Hewlett-Packard on Monday said it has contributed the source code of its Tru64 Unix file system to the open source community.

HP has contributed the code as a reference implementation of a Linux file system under terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License. In addition, the company is providing design documentation, test suites, and engineering resources.

Tru64 is a 64-bit Unix operating system for the Alpha microprocessor architecture owned by HP. Tru64 was a product of Compaq, which was acquired by HP in 2002. HP had planned to migrate Tru64's most innovative features, including the file system, to its own Unix OS, called HP-UX, according to online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Those plans were later abandoned. HP, however, has said it would continue to support Tru64 until at least 2012. The next maintenance release for the OS is planned for this year.

The Tru64 file system will provide a foundation for Linux kernel developers to improve file system functionality within the open source operating system, according to HP. "We continue to invest our engineering resources in the development of that technology, while working with the open source community to ensure accessibility and seamless integration," Martin Fink, senior VP and general manager of HP Business Critical Systems, said in a statement.

HP has posted the Tru64 file system source code and supporting materials on SourceForge.net.

HP runs its HP-UX OS on Intel's 64-bit Itanium server processor. Besides Tru64, HP also acquired the VMS platform in the Compaq purchase, and later proceeded to migrate third-party applications that ran on the two operating systems to HP-UX. Many users, however, chose to move to Linux from Tru64 instead.