From 1999 through 2008, Terra Soft Solutions remained dedicated to the PowerPC architecture, bringing to Power Linux users world-wide a number of innovations and industry firsts:

2009
(as Fixstars, which acquired Terra Soft in October of 2008)

  • World’s first Linux OS to ship with Barcelona Supercomputing “Cell SuperScalar” (C translator for Cell).
  • World’s first H.264 encoder for Sony PLAYSTATION3 (operates entirely from PS3 Flash in less than 4MB).
  • Sold largest Sony PS3 supercomputer (1,760 nodes) to U.S. Air Force.

2008

  • Terra Soft helps Student Project Africa Network raise more than $3000 USD in less than five days to feed and clothe the children of the Pistis orphanage caught in the deadly cross-fire in Nakuru, Kenya.
  • First Linux OS to ship with IBM Cell SDK pre-installed.
  • Only commercial Linux OS to support all Cell-based solutions on the market.
  • Exclusive operating system for the Sony ZEGO BCU-100 1U Cell + GPU rackmount, as launched by Sony at SIGGRAPH.
  • Terra Soft Solutions acquired by Fixstars to create world’s largest, most experienced Cell development engineering team.

2007

  • Terra Soft launches the HPC Consortium.
  • Terra Soft hosts the first ever Cell Hack-a-thon.
  • Terra Soft launches first commercial Linux OS to support a decade of Apple PowerPC, IBM System p, and IBM, Mercury and Sony Cell products from a single install DVD.
  • Terra Soft helps integrate a Sony PS3 into the realtime image processing system on-board Jeep Grand Cherokee for the DARPA autonomous vehicle challenge.

2006

  • First commercial Linux OS to support FireWire booting.
  • Penguin OEMs Y-Bio; Scalable Informatics resells Y-Bio.
  • First Linux OS to support Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3).
  • First commercial Linux OS to integrate Enlightenment E17 as the default desktop.
  • First commercial cluster construction suite for Cell; both x86 and Power.

2005

  • Terra Soft launches Y-Bio, first PowerPC Linux bioinformatics application suite.
  • Terra Soft assists Colsa to #15 in Top500.org.
  • First commercial Linux OS for Cell via the Mercury BSP.

2004

  • Boeing chooses YDL as OS foundation for Boeing B1 flight simulators.
  • Y-HPC introduced at SC2004 with 64-bit support, beating OSX to the G5s.
  • YDL gains IBM XL support.

2003

  • Terra Soft contracted to create Momentum and Motorola BSPs.
  • TSS captures largest Xserve sale to date — Lockheed Martin/Navy submarine imaging system.
  • Duke University builds ‘yum‘ (Yellowdog Updater Modified) from Terra Soft’s original yup, quickly becoming the industry standard for RPM management.

2002

  • Terra Soft signs as Apple VAR with unique license to pre-install non-OSX OS.
  • First commercial Linux OS to support Apple Xserves.
  • Installs largest Xserve cluster to date — University Colorado, Boulder.

2001

  • First commercial Linux OS for Total Impact briQ; TSS resells briQs.
  • Through the development of a new GUI installer for YDL, Terra Soft develops ‘yup’, Yellowdog UPdate for automated RPM management (later to become the industry standard “yum”, see 2003).

2000

  • Apple Federal invites Terra Soft on 9-week educational roadtour.
  • First Linux OS to provide AltiVec compiler support.
  • First commercial Linux OS and cluster suite for CSPI FastCluster.
  • First Linux OS to provide support for IBM Power4 (through LinuxCare).

1999

  • Terra Soft is founded (January) and Yellow Dog Linux is born (March).
  • First to provide ATA support on G3s.
  • First to offer PowerPC Linux suite for parallel computing (“Black Lab”).
  • First Linux OS for IBM RS/6000 B50 “Pizzazz”.
  • First to offer pre-installed drives for channel distribution (via Pinacor); MacMall for catalog sales.
  • First commercial Linux OS for Apple G4.
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