iMAX 432

iMAX 432 (Intel Multifunction Applications Executive for the Intel 432 Micromainframe)[1] was an operating system developed by Intel for digital electronic computers based on the 1980s Intel iAPX 432 32-bit microprocessor.[2] The term micromainframe was an Intel marketing designation describing the iAPX 432 processor's capabilities as being comparable to a mainframe. The iAPX 432 processor and the iMAX 432 operating system were incompatible with the x86 architecture commonly found in personal computers in the 1980s-2010s. iMAX 432 was implemented in a subset of the original (1980) version of the Ada, extended with runtime type checking and dynamic package creation.[3]

As of 1982 in iMAX version 2, iMAX was aimed at programmers rather than application users, and it did not provide a command line or other human interface.[1] iMAX provided a runtime environment for the Ada programming language and other high-level languages, as well as an incomplete Ada compiler which was to be extended to cover the full Ada programming language in a later iMAX version after Version 2.[1]

There were at least two versions of iMAX as of 1982, Version 1 and Version 2.[1] Version 1 was undergoing internal Intel testing as of 1981 and was scheduled to be released in 1982.[3] Version 2 was modular and the programmer could choose what parts of the iMAX operating system to load; there were two standard configurations of iMAX version 2 named "Full" and "Minimal", with the minimal configuration being similar to Version 1 of iMAX.[1] As of 1982, a Version 3 of iMAX was planned for release, which was to add support for virtual memory.[1]