Tenon Intersystems Inc, a year-old start-up, is putting Mach on the Mac, offering the Carnegie Mellon University kernel while preserving the famous Apple Computer Inc interface and extending it to Unix programs. Tenon’s software, dubbed MachTen and due out next quarter, runs as an application under the Mac’s native operating system. The Santa Barbara, California-based firm says MachTen, based on BSD 4.3 and Mach 2.5, includes over 300 Unix programs and a Mach kernel that supports a standard Unix applications environment. That environment enables all standard Mac programs run simultaneously with Unix programs and reportedly gives the Mac true Unix multitasking, full internet communications and a distributed file system via NFS. Data files are stored in Mac-form so the Unix and Mac programs can share data. Tenon says MacTen will run on the whole Mac family provided the box has a minimum of 2Mb RAM and a 20Mb hard disk though 80Mb-100Mb are better. In the US, a two-user licence will go for $600; an unlimited licence for $835, but there will be no upgrade from one to the other. Technical documentation will be $280.
