Supported platforms
NT was written in C or C++ [4], a mid-level language. This means that it can be compiled to run on several processor systems. It also proved far more difficult to port applications such as Microsoft Office which were sensitive to issues such as data structure alignment on RISC processors. Unlike Windows CE which routinely runs on a variety of processors, the lack of success of RISC-based systems in the desktop market has resulted in nearly all actual NT deployments being on x86 architecture processors.
In order to prevent Intel x86-specific code from slipping into the operating system by developers used to developing on x86 chips, Windows NT 3.1 was initially developed using non-x86 development systems and then ported to the x86 architecture. This work was initially based on the Intel i860-based Dazzle system and, later, the MIPS R4000-based Jazz platform. Both systems were designed internally at Microsoft.[5]
Windows NT 3.1 was released for Intel x86 PC compatible, DEC Alpha, and ARC-compliant MIPS platforms. Windows NT 3.51 added support for the PowerPC processor in 1995, specifically PReP-compliant systems such as the IBM Power Series desktops/laptops and Motorola PowerStack series; but despite meetings between Michael Spindler and Bill Gates, significantly not on the Power Macintosh.
Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its Clipper architecture and later Windows NT 3.51 was ported to SPARC,[6] but neither version was sold to the public as a retail product.
Only two of the Windows NT 4.0 variants (IA-32 and Alpha) have a full set of service packs available. All of the other ports done by third parties (Motorola, Intergraph, etc.) have few, if any, publicly available updates.
Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until August 1999, when Compaq stopped support for Windows NT on that architecture; and then three days later Microsoft also canceled their AlphaNT program, even though the Alpha NT 5 (Windows 2000) release had reached RC2 (build 2128).
Released versions of NT for Alpha were 32-bit only. The 64 bit port of Windows was originally intended to run on Itanium as well as on Alpha, and Alpha hardware was accordingly used internally at Microsoft during early development of 64-bit Windows.[7] This continued for some time after Microsoft publicly announced that it was cancelling plans to ship 64-bit Windows for Alpha, because Itanium hardware was not yet available for development. [8]
Windows XP 64-Bit, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter support Intel's IA-64 processors. As of April 25, 2005 Microsoft had released four editions for 'x64' (see x86-64 architecture): Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition.
It is a common misconception that the Xbox and Xbox 360 use a modified Windows 2000 kernel.[9] The Xbox operating system was built from scratch but implements a subset of
Hardware requirements
The minimum hardware specification required to run each release of the professional workstation version of Windows NT has been fairly slow-moving until the 6.0 Vista release, which requires a minimum of 15 GB of free disk space plus an additional 5 GB of extra space for 6.0, a 10-fold increase in free disk space alone over the previous version.
| NT Version | CPU | RAM | Free disk space |
|---|---|---|---|
| NT 3.51 Workstation | 386, 25 MHz | 8 MB | 90 MB |
| NT 4.0 Workstation | 486, 33 MHz | 12 MB | 110 MB |
| 2000 Professional | Pentium, 133 MHz | 32 MB | 650 MB |
| XP | Pentium MMX, 233 MHz | 64 MB | 1.5 GB |
| Fundamentals for Legacy PCs | Pentium MMX, 233 MHz | 64 MB | 610 MB |
| Vista | Pentium III, 800 MHz | 512 MB | 15 GB |
'NT' designation
It is popularly believed that Dave Cutler intended the initialism 'WNT' as a pun on VMS, incrementing each letter by one, similar to the apocryphal story of Arthur C. Clarke's deriving HAL 9000's name by decrementing each letter of IBM. While this would have suited Cutler's sense of humor, the project's earlier name of NT OS/2 belies this theory. Another of the original OS/2 3.0 developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the Intel i860 processor—code-named N10 (or 'N-Ten') —which served as the original target hardware.[10] Various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session with Bill Gates,[11] reveal that the letters were expanded to 'New Technology' for marketing purposes but no longer carry any specific meaning.
The letters were dropped from the name of Windows 2000, though literature contained the phrase 'Built on NT technology' and the system folder retained the WINNT designation. This action ostensibly reflected Microsoft's intent to unify its home and business lines, then represented by Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0, but this goal would not be fully achieved until the introduction of Windows XP.
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