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When development started in 1988, Windows NT was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. In addition to working on three versions of OS/2, Microsoft continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment. When Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990, it was so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still-unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM, and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone, while Microsoft continued work on the newly-renamed Windows NT. Windows NT would be far more successful than OS/2, due largely to Microsoft's market prowess.
Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler to build Windows NT, and many elements reflect earlier DEC experience with VMS and RSX-11. The OS is designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures, with the kernelThe word kernel can mean more than one thing. The kernel of a seed is all that is within the outer coat of the seed, as the edible substance contained in the shell of a nut; hence, anything included in a shell, husk, or integument. The term kernel can als separated from the hardware by a hardware abstraction layerA hardware abstraction layer is a layer between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer. The function is to hide differences in hardware and therefore provide a consistent platform to run applications on. The best e. APIs are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented Native API; it was this that allowed the late adoption of the Windows API. Originally a microkernel design, subsequent releases have integrated more functions into the kernel for better performance. Windows NT was the first operating system to use UnicodeIn computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. This includes all scripts still in active use today, many scripts known only by scholars, and sy internally.
The following are the major releases of Windows NT:
| Version | Editions | Released |
| Windows NT 3.1 | Workstation, Advanced Server | 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic. |
| Windows NT 3.5 | Workstation, Server | 19941994 is a common year starting on Saturday, and was designated the International year of the Family''. Events January events January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect January 6 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an |
| Windows NT 3.51 | Workstation, Server | 19951995 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). It has a Golden number of 1, and was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995- 2005): http://www. org/culture/indigenous . Events January events Ja |
| Windows NT 4.0 | Workstation, Server, Terminal Server | 1996 |
| Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) | Professional, Server, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server | 2000 |
| Windows XP (NT 5.1) | Home, Professional, Media Center, Tablet PC, Starter, Embedded, 64-Bit | 2001 |
| Windows Server 2003 (NT 5.2) | Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web | 2003 |
The first release was given version number 3.1 to match the contemporary 16-bit Windows; magazines of that era claimed the number was also used to make that version seem more reliable than a ".0" release.
Windows NT 3.1 ran on Intel IA-32, DEC Alpha, MIPS R4000, and PowerPC processors; Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its Clipper architecture and later SPARC, but neither version was sold to the public. Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until 1999, when Compaq stopped support for Windows NT on that architecture. Windows XP 64-Bit, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter support Intel's IA-64 processors. As of September 2004, Microsoft had published beta releases of three editions for the AMD64: Windows XP Professional x64, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64.