Cover Story (sidebar) / December 1994

Apple's Future System Software

Tom R. Halfhill

Copland

Late 1995

• Microkernel architecture that separates operating system from hardware dependencies

• Preemptive multitasking and memory protection for low-level processes

• Faster I/O architecture

• Integrated OpenDoc

• Open Transport network-abstraction layer

• Scalable user interface with active assistance

• Mostly native code for PowerPC

Gershwin

1996

• Preemptive multitasking and memory protection for all processes

• Further-improved GUI, customizable for different users and applications

• Integrated 3-D graphics

• Ability to run TAE (Taligent Application Services)

Copyright 1994-1998 BYTE

Return to Tom's BYTE index page