Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX)
Definition - What does Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) mean?
Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX) is an implementation of the Unix operating system that is based on the UNIX System V, developed by Hewlett-Packard and first released in 1984. It was originally developed for HP’s proprietary Integral PC and then made to run on 9000 series business servers. HP-UX was the first Unix-like operating system that offered access control lists as a viable alternative to the standard permissions system of Unix.
Techopedia explains Hewlett-Packard Unix (HP-UX)
Hewlett-Packard Unix was first released in 1984 on the HP Integral PC as version 1 and version 2 in 1986 on the 9000/500 series of servers utilizing HP FOCUS architecture. It had very strong influences from BSD Unix from the beginning up to version 9.x. Version 10 and onward are closer to System V Unix, with the latest version, 11, catering to more modern concepts such as cluster and cloud computing.
The first version, released in 1984, was nothing more than an embedded ROM version released on the HP Integral PC with the kernel running from the ROM, while other commands ran from the disk. The latest version, which is HP-UX 11i, is geared towards cluster computing, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and overall cloud computing. It offers operating-system-level virtualization such as hardware partitions, individual OS partitions on cell-based servers and HP virtual machines on Integrity servers.