IMAX 432

iMAX 432 (Intel Multifunction Applications eXecutive for the Intel 432 Micromainframe)^[1] was an operating system developed by Intel for digital electronic computers based on the 1980s Intel iAPX 432 32-bit microprocessor.^[2] The term micromainframe was an Intel marketing designation describing the iAPX 432 processor's capabilities as being comparable to a mainframe. The iAPX 432 processor and the iMAX 432 operating system were incompatible with the x86 architecture commonly found in personal computers. iMAX 432 was implemented in a subset of the original (1980) version of the Ada, extended with runtime type checking and dynamic package creation.^[3]

iMAX 432

Developer	Intel
Written in	Ada
Working state	Discontinued
Initial release	1982; 42 years ago (1982)
Platforms	Intel iAPX 432

As of 1982 in iMAX version 2, iMAX was aimed at programmers rather than application users, and it did not provide a command line or other human interface.^[1] iMAX provided a runtime environment for the Ada programming language and other high-level languages, as well as an incomplete Ada compiler which was to be extended to cover the full Ada programming language in a later iMAX version after Version 2.^[1]

There were at least two versions of iMAX as of 1982, Version 1 and Version 2.^[1] Version 1 was undergoing internal Intel testing as of 1981 and was scheduled to be released in 1982.^[3] Version 2 was modular and the programmer could choose what parts of the iMAX operating system to load; there were two standard configurations of iMAX version 2 named "Full" and "Minimal", with the minimal configuration being similar to Version 1 of iMAX.^[1] As of 1982, a Version 3 of iMAX was planned for release, which was to add support for virtual memory.^[1]

See also

• History of operating systems

References

1. "iMAX 432 Reference Manual" (PDF). Intel. May 1982.
2. Pollack, Fred J.; Kahn, Kevin C.; Wilkinson, Roy M. (December 1981). "The iMAX-432 object filing system". ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 15 (5). Association for Computing Machinery: 137–147. doi:10.1145/1067627.806602.
3. Kahn, Kevin C.; Corwin, William M.; Dennis, T. Don; d'Hooge, Herman; Hubka, David E.; Hutchins, Linda A.; Montague, John T.; Pollack, Fred J. (December 1981). "iMAX: A multiprocessor operating system for an object-based computer" (PDF). ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 15 (5): 127–136. doi:10.1145/800216.806601. S2CID 9245960.

Bibliography

• Kahn, Kevin C.; Corwin, William M.; Dennis, T. Don; d'Hooge, Herman; Hubka, David E.; Hutchins, Linda A.; Montague, John T.; Pollack, Fred J. (December 1981). "iMAX: A multiprocessor operating system for an object-based computer" (PDF). ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 15 (5): 127–136. doi:10.1145/800216.806601. S2CID 9245960.
• Zeigler, Stephen F; Weicker, Reinhold P. (May–June 1983). "Ada Language statistics for the iMAX 432 operating system". ACM SIGAda Ada Letters. II (6). Association for Computing Machinery: 63–67. doi:10.1145/989813.989818. S2CID 24107228.