Editing Universally unique identifier (section)

== History ==

In the 1980s, [[Apollo Computer]] originally used UUIDs in the [[Network Computing System]] (NCS). Later, the [[Open Software Foundation]] (OSF) used UUIDs for their [[Distributed Computing Environment]] (DCE). The design of the DCE UUIDs was partly based on the NCS UUIDs,<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Zahn |first1=Lisa |url=https://archive.org/details/networkcomputing0000zahn/page/10/mode/1up |title=Network Computing Architecture |last2=Dineen |first2=Terence |last3=Leach |first3=Paul |last4=Martin |first4=Elizabeth |last5=Mishkin |first5=Nathaniel |last6=Pato |first6=Joseph |last7=Wyant |first7=Geoffrey |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-13-611674-5 |page=10 |url-access=registration}}</ref> whose design was in turn inspired by the ([[64-bit computing|64-bit]]) unique identifiers defined and used pervasively in [[Domain/OS]], an [[operating system]] designed by Apollo Computer.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Leach, P. J. |author2=Levine, P.H. |author3=Hamilton, J. A. |author4=Stumpf, B.L. |chapter=UIDs as internal names in a distributed file system |title=Proceedings of the first ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS symposium on Principles of distributed computing - PODC '82 |date=August 18–20, 1982 |pages=34–41|doi=10.1145/800220.806679 |isbn=0-89791-081-8 }}</ref> Later,{{when|date=June 2020}} the [[Microsoft Windows]] platforms adopted the DCE design as "Globally Unique IDentifiers" (GUIDs).

RFC 4122 registered a [[URN]] namespace for UUIDs and recapitulated the earlier specifications, with the same technical content.<ref name="RFC 4122" /> When in July 2005 RFC 4122 was published as a proposed [[IETF]] standard, the [[ITU]] had also standardized UUIDs, based on the previous standards and early versions of RFC 4122. On May 7, 2024, RFC 9562{{r|RFC 9562}} was published, introducing 3 new "versions" and clarifying some ambiguities.