Lucent announces itself. 1997
"The Inferno Operating System
Sean Dorward
Rob Pike
David Leo Presotto
Dennis M. Ritchie
Howard Trickey
Phil Winterbottom
Computing Science Research Center
Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs
Murray Hill, New Jersey
USA
NOTE: Originally appeared in the Bell Labs Technical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1997, pp. 5-18.
Minor revisions have been made by Vita Nuova to reflect subsequent changes to Inferno.
Copyright © 1997 Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Inferno is an operating system for creating and supporting distributed services. It was originally developed by the Computing Science Research Center of Bell Labs, the R&D arm of Lucent Technologies, and further developed by other groups in Lucent.
Inferno was designed specifically as a commercial product, both for licensing in the marketplace and for use within new Lucent offerings. It encapsulates many years of Bell Labs research in operating systems, languages, on-the-fly compilers, graphics, security, networking and portability.
Introduction
Inferno is intended to be used in a variety of network environments, for example those supporting advanced telephones, hand-held devices, TV set-top boxes attached to cable or satellite systems, and inexpensive Internet computers, but also in conjunction with traditional computing systems.
The most visible new environments involve cable television, direct satellite broadcast, the Internet, and other networks. As the entertainment, telecommunications, and computing industries converge and interconnect, a variety of public data networks are emerging, each potentially as useful and profitable as the telephone system. Unlike the telephone system, which started with standard terminals and signaling, these networks are developing in a world of diverse terminals, network hardware, and protocols. Only a well-designed, economical operating system can insulate the various providers of content and services from the equally varied transport and presentation platforms. Inferno is a network operating system for this new world.
Inferno's definitive strength lies in its portability and versatility across several dimensions: "
http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/bltj.html
What did the inferno operating system evolve into?