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Apple Rhapsody
Rhapsody is the code name given to the project to port OPENSTEP/NeXTSTEP to the Macintosh PowerPC platform. The first developer releases of Rhapsody also supported x86 before being dropped prior to Rhapsody being shipped as Mac OS X Server.
Mach, the kernel at the core of the Rhapsody OS, was designed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Mach is a simple communication-oriented kernel, and is designed to support distributed and parallel computation while still providing BSD 4.4 compatibility. The Rhapsody version of the Mach kernel is a port of CMU Release 2.0, with additional features both from Apple and from later versions of CMU Mach. Apple-only features include the Bootstrap Server and loadable kernel servers. Features from CMU Release 2.5 and beyond include scheduling and some details of messaging.
Supported Hardware
Which computer systems are supported by the Rhapsody Developer Release for Power Macintosh?
The Rhapsody Developer Release for Power Macintosh supports Power Macintosh 8500 and 8600 systems as well as Power Macintosh 9500 and 9600 systems which use an Apple supplied display video card.
The systems which are officially supported, include Power Macintosh:
- 8500/120,8500/132,8500/150,8500/180 8600/200, 8600/300, 9500/120,9500/132,9500/150,9500/180,9500/180MP*, 9500/200, 9600/200,9600/200MP*,9600/233, 9600/300, 9600/350
This multiprocessor model will support the Rhapsody Developer Release but will make use of only one processor. (Some unqualified systems may run Rhapsody Developer Release for Power Macintosh)
Rhapsody Benefits
Rhapsody is a high-end operating system that combines the ease of use and capabilities of Mac OS with the reliability and throughput of systems from NeXT Software. Rhapsody provides:
- High performance and stability: Rhapsody will be an "industrial-strength" operating system (OS), a stable, modern, fully preempted and memory-protected multitasking environment, with built-in capabilities for symmetric multiprocessing.
- Superior Internet/intranet support: The advantages of Mac OS, together with mature network-optimized technology, and deep integration of Java, should make Rhapsody an unparalleled environment for users accessing and creating for the Internet and intranets.
- State-of-the-art multimedia: Apple's existing multimedia technologies, known collectively as the QuickTime Media Layer (QTML), will be optimized for Rhapsody, providing customers with a richer and leading edge environment for multimedia creation and playback.
- Ease of use: Rhapsody will build on the ease-of-use tradition long established by Apple. It will preserve the familiar "look and feel" of today's Mac OS user interface, while incorporating improvements from NeXT Software.
- Rapid prototyping and application development: Of particular interest to corporate environments, Rhapsody object-oriented environment and development tools increase developer productivity by streamlining application development.
- Compatibility: A key part of the Rhapsody architecture is a PowerPC-native compatibility environment for Mac OS, designed to ensure that both the vast majority of Mac OS applications as well as most system extensions can work without modification. This compatibility will be provided by a complete Mac OS implementation, allowing both 68K and PowerPC-based software to operate.
Rhapsody for Developers
Rhapsody features a powerful object-oriented application environment pioneered by NeXT. This extensive framework, referred to as the "Yellow Box," will be enhanced with key Apple technologies such as QuickTime and ColorSync. Importantly, the Yellow Box is not limited to Rhapsody on PowerPC-based Macintosh systems, but can also host applications on standard PCs running Windows. This opens the market opportunity much more broadly.
Key Benefits of the Yellow Box development platform:
- Develop "best of breed" applications: The Yellow Box is a highly efficient, full featured environment featuring powerful capabilities such as complete multitasking and multithreading, truly reusable object technology, Display PostScript for screen and printing, the QuickTime Media Layer for new media and much more.
- Shortening the development cycle: The Yellow Box features many of the world's leading development techniques such as visual programming, object-oriented code, and reusable software components.
- Enabling the full promise of Java: In addition to providing support for 100% Pure Java programs, the Yellow Box goes much further by offering a complete Java-based interface. Applications written in Java no longer need to be constrained by an incomplete environment.
- Delivering solutions across multiple platforms: The Yellow Box eliminates the need to determine which platform to develop for initially because it can host applications on Macintosh hardware, standard PCs and Window systems.
Mac OS Rhapsody Architectural Diagram
Apple's next generation OS, Rhapsody, aims to provide Apple with industry leading Internet and multimedia capabilities and give Macintosh customers a smooth upgrade path to next generation computing. Main features include:
Advanced Mac Look and Feel
Rhapsody expects to include an evolution of the Mac OS appearance, combining the best of Apple and NeXT user interface technology to provide an industry-leading user experience that will be familiar to today's Macintosh customers and exciting to new users.
OPENSTEP based Application Programming Interface (API)
Rhapsody aims to deliver preemptive multitasking, protected memory and symmetric multiprocessing - giving customers and developers a robust, next generation platform. Rhapsody should also offer software developers a rich set of new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from which to develop new classes of software products that highlight the differentiation of the Mac platform. These API's are based on NeXT Software Inc.'s market-leading OPENSTEP development environment. This area of the OS is refered to in some materials as "The Yellow Box" in the Rhapsody Architecture diagram.
Java VM
It is planned to fully integrate Java into Rhapsody - with Java Libraries and a Java Virtual Machine (VM), giving Apple market-leading Java capabilities. It is Apple's intention to make both Mac OS and Rhapsody preeminent development and delivery platforms for Java applications.
Mac OS Compatibility
Rhapsody aims to support today's software through a Mac OS compatibility environment. This environment is planned to be a complete native implementation of the Mac OS hosted on the next generation OS infrastructure provided by Rhapsody. This is not a software "emulation" layer. Instead Mac OS will be ported to the advanced Rhapsody base. This area of the OS is refered to in some materials as "The Blue Box" in the Rhapsody Architecture diagram.
Core OS
A modern kernel provides a next-generation high performance Input/Output (IO) architecture, file system, messaging and scheduling between applications, and networking.
PowerPC Platform Hardware
Apple's OS plans are underpinned by a hardware strategy that continues to take advantage of PowerPC performance. It is planned that Rhapsody will be optimized for PowerPC hardware.
Documentation/Articles
- Apple Rhapsody Operating System Software
- Apple Rhapsody Runtime Architecture
- Information About Apple's OS Strategy - January 1997
Product News
Rhapsody OS Likely To End After Mac OS X Debuts 06/09/98 -- CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 JUN 9 (NB) -- By Patrick McKenna, Newsbytes.
Macintosh fans are reading confusing messages about Apple Computer's [ASDAQ:
AAPL Rhapsody operating system (OS), as a recent report suggests the once
highly touted OS is now dead. Last month, Rhapsody was identified as the core
technology for Apple's next Macintosh OS, Mac OS X (ten), as well as a
possible server OS. But Apple's evolving OS plans do not include an extended
future for Rhapsody.
"It's a good headline, but it is not really an accurate picture," said Apple spokesperson Russell Brady, in responding to the "death" of Rhapsody.
A MacWeek article claimed "Rhapsody as a strategy is dead. But the technology lives on." Citing Ken Bereskin, Apple's director of OS technologies, the report claims Apple has changed its OS strategy in relation to Rhapsody.
"It is pretty clear coming out of WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) that Rhapsody isn't a strategy anymore," said Bereskin. "As a strategy, it was incomplete -- it wasn't what the Mac OS development community wanted -- so we've changed the strategy." Although the strategy is changing, Brady said the rush to bury Rhapsody is a bit premature. Accordingly, he said Apple will release Rhapsody 1.0 sometime this fall. "I think it will be used primarily by developers and high-end users who want to get a feel for Mac OS X," he added.
"Rhapsody can be looked at as a parent for Mac OS X," continued Brady. "We are still developing Rhapsody and continue to develop the technologies it provides."
More than 10,000 Macintosh developers already have a "developers release" of Rhapsody.
A farewell to Rhapsody may be premature, but in terms of an evolving product, the OS will not be part of Apple's long-term plans. Even Brady said, "There are no plans to bring Rhapsody forward after version 1.0."
Other Apple watchers are more emphatic. "Mac OS X is Rhapsody," wrote well-known Apple commentator Don Crabb. Asked the difference between Rhapsody and Mac OS X, Apple analyst and consultant Peter Hartsook reiterated Crabb's statement by saying, "In fact, Rhapsody is Mac OS X."
In the MacWeek report, Bereskin endorsed Rhapsody 1.0 as a server platform for publishing applications. "As a product, Rhapsody doesn't represent the features, the technologies and the user experience that Mac OS X does, so it is not going to be pushed for any level of desktop deployment," Bereskin said. "But as a server, especially in Apple's core markets, it brings value."
Until recently, Apple indicated the company would pursue a parallel OS strategy with the Mac OS for desktops and Rhapsody as a server operating system. Now with a strategy which does not include future versions of Rhapsody, Apple is not going to make Rhapsody the foundation for a new OS server platform.
However, Apple could develop Mac OS X as a desktop OS and a server OS. "We are not saying Mac OS X will be a server OS," claimed Brady, "but it will include the functionality to operate as a server OS."
Hartsook said he did not see value in Apple's plans to make Rhapsody a sever OS. "That's never been clear to me exactly what that means," he added. "Yes, it (Rhapsody) has memory protection and pre-emptive multitasking and all the things you need for a server, but a server is more than just a relabeled desktop operating system."
"There are people who would buy Rhapsody as a server," Hartsook said, "but it will not be a cash cow. What hardware are you going to run it on? Well, the only thing it will run on is going to be Macintosh systems and Apple's not really building server systems at this time. It's building desktops."
Rhapsody is based on technology Apple received when the company acquired Steve Jobs' Next Software. Originally designed to serve large enterprises, the OS under Apple became the source for a complicated OS development which would apply to Power Macintosh computers and Intel- based computers.
The version of Rhapsody for Power Macintoshes was code-named the "Blue Box," and "Yellow Box" was a code-name for Rhapsody development on Windows NT, Windows 95 and eventually Mac OS platforms.
The issue of Apple developing Rhapsody or Mac OS X for Intel-based machines is no longer a likelihood. "Producing an operating system for Intel processors is not a short-term priority," Bereskin said, "From an exceptionally high level, processor independence and flexibility is always a good thing. But there are no specific product plans at all."
In summary, the Apple OS roadmap now looks as follows: Rhapsody 1.0 this fall, a couple of Mac OS 8.x upgrades after that, then Mac OS X sometime late in 1999. After that, Rhapsody is history.
Notes
- Rhapsody DR2 will not boot on a Power Macintosh 7300 even though the installer works. Use DR1 instead on this model.
- Hold down the "s" key during power on to boot into single user mode.
- Rhapsody DR1 does not support the Power Macintosh G3
Tips
Using NetInfo across subnet boundaries
It's rather easy to do: put a machine on the other subnet to act as a clone, and change its "broadcasthost" address to point at the master server instead of the broadcast address. You boot it, and once it binds to the master server, you go through the steps to set up a clone. Then you change broadcasthost back in the local domain. Done.