Computing Atlas

How Computing Was Built
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
System

Minix 3

Operating System

Minix 3 is a small, Unix-like operating system released under the BSD-3-Clause license, built by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and publicly announced on October 24, 2005 as a major step beyond the earlier Minix 1.x and 2.0 releases rather than a simple update to them. Its central design goal is fault tolerance: a microkernel architecture keeps device drivers and system servers running as separate user-mode processes rather than inside the kernel itself, so the system can detect a fault, restart the failed component on the fly and keep the rest of the system running with no user intervention. Minix 3 is aimed mainly at embedded systems and education, making its self-healing, isolated-component design a practical demonstration of microkernel principles. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
License
BSD 3-Clause 1
Status
Status
Active / In Use 1
Year
2005 1
FAQs

What does it mean that Minix 3 is built on a microkernel?

Only a tiny microkernel runs in kernel mode, and the rest of the system runs as isolated, protected user-mode processes.

Only a tiny microkernel runs in the processor's kernel mode. The rest of the operating system runs as a number of isolated, protected processes in user mode. The project describes the system as designed to be highly reliable, flexible and secure.

Which processors and software does Minix 3 work with?

It runs on x86 and ARM processors, is compatible with NetBSD and runs thousands of NetBSD packages.

Minix 3 runs on x86 and ARM processors. It is compatible with NetBSD and runs thousands of NetBSD packages.
Connections

In Field

Source Wikipedia: Minix 3

Invented By

Source Wikidata: Minix 3
Additional Source Wikipedia: Minix 3Infobox: developer

Licensed Under

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Minix 3
  • Infobox: released
    October 24, 2005
  • Lead sentence
    Minix 3 is a small, Unix-like operating system published under a BSD-3-Clause license, and is a successor project to the earlier versions, Minix 1.x and 2.0. The project's main goal is for the system to be fault-tolerant by detecting and repairing its faults o
  • Lead section
    Minix 3 is a small, Unix-like operating system published under a BSD-3-Clause license, and is a successor project to the earlier versions, Minix 1.x and 2.0. The project's main goal is for the system to be fault-tolerant by detecting and repairing its faults on the fly, with no user intervention.
  • Invented By: Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Infobox: developer
    Andrew S. Tanenbaum et al.
View the Source
Wikidata: Minix 3
Wikidata Q770573, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.