac (computer)Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh apple. As of 2026, the product lineup includes the MacBook Neo, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Studio desktops. Macs are currently sold with Apple's Unix-based macOSoperating system, which is not licensed to other manufacturers and exclusively bundled with Mac computers.IBM AIXSeries of Unix operating systems from IBM Operating system AIXScreenshot of IBM AIX version 7.3DeveloperIBMWritten inCOS familyUnix (System V)Working stateCurrentSource modelClosed source; formerly source availableInitial releaseFebruary 1986; 40 years ago (1986-02)Latest release7.3 TL4 (7.3.4) / December 2025; 9 months ago (2025-12)Marketing targetWorkstation, ServerSupported platformsCurrent: Power ISAFormer: IBM ROMP, IBM POWER, PowerPC, x86 (IBM PS/2), System/370, ESA/390, IA-64 (Itanium)Kernel typeMonolithic with dynamically loadable modulesUserlandPOSIX / SUSDefaultuser interfaceKornShell (ksh88), Common Desktop Environment,(Plasma Workspaces and GNOME optional)LicenseProprietaryOfficial websiteibm.com/products/aix History of IBM mainframe operating systems Early mainframe computer OSes GM OS & GM-NAA I/O (1955) BESYS (1957) UMES (1958) SOS (1959) IBSYS (1960) MIT CTSS (1961) 7040/7044 Operating System (16/32K) (7040-PR-150) 1410/7010 Operating System(1410-PR-155) Miscellaneous S/360 line OSes BOS/360 (1965) TOS/360 (1965) TSS/360 (1967) MTS (1967) ORVYL (1967) RACS (1965) RAX (1966) MUSIC (1972) MUSIC/SP (1985) DOS/360 and successors (1966) DOS/360 (1965) DOS/VS (1972) DOS/VSE (1979) VSE/AF (1979) VSE/SP (1983, 1985) VSE/ESA (1991) z/VSE (2005) VSEn (2021) OS/360 and successors (1966) MFT (1966) MFT II (1968) OS/VS1 (1972) OS/VS1 BPE MVT (1967) 65MP OS/VS2R1 (SVS) (1972) MVS (OS/VS2R2 and later) (1974) MVS/SE (1978) MVS/SE 2 (1979) MVS/SP Version 1 (1980) MVS/XA (1983) MVS/ESA (1988) OS/390 (1995) z/OS (2000) VM line CP-40/CMS (1967) CP-67/CMS (1967) VP/CSS (1968) VM/370 (1972) VM/BSE (BSEPP) VM/SE (SEPP) VM/SP (1980) VM/XA MA (1984) VM/XA SF (1985) VM/XA SP (1988) VM/ESA (1990) z/VM (2000) TPF line ACP (1967) TPF (1979) z/TPF (2005) UNIX and Unix-like UTS (1981) AIX/370 (1990) AIX/ESA (1991) MVS/ESA OpenEdition (1993) VM/ESA OpenEdition (1995) OS/390 UNIX System Services (1996) Linux (1999) z/VM OpenExtensions (2000) z/OS UNIX System Services (2001) OpenSolaris (2008) vte AIX (pronounced /ˌeɪ.aɪ.ˈɛks/ ay-eye-EKS) is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM since 1986.Windows NTWindows NT is a proprietarygraphicaloperating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, originally released for the workstation, office, and server markets as Windows NT 3.1 on July 27, 1993, and later available to consumers since the release of Windows XP in 2001.Apple Inc.American multinational technology companyApple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley, and known for consumer electronics, software and online services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year.OS/2OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a discontinued proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, intended as a replacement for DOS. The first version was released in 1987. A feud between the two companies beginning in 1990 led to Microsoft's leaving development solely to IBM, which continued development on its own.TaligentSoftware company (1992–1998)Taligent Inc. (a portmanteau of "talent" and "intelligent") was an American software company. Based on the Pinkobject-oriented operating system conceived by Apple in 1988, Taligent Inc. was incorporated as an Apple/IBM partnership in 1992, and was dissolved into IBM in 1998. In 1988, after launching System 6 and MultiFinder, Apple initiated the exploratory project named Pink to design the next generation of the classic Mac OS.IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, doing business asIBM (nicknamed Big Blue), is an American multinationaltechnology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is a publicly traded company and one of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.Systems architectureA system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and views of a system. An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structures and behaviors of the system. A system architecture can consist of system components and the sub-systems developed, that will work together to implement the overall system.Reference implementationLook up in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Oracle SolarisUnix operating system originally developed by Sun MicrosystemsOperating systemOracle Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system offered by Oracle for SPARC and x86-64 based workstations and servers. Originally developed by Sun Microsystems as Solaris, it superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993 and became known for its scalability, especially on SPARC systems, and for originating many innovative features such as DTrace, ZFS and Time Slider.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.