title: Tanks of the United States

text: The T95 was an American series of prototype medium tanks developed from 1955 to 1959. These tanks used many advanced or unusual features, such as siliceous-cored armor, the APFSDS-firing 90 mm T208 smoothbore gun in a rigid mounting without a recoil system, a new transmission, and fire-control system, which incorporated the "T53 Optical Tracking, Acquisition and Ranging (OPTAR)" system, emitted pulsed beams of intense incoherent infrared light.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M103 was manufactured at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant and the first units were accepted in 1957.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M103 was designed to counter Soviet heavies. Its long-ranged 120 mm cannon was designed to hit enemy tanks at extreme distances, but it was never used in combat. Of the 300 M103s built, most went to the Marines. The tank was relatively underpowered and the drive systems were fragile.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The turret of the M103 was larger than that of the M48 or the M60 to make room for the huge 120 mm gun and the two loaders assigned to it, in addition to the gunner and the commander. The driver sat in the hull. The gun was capable of elevation from +15 to -8 degrees.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: While the US Army deactivated its heavy armor units with the reception of the new M60 series main battle tanks in 1960, the remaining M103s stayed within the US Marine Corps inventory until they began receiving the M60 series MBT. With the disappearance of the heavy tank from US forces came the full acceptance of the main battle tank in 1960 in the U.S. Army, and 1973 in the U.S. Marine Corps.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The design of the M551 Sheridan was initiated when the replacement for the M41, the T92 Light Tank, was canceled.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The need for even lighter weight than the T-92 presented the design with a particularly difficult problem; guns capable of defeating modern tanks at reasonable ranges were so large that they demanded a large vehicle to carry them, so large that they couldn't be used as a "light" tank. The use of HEAT rounds instead of conventional penetrating ammunition could address this, but HEAT rounds work better at larger calibers. Gun weight is typically the product of caliber and muzzle velocity, so in the case of the XM551 they sacrificed the muzzle velocity, producing the low-velocity but relatively large-caliber 152 mm M81. HEAT rounds fired by the M81 could defeat any contemporary tank at shorter ranges, but its low velocity made it difficult to use at longer ranges, especially against moving targets. The large low-velocity gun was also ideal for infantry support, where higher performance anti-tank guns would often fire right through soft targets and their small-caliber guns left little room for explosive filler. The M81 would thus be ideal for both direct fire support as well as short-distance anti-tank engagements.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The only niche where the M81 was not ideal was the medium and long-range anti-tank engagement. The muzzle velocity was so low that a HEAT round fired at longer ranges would have to be "lofted", making aiming difficult, and the flight time would be so long that a moving target would be very difficult to hit. However, it appeared there was a solution to this problem by equipping the tank with gun-fired anti-tank missiles. For longer range engagements a missile would be fired instead of a HEAT round, and although its velocity would also be relatively slow, the guidance system would make a hit highly likely anyway. A number of vehicles mounting only ATGM's, or alternately recoilless rifles like the US's own Ontos tank were already in service, but typically these vehicles had limited firepower in the infantry support role, or in the case of Ontos could not be reloaded from within the vehicle. The XM551 appeared to offer the best of both worlds; for infantry support the large calibre gun allowed it to fire full-sized artillery rounds and canister shot, while also giving it reasonable short-range anti-tank performance from the same gun. Although the Shillelagh missile was considered a risky project, if it worked the XM551 would be able to deal with even the largest tanks at extreme ranges.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The vehicle designed to mount the gun had a steel turret and aluminum hull. It was powered by a large diesel engine. The M551 thus had excellent mobility, able to run at speeds up to 45 mph. Swimming capability was provided by a flotation screen. Production started on late July 1966, and entered service in June 1967. More than 1,600 M551s were built between 1966 and 1970. Total cost of the M551 program was $1.3 billion.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The vehicle proved to be very noisy and unreliable under combat conditions. The armor was thin enough that it could be penetrated even by heavy machine gun rounds as well as being highly vulnerable to mines.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Firing the gun would often adversely affect the delicate electronics, which were at the early stages of transitioning to solid state, so the missile and guidance system was omitted from vehicles deployed to Vietnam. Indeed, this missile would end up almost never being fired in anger, despite the production of 88,000 of the expensive missiles. The gun had problems with cracks developing near the breech after repeated firing. Most field units were modified to help address the problem and the modified M81E1 was introduced with a shallower slot, along with a matching modification to the missile, that cured the problem. The gun also has been criticized for having too much recoil for the vehicle weight, the second and even third road wheels coming clear off the ground when the main gun fired.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The Sheridan saw extensive action in the Vietnam War, being assigned to nearly all armored cavalry squadrons in the country. In 1969, armored cavalry units began replacing their M48 Patton tanks.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The battle reports from the troops were sometimes glowing, while the reports higher up the chain of command were often negative. A 1969 evaluation of the vehicles found the M551 was employed in reconnaissance, night patrol and road clearing, accumulating 39,455 road miles and 520 combat missions, with a ready rate of 81.3 percent. Despite vulnerability to rockets and mines, it was judged worth applying modifications and equip all cavalry squadrons with the Sheridan.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The Sheridan was much appreciated by the infantry who were desperate for direct-fire support, which generally served in combination with ACAVs (M113s) as armored cavalry units consisted of both M113s and M551s as part of their TO&E. Armor units consisted solely of tanks (minus headquarters company) and Mechanized Infantry units consisted solely of M113s. In this role the real problem with the Sheridan was its limited ammunition load of only 20 rounds and 8 missiles (though M551s in Vietnam service were not equipped with missiles or their guidance equipment, increasing the basic load of conventional rounds).


title: Tanks of the United States

text: A common field-modification was to mount a large steel shield, known as an "ACAV set" (Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle), around the commander's 50-cal. (12.7 mm) gun, allowing it to be fired with some level of protection. The driver has an unusual rotating hatch which has vision blocks when rotated forward. Included with the set was an extra layer of steel belly armor which was bolted onto the vehicle's bottom, although only covering from the front to halfway to the end, possibly due to weight reasons.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: A standard modification made during the mid-70's was the addition of the "Cereal Bowl" commander's cupola. This mod came about due to the broken rib effect that occurred when the Sheridan fired conventional rounds, the recoil would pitch the TC against the armor plating resulting in cracked ribs.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M48s saw extensive action during the Vietnam War; over 600 Pattons would be deployed with US Forces during the war. The initial M48s landed with the US Marines in 1965. Remaining Pattons deployed to South Vietnam were in three U.S. Army battalions, the 1-77th Armor near the DMZ, the 1-69th Armor in the Central Highlands, and the 2-34th Armor near the Mekong Delta. Each battalion consisted of approximately fifty seven tanks. M48s were also used by Armored Cavalry Squadrons in Vietnam, until replaced by M551 Sheridan tanks. The M67A1 flamethrower tank (nicknamed the Zippo) was an M48 variant used in Vietnam.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: When US forces commenced redeployment operations, many of the M48A3 Pattons were turned over to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces, in particular creating the ARVN 20th Tank Regiment; which supplemented their M41 Walker Bulldog units. During the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Easter Offensive in 1972, tank clashes between NVA T-54/PT-76 and ARVN M48/M41 units became commonplace, but on 23 April 1972, tankers of the 20th Tank Regiment were attacked by an NVA infantry-tank team, which was equipped with the new "9M14M Malyutka" (NATO designation: Sagger) wire guided anti-tank missile. During this battle, one M48A3 Patton tank and one M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle (ACAV) were destroyed, becoming the first losses to the Sagger missile; losses that would echo on an even larger scale a year later during the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1973.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M48s performed admirably in Vietnam in the infantry-support role. However, there were few actual tank versus tank battles. The M48s provided adequate protection for its crew from small arms, mines, and rocket-propelled grenades.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: In the mid-1970s, the M48A5 upgrade was developed to allow the vehicle to carry the heavier 105 mm gun. This was designed to bring the M48s up to speed with the M60 tanks then in regular use. Most of the M48s were placed into service with reserve units by this time. By the mid-1990s, the M48s were phased out.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: In 1957, plans were laid in the US for a tank with a 105 mm main gun and a redesigned hull offering better armor protection.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The resulting M60 largely resembled the M48 it was based on, but has significant differences. The M60 mounted a bore evacuated 105 mm main gun, had a hull with a straight front slope whereas the M48's hull was rounded, had three support rollers per side to the M48's five, and had road wheels constructed from aluminum rather than steel.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The hull of the M60 was a single piece steel casting divided into three compartments, with the driver in front, fighting compartment in the middle and engine at the rear. The driver looked through three M27 day periscopes, one of which could be replaced by a night vision periscope. Initially, the M60 had essentially the same turret shape as the M48, but this was subsequently replaced with a distinctive "needlenose" design that minimized frontal cross-section to enemy fire.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M60 was the last U.S. main battle tank to utilize homogeneous steel armor for protection. It was also the last to feature either the M60 machine gun or an escape hatch under the hull.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Originally designated the M68, the new vehicle was put into production in 1959, reclassified as the M60, and entered service in 1960. Over 15,000 M60s (all variants) were constructed.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: In 1963, the M60 was upgraded to the M60A1. This new variant, which stayed in production until 1980, featured a larger, better-shaped turret and improvements to the armor protection and shock absorbers. The M60A1 was also equipped with a stabilization system for the main gun. However, the M60A1 was still not able to fire on the move, as the system only kept the gun pointed in the same general direction while the tank was traveling cross country. It did however enable the coaxial machine gun to be brought to bear while moving.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The Army reclassified their armor (tanks) in 1950 from heavy, medium, and light tanks to 120mm, 90mm and 76mm gun tanks, etc. Consequently, when the M551 Sheridan entered combat in Vietnam in January 1969, it was assigned to strictly cavalry units, and was classified as an "Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicle M551" and not a light tank. The last official U.S. light tank in service was the M41 Walker Bulldog, and that vehicle was never used in combat by U.S. forces; being transferred to Army South Vietnamese forces (ARVN) and U.S. Army Guard/Reserve forces until being phased out of general service, excepting special service units: Airborne, OPFOR (Opposing Force-Training), Ft. Irwin, etc. Airborne units began to phase out the Sheridan in 1978, although at the time there was no real replacement. Nevertheless, the 82nd Airborne were able to keep them on until 1996. The Sheridan was the only air-deployable tank in the inventory, and as such they had considerably more "pull" than non-airborne units who were forced to get rid of them. Their units were later upgraded to the M551A1 model, including a thermal sighting system for the commander and gunner.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The Sheridan's only air drop in combat occurred during Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, when fourteen M551's were deployed; four were transported by C-5 Galaxies and ten were dropped by air, but two Sheridans were destroyed upon landing. The Sheridans' performance received mixed reviews. They were lauded by their operators and some commanders as providing firepower in situations which needed to destroy hard targets. However, the Sheridans' employment of only HEAT rounds limited their effectiveness against reinforced concrete construction.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: 51 Sheridans were deployed in the Gulf War as some of the first tanks sent. They would not be very effective against the Russian-built T-72s. Their role was limited by age and light armor to reconnaissance, possibly 6 or fewer Shillelagh missiles were test fired at empty Iraqi bunkers. These few missiles, less than a half-dozen of the 88,000 produced, were the only Shillelaghs fired in a combat environment.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Several attempts to up-gun or replace the Sheridan have been made, but none were successful. Several experimental versions of the Sheridan mounting a new turret carrying a 105 mm gun were made. The U.S. Army sought to replace the M8 Armored Gun System, but this was canceled in 1996. The Sheridan was retired without a replacement until the M1128 Mobile Gun System (MGS) came online. The MGS never reached its potential after a protracted procurement effort. It is being retired in 2022. The U.S. Army's current light tank procurement program is Mobile Protected Firepower.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M60A2, nicknamed the "Starship" due to its Space Age technology, featured an entirely new low-profile turret with a commander's machine-gun cupola on top, giving the commander a good view and field of fire while under armor but spoiling the low profile. It also featured a 152 mm cannon, which fired conventional rounds as well as guided missiles.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M60A2 proved a disappointment, though technical advancements would pave the way for future tanks. The Shillelagh/M60A2 system was phased out from active units by 1981, and the turrets scrapped. Most of the M60A2 tanks were rebuilt as M60A3.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The development of the M60A2 with a new turret fitted with a 152mm gun was stopped and in 1978, work began on the M60A3 variant. It featured a number of technological enhancements, including smoke dischargers, a new rangefinder, and M21 ballistic computer, and a turret stabilization system. In addition, it reverted to the M68A1 105 mm cannon. All active American Army M60s eventually underwent the conversion to the A3 model. The M60A3 main battle tanks of the US Army were deployed in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 during the Gulf Crisis.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The MBT-70 (German: KPz 70) was an American–West German joint project to develop a new main battle tank during the 1960s.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The MBT-70 was developed by the United States and West Germany in the context of the Cold War, intended to counter the new generation of Warsaw Pact tanks developed by the Soviet Union. The new tank was to be equipped with a number of advanced features such as newly developed "kneeling" hydropneumatic suspension and housing the entire crew in the large turret, and was armed with a 152mm XM150 gun/launcher, which could use conventional ammunition and the Shillelagh missile for long range combat.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: By the late 1960s, the development of the MBT-70 was well over budget and affected by design issues. West Germany withdrew from the project due to costs and a new difference in requirements. The United States continued development of the MBT-70 until 1971 when the program was finally cancelled. West Germany independently developed the Leopard 2 as its new main battle tank.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M1 Abrams came from the diverted funds from the over budget and impractical MBT-70 and XM815 projects.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Prototypes were delivered in 1976 by Chrysler Defense and General Motors armed with a license-built 105 mm rifled cannon. The Chrysler Defense design was selected for development as the M1. In 1979, General Dynamics Land Systems Division purchased Chrysler Defense. The M1 was the first of its kind. It featured a low profile turret and for the first time ever on a tank, composite chobham armor. Despite all these advances, the Abrams still retained the 4-man crew of the M60 tank as the autoloader was considered unproven and risky.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: About 6,000 upgraded M1A1 Abrams were produced and used a 120 mm smoothbore cannon, improved armor, and a CBRN protection system.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Since the Cold War the U.S. has moved away almost completely from using light tanks; instead supplementing these with heavily armed armored cars. The M60A1/(A3 For Army) tank continued in service with the Marines and saw action in the Gulf War.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M60A1 tanks of the U.S. Marines saw action during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, opposing Iraqi armor which included the T-54/T-59, T-55, T-62, Type 69, and T-72. The M60A1s were fitted with add-on explosive reactive armor (ERA) packages and supported the drive into Kuwait City where they were involved in a two-day tank battle at the Kuwait airport with the loss of only one vehicle and no crew. They saw service with the United States Marine Corps, and the Saudi Arabian Army.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: When the Abrams entered service in the 1980s, they operated alongside M60A3 within the United States military, and with other NATO tanks in numerous Cold War exercises. These exercises usually took place in Western Europe, especially West Germany, but also in some other countries like South Korea. During such training exercises, Abrams' crews honed their skills for use against Soviet soldiers, equipment and vehicles. However, by 1991 the USSR had collapsed and the Abrams had not been in any combat.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The Abrams remained untested in combat until the Gulf War in 1991. A total of 1,848 M1A1s were deployed to Saudi Arabia. The M1A1 was superior to Iraq's Soviet-era T-55 and T-62 tanks, as well as Iraqi assembled Russian T-72s, and locally produced copies (Asad Babil tank). The T-72s, like most Soviet export designs, lacked night vision systems and then-modern rangefinders, though they did have some night fighting tanks with older active infrared systems or floodlights—just not the latest starlight scopes and passive infrared scopes as on the Abrams. Only 23 M1A1s were taken out of service in the Gulf and one of these losses resulted in crew deaths from Iraqi fire. Some others took minor combat damage, with little effect on their operational readiness. Very few Abrams tanks were hit by enemy fire, and there was only one fatality, along with a handful of wounded as a result.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The "M1A2" was a further improvement, with a commander's independent thermal viewer and weapon station, position navigation equipment, digital data bus and a radio interface unit.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Further upgrades included depleted uranium armor for all variants, a system overhaul that returns all A1s to like-new condition (M1A1 AIM), a digital enhancement package for the A1 (M1A1D), a commonality program to standardize parts between the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps (M1A1HC) and an electronic upgrade for the A2 (M1A2 SEP).


title: Tanks of the United States

text: During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and for Bosnia, some M1A1s were modified with armor upgrades.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: Further combat was seen during 2003 in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of March 2005, approximately 80 Abrams tanks were forced out of action by enemy attacks.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The campaign in Iraq saw very similar performance from the tank from the Persian Gulf war, with no Abrams crew member being lost to hostile fire during the invasion of Iraq, although several tank crew members were later killed by snipers and roadside bombs during the occupation that followed. Abandoned Abrams were purposely destroyed by friendly fire to prevent recovery of vehicle or technology. Damage by 25 mm AP-DU, anti-armor RPG fire and 12.7 mm rounds was encountered. But on no occasion did anti-tank guided weapons or anti-tank mines strike the US MBTs.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The most lopsided achievement of the M1A1s was the destruction of seven T-72 Lion of Babylon tanks in a point-blank skirmish (less than ) near Mahmoudiyah, about south of Baghdad, with no losses for the American side. However, on 29 October 2003, two soldiers were killed and a third wounded when their tank was disabled by an anti-tank mine, which was combined with other explosives (, including several 155 mm rounds) to increase its effect. The massive explosion beneath the tank knocked off the turret. This marked the first time deaths resulted from a hostile-fire assault on the M1 tank from enemy forces.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The M1A3 Abrams is in the early design period with the U.S. Army. The Army aims to build prototypes by 2014 and to begin to field the first combat-ready M1A3s by 2017. The Army anticipates that the Abrams may remain in U.S. service until 2050.


title: Tanks of the United States

text: The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems' XM1202 was to replace the Abrams and was in development when funding for the program was cut from the DoD's budget. The Army is tentatively working on a successor to the Abrams under the Decisive Lethality Platform.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires (), or Hundred-Handers, also called the Centimanes, (; ), named Cottus, Briareus (or Aegaeon) and Gyges (or Gyes), were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. In the standard tradition they were the offspring of Uranus (Sky) and of Gaia (Earth), and helped Zeus and the Olympians to overthrow the Titans in the Titanomachy.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The three Hundred-Handers were named Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. Cottus ("Κόττος") is a common Thracian name, and is perhaps related to the name of the Thracian goddess Kotys. The name Briareus ("Βριάρεως") was probably formed from the Greek "βριαρός" meaning "strong". Hesiod's "Theogony" also calls him "Obriareus". The name Gyges is possibly related to the mythical Attic king Ogyges ("Ὠγύγης"). "Gyes", rather than Gyges, is found in some texts.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Homer's "Iliad" gives Briareus a second name, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while Aegaeon ("Αἰγαίων") is the name that men call him. The root "αἰγ-" is found in words associated with the sea: "αἰγιαλός" "shore", "αἰγες" and "αἰγάδες" "waves". The name suggests a connection with the Aegean Sea. Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon or Aegaeus ("Αἰγαῖος"). Aegaeon could be a patronymic, i.e. "son of Aegaeus", or it could instead mean "the man from Aegae".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The name Hecatoncheires derives from the Greek "ἑκατόν" (hekaton, "hundred") and "χείρ" (cheir, "hand” or "arm"). Although the "Theogony" describes the three brothers as having one hundred hands ("ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες"), the collective name Hecatoncheires ("Ἑκατόγχειρες"), i.e. the Hundred-Handers, is never used. The "Theogony" once refers to the brothers collectively as "the gods whom Zeus brought up from the dark", otherwise it simply uses their individual names: Cottus, Briareus (or Obriareus) and Gyges.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The "Iliad" does not use the name Hecatoncheires either, although it does use the adjective "hekatoncheiros" ("ἑκατόγχειρος"), i.e. "hundred-handed", to describe Briareus. It is possible that Acusilaus used the name, but the first certain usage is found in the works of the mythographers such as Apollodorus.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The Hundred-Handers, Cottus, Briareus and Gyges, were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were among the eighteen offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), which also included the twelve Titans, and the three one-eyed Cyclopes. According to the "Theogony" of Hesiod, they were the last of these children of Uranus to be born, while according to the mythographer Apollodorus they were the first. In the Hesiodic tradition, they played a key role in the Greek succession myth, which told how the Titan Cronus overthrew his father Uranus, and how in turn Zeus overthrew Cronus and his fellow Titans, and how Zeus was eventually established as the final and permanent ruler of the cosmos.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to the standard version of the succession myth, given in the accounts of Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Hundred-Handers, along with their brothers the Cyclopes, were imprisoned by their father Uranus. Gaia induced Cronus to castrate Uranus, and Cronus took over the supremacy of the cosmos. With his sister the Titaness Rhea, Cronus fathered several offspring, but he swallowed each of them at birth. However, Cronus' last child Zeus was saved by Rhea, and Zeus freed his brothers and sisters, and together they (the Olympians) began a great war, the Titanomachy, against the Titans, for control of the cosmos. Gaia had foretold that, with the help of the Hundred-Handers, the Olympians would be victorious, so Zeus released them from their captivity and the Hundred-Handers fought alongside the Olympians against the Titans and were instrumental in the Titans' defeat. The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus with the Hundred-Handers as their guards.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The lost epic poem the "Titanomachy" (see below), although probably written after Hesiod's "Theogony", perhaps preserved an older tradition in which the Hundred-Handers fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. According to a euhemeristic rationalized account, given by Palaephatus, Cottus and Briareus, rather than being hundred-handed giants, were instead men, who were called the Hundred-Handers because they lived in a city called Hecatoncheiria ("Hundredarm"). They came to the aid of the residents of the city of Olympia (i.e. the Olympians) in driving away the Titans from their city.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Briareus was the most prominent of the three Hundred-Handers. In Hesiod's "Theogony" he is singled out as being "good", and is rewarded by Poseidon, who gives Briareus his daughter Cymopolea (otherwise unknown) for his wife.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: In Homer's "Iliad", Briareus is given a second name, Aegaeon, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while mortals call him Aegaeon. It is told in the "Iliad" how, during a palace revolt by the Olympians Hera, Poseidon and Athena, who wished to chain Zeus, the sea goddess Thetis brought to Olympus:


title: Hecatoncheires

text: This second name does not seem to be a Homeric invention. According to the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, the legendary seventh-century BC poet Cinaethon apparently knew both names for the Hundred-Hander. The name also appears in the lost epic poem the "Titanomachy".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: While in Hesiod and Homer, the powerful Hundred-Hander Briareus was a faithful and rewarded ally of Zeus, the "Titanomachy" seems to have reflected a different tradition. Apparently, according to the "Titanomachy", Aegaeon was the son of Gaia and Pontus (Sea), rather than Gaia and Uranus, and fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. The scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon was defeated by Poseidon. Apollonius of Rhodes mentions the "great tomb of Aegaeon", seen by the Argonauts when "they were passing within sight of the mouth of the Rhyndacus ... a short distance beyond Phrygia". The scholiast on Apollonius, says that the tomb marked the spot where Aegaeon's defeat occurred.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: As in the lost "Titanomachy", for the Latin poets Virgil and Ovid, Briareus was also an enemy of the gods, rather than an ally. In his "Aeneid", Virgil has Aegaeon make war against the gods, "with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords". Ovid, in his poem "Fasti", has Briareus on the side of the Titans. As Ovid tells us, after the Titans had been overthrown, apparently in order to restore the Titans to power, Briareus sacrificed a bull, about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer the gods. However just when Briareus was about to burn the entrails, birds snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: In the lost epic "Titanomachy", Aegaeon was the son of Pontus (Sea), and lived in the sea. Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea can perhaps already be seen in Hesiod and Homer. In the "Theogony", Briareus ends up living, apart from his brothers, with Cymopolea the (sea-nymph?) daughter of Poseidon the god of the sea, where it might be supposed the couple dwells, while in the "Iliad" one might also suppose that Briareus dwells in the sea, since it was the sea goddess Thetis that fetched him to Olympus. Apparently, this was made explicit by the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios, who referring to the Homeric story of the Olympians' revolt against Zeus, said that Aegaeon was the son of Thalassa (Sea) and that Thetis "summoned him from the Ocean". A connection to the sea can also be seen in the name Aegaeon ("Αἰγαίων᾽") itself. The root "αἰγ-" is found in words associated with the sea: "αἰγιαλός" 'shore', "αἰγες" and "αἰγάδες" 'waves'. while Poseidon himself was sometimes called Aegaeon.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Later writers also make Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea explicit. According to Aelian, Aristotle said that the Pillars of Heracles (i.e. the Strait of Gibraltar) had been previously named the Pillars of Briareus. Ovid, in his "Metamorphoses", describes Aegaeon as a "dark-hued" sea god "whose strong arms can overpower huge whales", while according to Arrian apparently, the Aegean Sea was said to have been named after Aegaeon. As reported by Pliny, according to the Euboean Archemachus, the first man to sail in a "long ship” was Aegaeon.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus, the belt that Heracles was sent to fetch in his ninth labour (usually said to have belonged to Hippolyta), belonged to Oeolyca, the daughter of Briareus.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Briareus/Aegaeon had a particular connection with the Greek island of Euboea. According to the third-century Latin grammarian Solinus, Briareus was worshipped at Carystus, and Aegaeon at Chalcis. Aegaeon was said to be the name of a ruler of Carystus, which had also been named Aigaie ("Αίγαίη") after him, while Briareus was said to be the father of Euboea, after whom the island took its name. Aegeaon was perhaps associated with the place name Aegae mentioned by Homer ("Il." 13.21, "Od." 5.381) as Poseidon's home, and located by Strabo (8.7.4, 9.2.13) in Euboea north of Chalcis, as a place where Poseidon had a temple.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Briareus/Aegaeon seems also closely connected with Poseidon. The name Aegaeon has associations with Poseidon. As noted above, Homer locates Poseidon's palace in Aegae. Poseidon was sometimes himself called Aegaeon, or Aegaeus ("Αἰγαῖος"), and Aegaeon could mean 'son of Aegaeus'.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Homer says that Briareus/Aegaeon "is mightier than his father", but who Homer is referring to as the father is unclear. It has been sometimes supposed that contrary to Hesiod, who makes Uranus the father of Briareus, Cottus and Gyges, the father being referred to here is Poseidon, although this interpretation of Homer is uncertain at best.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: In the "Theogony" Briareus becomes the son-in-law of Poseidon, while Poseidon, whether regarded as the father of Briareus/Aegaeon, or not, is a central figure in the story told about the Hundred-Hander in the ‘’Iliad’’. Both are sea-gods with a special connection to Euboea. As noted above Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon, and it is possible that Aegaeon was an older cult-title for Poseidon, however according to Lewis Richard Farnell, it is more likely that Poseidon inherited the title of an "older Euboean sea-giant".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: As mentioned above, the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon was defeated by Poseidon. Possibly then, Briareus/Aegaeon was an older (pre-Greek?) sea-god eventually displaced by Poseidon.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to a Corinthian legend, Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios (Sun) over some land, deciding that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) to Helios.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The third-century BC poet Callimachus, apparently confusing Briareus as one of the Giants, says he was buried under Mount Etna in Sicily, making his shift from one shoulder to the other, the cause of earthquakes. Like Callimachus, Philostratus also makes Aegaeon the cause of earthquakes. According to an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, “the first to use metal armour was Briareos, whilst previously men protected their bodies with animal skins.” These stories are perhaps connected to a myth which may have made Briareus, like the Olympian god Hephaestus, a subterranean smith, who used the fires of Mount Etna as a forge for metalworking.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Briareus and Aegean, were perhaps originally, separate entities. Briareus/Aegaeon may have once been a many-armed sea monster, personifying the uncontrolled power of the sea itself. As noted above, Briareus/Aegaeon may have been an older god of the sea, replaced by Poseidon. He was perhaps a Greek reflection of Near-Eastern traditions in which the Sea challenged the storm-god, such as in the Ugaritic tradition of the battle between Yammu (Sea) and the storm-god Baal.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to the "Theogony" of Hesiod, Uranus (Sky) mated with Gaia (Earth) and produced eighteen children. First came the twelve Titans, next the three one-eyed Cyclopes, and finally the three monstrous brothers Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. As the "Theogony" describes it:


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Uranus hated his children, including the Hundred-Handers, and as soon as each was born, he imprisoned them underground, somewhere deep inside Gaia. As the "Theogony" describes it, Uranus bound the Hundred-Handers


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Eventually Uranus' son, the Titan Cronus, castrated Uranus, freeing his fellow Titans (but not, apparently, the Hundred-Handers), and Cronus became the new ruler of the cosmos. Cronus married his sister Rhea, and together they produced five children, whom Cronus swallowed as each was born, but the sixth child, Zeus, was saved by Rhea and hidden away to be raised by his grandmother Gaia. When Zeus grew up, he caused Cronus to disgorge his children, and a great war was begun, the Titanomachy, between Zeus and his siblings, and Cronus and the Titans, for control of the cosmos.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Gaia had foretold that Zeus would be victorious with the help of the Hundred-Handers, so Zeus released the Hundred-Handers from their bondage under the earth, and brought them up again into the light. Zeus restored their strength by feeding them nectar and ambrosia, and then asked the Hundred-Handers to "manifest your great strength and your untouchable hands" and join in the war against the Titans.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: And so the Hundred-Handers "took up their positions against the Titans ... holding enormous boulders in their massive hands", and a final great battle was fought. Striding forth from Olympus, Zeus unleashed the full fury of his thunderbolt, stunning and blinding the Titans, while the Hundred-handers pelted them with enormous boulders:


title: Hecatoncheires

text: As to the fate of the Hundred-Handers, the "Theogony" first tells us that they returned to Tartarus, to live nearby the "bronze gates" of the Titans' prison, where presumably, they took up the job of the Titans' warders. However, later in the poem, we are told that Cottus and Gyges "live in mansions upon the foundations of Ocean", while Briareus, "since he was good" became the son-in-law of Poseidon, who gave him "Cymopoliea his daughter to wed".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: In a story that survives nowhere else, the "Iliad" briefly mentions Briareus (where it is said he was also called Aegaeon), referring to his having been summoned to Zeus' defense when "the other Olympians wished to put [Zeus] in bonds, even Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene." Achilles, while asking his mother the sea goddess Thetis to intercede with Zeus on his behalf, reminds her of a frequent boast of hers, that, at a time when the other Olympians wished to bind Zeus, she saved him by fetching the hundred-handed Briareus to Olympus:


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The lost epic poem the "Titanomachy", based on its title, must have told the story of the war between the Olympians and the Titans. Although probably written after Hesiod's "Theogony", it perhaps reflected an older version of the story. Only references to it by ancient sources survive, often attributing the poem to Eumelus a semi-legendary poet from Corinth. One mentions Aegaeon, the name identified with the Hundred-Hander Briareus in the "Iliad". According to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes' "Argonautica":


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Thus the "Titanomachy" apparently followed a different tradition than the more familiar account in the "Theogony". Here Briareus/Aegaeon was the son of Earth (Gaia) and Sea (Pontus) rather than Earth and Sky (Uranus), and he fought against the Olympians, rather than for them.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to the same scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes mentioned above, the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios said that Aegaeon (who Thetis summoned in the "Iliad" to aid Zeus), lived in the sea and was the son of Thalassa.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The first-century BC Latin poet Virgil, in his "Aeneid", may have drawn on the same version of the story as that given in the lost "Titanomachy". Virgil locates Briareus, as in Hesiod, in the underworld, where the Hundred-Hander dwells among "strange prodigies of bestial kind", which include the Centaurs, Scylla, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimaera, the Gorgons, the Harpies, and Geryon.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Here Virgil has the Hundred-Hander as having fought on the side of the Titans rather than the Olympians, as in the "Titanomachy", with the additional descriptive details of the fifty fire-breathing mouths and breasts, and the fifty sets of sword and shield, perhaps also coming from that lost poem.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The late first-century BC Latin poet Ovid, makes several references to the Hundred-Handers Briareus and Gyges in his poems. Briareus figures in a story that Ovid tells in his "Fasti" about how "The star of the Kite" (presumably a star or constellation named after the bird) came to reside in the heavens. According to Ovid, there was a monstrous offspring of "mother Earth", part bull, part serpent, about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer the gods. Warned by the three Fates, Styx penned up the bull in "gloomy woods" surrounded by three walls. After the Titans were overthrown, Briareus (whom Ovid appears to regard as a Titan, or Titan ally) "sacrificed" the bull with an adamantine axe. But when he was about to burn the entrails, the birds, as commanded by Jupiter (Zeus), snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars. In his "Metamorphoses", Ovid describes Aegaeon (the "Iliad"'s Briareus) as a "dark-hued" sea god "whose strong arms can overpower huge whales". In both of these poems, Ovid appears to be following the same tradition as in the lost "Titanomachy", where Aegaeon was the sea god son of Pontus and a Titan ally.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Ovid mentions "Gyas of the hundred hands" in his "Amores", when "Earth made her ill attempt at vengeance, and steep Ossa, with shelving Pelion on its back, was piled upon Olympus." In his "Fasti", Ovid has Ceres (Demeter), complaing about the abduction of her daughter, say: "What worse wrong could I have suffered if Gyges had been victorious and I his captive." In both of these poems, Ovid has apparently confused the hundred-handers with the Giants (a different set of monstrous offspring of Gaia) who tried to storm Olympus in the Gigantomachy. Ovid perhaps also confused the Hundred-Handers with the Giants in his "Metamorphoses", where he refers to the Giants having tried to "fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven". Ovid also refers to "a hundred-handed Gyes" in his "Tristia".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The mythographer Apollodorus, gives an account of the Hundred-Handers similar to that of Hesiod's, but with several significant differences. According to Apollodorus, they were the first offspring of Uranus and Gaia, (unlike Hesiod who makes the Titans the eldest) followed by the Cyclopes, and the Titans.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Apollodorus describes the Hundred-Handers as "unsurpassed in size and might, each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads."


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Uranus bound the Hundred-Handers and the Cyclopes, and cast them all into Tartarus, "a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from earth as earth is distant from the sky." But the Titans are, apparently, allowed to remain free (unlike in Hesiod). When the Titans overthrew Uranus, they freed the Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes (unlike in Hesiod where they remain imprisoned), and made Cronus their sovereign. But Cronus once again bound the six brothers, and reimprisoned them in Tartarus.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: As in Hesiod's account, Cronus swallowed his children; but Zeus, who was saved by Rhea, freed his siblings, and together they waged war against the Titans. According to Apollodorus, in the tenth year of the war, Zeus learned from Gaia, that to win he needed both the Hundred-Handers and the Cyclopes, so Zeus slew their warder Campe and released them:


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The fifth-century BC philosopher Plato, in his dialogue "Laws", mentions, in passing emphasizing the importance of training soldiers involving all hands(which are normally two), "That indeed if a man is gifted in the form of Briareus, with his hundred hands, he should train with his 100 hands".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The first-century AD Latin poet Horace, twice mentions "centimanus" ('hundred-handed') Gyges. In one poem Gyges and the "fiery Chimaera" are given as examples of fearsome creatures. In another poem, Gyges is used as an example of "power" hated by the gods "that devises every kind of evil in its heart."


title: Hecatoncheires

text: According to the second-century AD geographer Pausanias, a Corinthian legend said that Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios (Sun) over some land. Briareus adjudged that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) to Helios.


title: Hecatoncheires

text: Servius, the late fourth-century, early fifth-century AD commentator on Virgil, also seems to know of two versions of the Titanomachy, one in which the Hundred-Handers fought on the side of the Olympians, as in Hesiod, and the other in which they fought on the side of the Titans, as in the lost "Titanomachy".


title: Hecatoncheires

text: The fifth-century AD Greek poet Nonnus, in his "Dionysiaca", mentions Briareus with his "ready hands" and Aegaeon as the "protector of [Zeus'] laws."


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a feature of Windows that allows developers to run a Linux environment without the need for a separate virtual machine or dual booting. There are two version of WSL, WSL 1 and WSL 2. WSL 1 was first released on August 2, 2016, and acts as a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables (in ELF format) by implementing Linux system calls on the Windows kernel. It is available on Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: In May 2019, WSL 2 was announced, introducing important changes such as a real Linux kernel, through a subset of Hyper-V features. WSL 2 differs from WSL 1 in that WSL 2 runs inside a managed virtual machine that implements the full Linux kernel. As a result, WSL 2 is compatible with more Linux binaries than WSL 1, as not all syscalls were implemented in WSL 1. Since June 2019, WSL 2 is available to Windows 10 customers through the Windows Insider program, including the Home edition. WSL is not available to all Windows 10 users by default. It can be installed either by joining the Windows Insider program or manual install.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Microsoft's first foray into achieving Unix-like compatibility on Windows began with the Microsoft POSIX Subsystem, superseded by Windows Services for UNIX via MKS/Interix, which was eventually deprecated with the release of Windows 8.1. The technology behind Windows Subsystem for Linux originated in the unreleased Project Astoria, which enabled some Android applications to run on Windows 10 Mobile. It was first made available in Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14316.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Whereas Microsoft's previous projects and the third-party Cygwin had focused on creating their own unique Unix-like environments based on the POSIX standard, WSL aims for native Linux compatibility. Instead of wrapping non-native functionality into Win32 system calls as Cygwin did, WSL's initial design (WSL 1) leveraged the NT kernel executive to serve Linux programs as special, isolated minimal processes (known as ""pico processes"") attached to kernel mode ""pico providers"" as dedicated system call and exception handlers distinct from that of a vanilla NT process, opting to reutilize existing NT implementations wherever possible.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: WSL beta was introduced in Windows 10 version 1607 (Anniversary Update) on August 2, 2016. Only Ubuntu (with Bash as the default shell) was supported. WSL beta was also called "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" or "Bash on Windows". WSL was no longer beta in Windows 10 version 1709 (Fall Creators Update), released on October 17, 2017. Multiple Linux distributions could be installed and were available for install in the Windows Store.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: In 2017 Richard Stallman expressed fears that integrating Linux functionality into Windows will only hinder the development of free software, calling efforts like WSL "a step backward in the campaign for freedom."


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Though WSL (via this initial design) was much faster and arguably much more popular than the previous UNIX-on-Windows projects, Windows kernel engineers found difficulty in trying to increase WSL's performance and syscall compatibility by trying to reshape the existing NT kernel to recognize and operate correctly on Linux's API. At a Microsoft Ignite conference in 2018, Microsoft engineers gave a high-level overview of a new "lightweight" Hyper-V VM technology for containerization where a virtualized kernel could make direct use of NT primitives on the host. In 2019, Microsoft announced a completely redesigned WSL architecture (WSL 2) using this lightweight VM technology hosting actual (customized) Linux kernel images, claiming full syscall compatibility. Microsoft announced WSL 2 on May 6, 2019, and it was shipped with Windows 10 version 2004. It was also backported to Windows 10 version 1903 and 1909.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: GPU support for WSL 2 to do GPU-accelerated machine learning was introduced in Windows build 20150. GUI support for WSL 2 to run Linux applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) was introduced in Windows build 21364. Both of them are shipped in Windows 11.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: In April 2021, Microsoft released a Windows 10 test build that also includes the ability to run Linux graphical user interface (GUI) apps using WSL 2 and CBL-Mariner. The Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI (WSLg) was officially released at the Microsoft Build 2021 conference. It is included in Windows 10 Insider build 21364 or later.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Microsoft introduced a Windows Store version of WSL on October 11, 2021 for Windows 11, and WSL reached version 1.0.0 on November 16, 2022.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: WSL is available in Windows Server 2019 and in versions of Windows 10 from version 1607, though only in 64-bit versions.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Microsoft envisages WSL as "primarily a tool for developers – especially web developers and those who work on or with open source projects". In September 2018, Microsoft said that "WSL requires fewer resources (CPU, memory, and storage) than a full virtual machine" (which prior to WSL was the most direct way to run Linux software in a Windows environment), while also allowing users to use Windows apps and Linux tools on the same set of files.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: The first release of WSL provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft, containing no Linux kernel code, which can then run the user space of a Linux distribution on top of it, such as Ubuntu, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Debian and Kali Linux. Such a user space might contain a GNU Bash shell and command language, with native GNU command-line tools (sed, awk, etc.), programming-language interpreters (Ruby, Python, etc.), and even graphical applications (using an X11 server at the host side).


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: The architecture was redesigned in WSL 2, with a Linux kernel running in a lightweight virtual machine environment.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: The codice_1 command is used to manage distributions in the Windows Subsystem for Linux on the command-line. It can list available distributions, set a default distribution, and uninstall distributions. The command can also be used to run Linux binaries from the Windows Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell. codice_1 replaces codice_3 which is deprecated as of Windows 10 1803 and later.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI (WSLg) is built with the purpose of enabling support for running Linux GUI applications (X11 and Wayland) on Windows in a fully integrated desktop experience. WSLg was officially released at the Microsoft Build 2021 conference and is included in Windows 10 Insider build 21364 or later. However, with the introduction of Windows 11, WSLg is finally shipping with a production build of Windows, bringing support for both graphics and audio in WSL apps.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: FreeRDP is used to encode all communications going from the RDP Server (in Weston) to the RDP Client (mstsc on Windows) according to the RDP protocol specifications.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: LXSS Manager Service is the service in charge of interacting with the subsystem (through the "drivers" and ), and the way that Bash.exe (not to be confused with the Shells provided by the Linux distributions) launches the Linux processes, as well as handling the Linux system calls and the binary locks during their execution. All Linux processes invoked by a particular user go into a "Linux Instance" (usually, the first invoked process is init). Once all the applications are closed, the instance is closed.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: WSL 1's design featured no hardware emulation / virtualization (unlike other projects such as coLinux) and makes direct use of the host file system (through and ) and some parts of the hardware, such as the network, which guarantees interoperability. Web servers for example, can be accessed through the same interfaces and IP addresses configured on the host, and shares the same restrictions on the use of ports that require administrative permissions, or ports already occupied by other applications. There are certain locations (such as system folders) and configurations whose access/modification is restricted, even when running as root, with sudo from the shell. An instance with elevated privileges must be launched in order to get "sudo" to give real root privileges, and allow such access.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: WSL 1 is not capable of running all Linux software, such as 32-bit binaries, or those that require specific Linux kernel services not implemented in WSL. Due to a lack of any "real" Linux kernel in WSL 1, kernel modules, such as device drivers, cannot be run. WSL 2, however, makes use of live virtualized Linux kernel instances. It is possible to run some graphical (GUI) applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) by installing an X11 server within the Windows (host) environment (such as VcXsrv or Xming), although not without caveats, such as the lack of audio support (though this can be remedied by installing PulseAudio in Windows in a similar manner to X11) or hardware acceleration (resulting in poor graphics performance). Support for OpenCL and CUDA is also not being implemented currently, although planned for future releases. Microsoft stated WSL was designed for the development of applications, and not for desktop computers or production servers, recommending the use of virtual machines (Hyper-V), Kubernetes, and Azure for those purposes.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: In benchmarks WSL 1's performance is often near native Linux Ubuntu, Debian, Intel Clear Linux or other Linux distributions. I/O is in some tests a bottleneck for WSL. The redesigned WSL 2 backend is claimed by Microsoft to offer twenty-fold increases in speed on certain operations compared to that of WSL 1. In June 2020, a benchmark with 173 tests with an AMD Threadripper 3970x shows good performance with WSL 2 (20H2) with 87% of the performance of native Ubuntu 20.04.0 LTS. This is an improvement over WSL 1, which has only 70% of the performance of native Ubuntu in this comparison. WSL 2 improves I/O performance, providing a near-native level.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: A comparison of 69 tests with Intel i9 10900K in May 2020 shows nearly the same relative performance. In December 2020, a benchmark with 43 tests with an AMD Ryzen 5900X shows good performance with WSL 2 (20H2) with 93% of the performance of native 20.04.1 LTS. This is an improvement over WSL 1, which has only 73% in this comparison.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: Version 2 introduces changes in the architecture. Microsoft has opted for virtualization through a highly optimized subset of Hyper-V features, in order to run the kernel and distributions (based upon the kernel), promising performance equivalent to WSL 1. For backward compatibility, developers don't need to change anything in their published distributions. WSL 2 settings can be tweaked by the "WSL global configuration", contained in an INI file named codice_4 in the User Profile folder.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: The distribution installation resides inside an ext4-formatted filesystem inside a virtual disk, and the host file system is transparently accessible through the 9P protocol, similarly to other virtual machine technologies like QEMU. For the users, Microsoft promised up to 20 times the read/write performance of WSL 1. From Windows an IFS network redirector is provided for Linux guest file access using the UNC path prefix of codice_5.


title: Windows Subsystem for Linux

text: WSL 2 requires Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1903 or higher, with Build 18362 or higher, for x64 systems, and Version 2004 or higher, with Build 19041 or higher, for ARM64 systems.


title: Megha Akash

text: Megha Akash (born 26 October 1995) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil and Telugu-language films. She made her acting debut with the Telugu film "Lie" (2017).


title: Megha Akash

text: Megha made her Tamil film debut with "Petta" and Hindi film debut with "Satellite Shankar", both in 2019. She has also appeared in "Raja Raja Chora" (2021), a commercial success and "Dear Megha" (2021).


title: Megha Akash

text: Megha was born on 26 October 1995, in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu to a Telugu father and Malayali mother. Both her parents work in the advertising field. She attended the Lady Andal School in Chennai and graduated in B. Sc. (Visual Communications) from Women's Christian College, Chennai. Megha is fluent in Tamil.


title: Megha Akash

text: Megha started her career by performing in the film "Oru Pakka Kathai", which released on ZEE5 on 25 December 2020. She later starred in the 2017 Telugu film "Lie", which marked her debut. Her Tamil film debut was "Petta" (2019) though she shot for "Enai Noki Paayum Thota" (2019) before.


title: Megha Akash

text: In 2021, Megha appeared in four films. The first release was the Tamil film "Kutty Story" where she played Preethi in the Segment: "Avanum Naanum". She next appeared in her second bollywood film "Radhe" as Nikisha, a police officer. She next appeared in two Telugu films "Raja Raja Chora" as Sanjana, and "Dear Megha" as Megha.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The kuna is the currency of Croatia, in use since 1994 (sign: kn; code: HRK). It is subdivided into 100 lipa. The kuna is issued by the Croatian National Bank and the coins are minted by the Croatian Mint. The plural form of the word kuna in Croatian can be "kuna" or "kune" (e.g. "2 kune", "10 kuna") because of different number declension rules. 2022 will be the final year for the kuna as Croatia will replace it with the euro (€, EUR) on 1 January 2023. All Croatian bank accounts and credit cards will automatically be converted to euros and kuna cash may be exchanged for euros at no charge.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The word "kuna" means "marten" in Croatian, referring to the historical use of marten pelts as units of value in medieval trading. The word "lipa" means "linden (lime) tree", a species that was traditionally planted around marketplaces in Croatia and other lands under Habsburg monarchy rule during the early modern period.


title: Croatian kuna

text: During Roman times, in the provinces of upper and lower Pannonia (today Hungary and Slavonia), taxes were collected in the then highly valued marten skins. Hence the Croatian word "marturina" ("tax"), which derived from the Medieval Latin word for "marten" "martus", which came from Proto-Germanic "*marþuz" through Old Dutch and Old French (modern Croatian for "marten": "kuna"). The kuna was a currency unit in several Slavic states, most notably Kievan Rus and its successors until the early 15th century. It was equal to (later ) gryvna of silver. The plural form of "kuna" in Croatian is "kune".


title: Croatian kuna

text: It has no relation to the various Slavic currencies named "koruna" (translated as "kruna" in Croatian) which means "crown".


title: Croatian kuna

text: In the Middle Ages, many foreign monies were used in Croatia, but since at least 1018 a local currency was in use. From the beginning of the 12th century up to the middle of 13th century, Slavonia used an Austrian currency known as frizatik. Between 1260 and 1380, Croatian Viceroys issued a marten-adorned silver coin called the banovac. However, the diminishing autonomy of Croatia within the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom led to the gradual disappearance of that currency in the 14th century.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The idea of a kuna currency reappeared in 1939 when Banovina of Croatia, an autonomous province established within Kingdom of Yugoslavia, planned to issue its own money, along with the Yugoslav dinar. In 1941, when the Ustaše regime formed the Independent State of Croatia, they introduced the Independent State of Croatia kuna. This currency remained in circulation until 1945, when it – along with competing issues by the communist Partisans – disappeared with the establishment of FPR Yugoslavia and was replaced by the Yugoslav dinar.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The modern kuna was introduced on May 30, 1994, starting a period of transition from the Croatian dinar, introduced in 1991, which ended on December 31, 1994. One kuna was equivalent to 1,000 dinars at a fixed exchange rate. The kuna was pegged to the German mark from the start. With the replacement of the mark by the euro, the kuna's peg effectively switched to the euro.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The choice of the name "kuna" was controversial because the same currency name had been used by the Independent State of Croatia kuna, but this was dismissed as a red herring, since the same name was also in use during the Banovina of Croatia and by the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH). An alternative proposal for the name of the new currency was "kruna" (crown), divided into 100 "banica" (viceroy's wife), but this was deemed too similar to the Austro-Hungarian krone and found inappropriate for the country which is a republic, even though the Czech Republic and, until 2008, Slovakia have used currencies called "crown".


title: Croatian kuna

text: The self-proclaimed Serbian entity Republic of Serbian Krajina did not use the kuna or the Croatian dinar. Instead, they issued their own Krajina dinar until the region was reintegrated into Croatia in 1995. Between 1996 and 1998 United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium facilitated gradual introduction of the currency into Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia where it was used in parallel with other currencies.


title: Croatian kuna

text: A long-time policy of the Croatian National Bank has been to keep the fluctuations of the kuna's exchange rate against the euro (or, previously, the mark) within a relatively stable range. Since the introduction of the euro in 1999, the exchange rate between the two currencies rarely fluctuated to a substantial degree, remaining at a near constant 7.5:1 (HRK to EUR) rate. Croatia joined the European Union on 1 July 2013 and the Exchange Rate Mechanism on 10 July 2020 at a rate of 7.53450 HRK to €1. The kuna is expected to be replaced by the euro on 1 January 2023 after satisfying prerequisites, as the initial time estimate of standard four years after joining the European Union proved too short.


title: Croatian kuna

text: In 1994, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 lipa (Croatian word for linden or tilia tree), 1, 2, 5 and 25 kuna. The coins are issued in two versions: one with the name of the plant or animal in Croatian (issued in odd years), the other with the name in Latin (issued in even years). Overall more coins have been minted with Croatian names than with names in Latin.


title: Croatian kuna

text: Due to their low value, 1 and 2 lipa coins are rarely used. Since 2009, these coins are no longer minted, but the Croatian National Bank has stated that it had no plans for withdrawing them, and the 1 and 2 lipa coins are still minted as non-circulating, mainly for numismatic collections.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The notes were designed by Miroslav Šutej and Vilko Žiljak, and all feature prominent Croatians on front and architectural motifs on back. The geometric figures at lower left on front (except the 5-kuna note) are intaglio printed for recognition by the blind people. To the right of the coat of arms on front is a microprinted version of the Croatian national anthem, Lijepa naša domovino ("Our Beautiful Homeland"). The overall design is reminiscent of Deutsche Mark banknotes of the fourth series.


title: Croatian kuna

text: The first series of notes was dated 31 October 1993. The 5, 10 and 20 kuna notes from this series were withdrawn on 1 April 2007, and the 50, 100 and 200 kuna notes were withdrawn on 1 January 2010, but remain exchangeable at the HNB in Zagreb.


title: Croatian kuna

text: New series of notes with slightly tweaked, but similar designs and improved security features were released in 2001, 2004, 2012 and 2014.


title: Miyavi

text: , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.


title: Miyavi

text: He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture "Unbroken", directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as "" and "Stray". Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.


title: Miyavi

text: Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean-Japanese father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi. His father's family, surnamed Lee, came from Jeju Island. Miyavi says that as a child he was a good student and enjoyed playing football. He was accepted into the junior team of Cerezo Osaka, a J-League team. In the second year of junior high school, a sports injury prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports. Instead, at the age of fifteen, he learned to play the guitar. He bought a guitar and began covering songs by Ray Charles.


title: Miyavi

text: He was particularly fond of visual kei acts such as X Japan and Luna Sea but also listened to the blues, Motown, hard rock such as Metallica and L.A. Guns, and industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. In his third year of junior high school, he started playing with his first band, a visual kei group named Loop.


title: Miyavi

text: In 1999, at the age of 17, Miyavi moved to Tokyo, and joined the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz, where he went by the stage name "Miyabi". Besides being a guitarist, he wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged. When the band split up in 2002, he started his solo career and changed his name to Miyavi. He signed a contract with the independent record label PS Company, and on October 31, his debut studio album "Gagaku" was released. Before the end of the year three more singles were released: "Shindemo Boogie-Woogie", "Pop Is Dead" and "Jingle Bell", of which only the third managed to enter the top forty on the Oricon charts. Miyavi also starred alongside his former bandmate Sakito in a movie, "Ryōma no Tsuma to Sono Otto to Aijin".


title: Miyavi

text: On April 23, 2003, his first solo concert was held at the Shibuya Public Hall. Three singles were released: "Jibun Kakumei", "Tariraritarara", and "Coo quack cluck (Ku. Ku. Ru)", which charted as numbers forty, thirty, and forty-two respectively on Oricon. On December 2, his second studio album, "Galyuu", was released; it charted forty-fourth.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2004, he starred as himself in the film "Oresama". In February he went on his first solo tour, "Tokyo Dassou", and in July additional dates were added in Korea and Taiwan. In June his seventh single, "Ashita, Genki Ni Naare", was released, which charted twenty-second, and number one on the indies chart. In August a small, free, fan-club-only event was organized in Tokyo Dome, and on the 31st he held his last indie concert at the Nippon Budokan. In October, he signed a major contract with Universal Music Group, but was still co-managed by PS Company. This was followed by the release of his first major (double) single, "Rock no Gyakushuu"/"21sekikei Koushinkyoku", which entered the top ten on the charts.


title: Miyavi

text: During May 2005 another single, "Freedom Fighters -Icecream wo Motta Hadashi no Megami to, Kikanjuu wo Motta Hadaka no Ousama-", was released, which charted tenth, and on June 1, his first major album, "Miyavizm", was released. It was his first album to enter the top ten in the charts. It was followed by the third major single, "Kekkon Shiki Uta"/"Are You Ready to Rock?", which is his best charting single, along with "Dear My Friend"/"Itoshii Hito", released in 2006; both reached number six. In December he performed at the first "Peace & Smile Carnival" organized by PS Company.


title: Miyavi

text: In late 2005 and for most of 2006, Miyavi shifted to an acoustic/pop sound reflected in his second and third major albums, "MYV Pops" and "Miyaviuta: Dokusō", released on August 2 and September 13 respectively. They charted at fifteenth and twenty-fifth. The first album singles, "Señor Señora Señorita"/"Gigpig Boogie" and "Kimi ni Negai o", are not different in style. They charted as tenth and twenty-sixth respectively. Miyavi showcased his new acoustic style for the first time in the "25 Shūnen Kinen Koen" concert series held at Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo for five days in September around his 25th birthday. Miyavi left for America for the next six months to study the English language and take dance classes, and, on the weekends, went to Venice Beach and gave street performances.


title: Miyavi

text: On February 17, Miyavi, having been invited by the break dancer Mr. Freeze, performed with the local DJ and percussionist at his first solo concert in the United States, at the Tabu Ultra Lounge in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On May 25, at the "JRock Revolution" concert organized by Yoshiki at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, it was officially announced that Miyavi would be a member of a band named S.K.I.N. On June 29, the band held their debut and their only concert at Anime Expo in Long Beach, California.


title: Miyavi

text: In June, Miyavi's seventh major single (and 14th overall), "Sakihokoru Hana no you ni (Neo Visualizm)"/"Kabuki Danshi", was released in Japan, which charted as twelfth. In July, a remixed extended play, "7 Samurai Sessions -We're Kavki Boiz-", was released, which includes re-arrangements of his past songs. It charted as forty-fourth. It was followed by Miyavi's nationwide tour, which started on July 16. He also performed at Animagic in Bonn, Germany, and in Seoul, South Korea. In November, his tenth major single was released, "Subarashikikana, Kono Sekai - What A Wonderful World", which charted as thirteenth.


title: Miyavi

text: On January 16, 2008, his ninth major single was released, "Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho De", on which he collaborated with fellow Skin guitarist Sugizo. It is his third single to enter the top ten. On March 19, his fourth major studio album was released, titled, "This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock", which charted as twenty-fifth. In May, it was followed by his very first worldwide tour, "This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock Tour 2008", with 33 concerts in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, France, Taiwan, South Korea, mainland China and Japan. The tour covered a distance of approximately 48,385 miles, equivalent to almost two trips around the world, and the majority of the concerts were sold out and covered extensively by media organizations. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist in history. On June 27, a compilation album, "Azn Pride -This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock-", was released in Korea and Taiwan, later also in Japan, which charted as forty-fourth. In September, he performed in Beijing. On December 24, a remix album was released, "Room No. 382", which failed to enter the top hundred.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2009, on January 3, Miyavi performed at the "10th Anniversary Commemorative" concert by PS Company at the Nippon Budokan. On April 5, Miyavi left the PS Company because their ten-year contract expired, and on April 8 launched his own company, J-glam inc., of which he is the president. On April 22, a compilation album was released, "Victory Road to the King of Neo Visual Rock", which includes all his major singles with Universal Group. On June 1, "Super Hero," a new song, was released through his official Myspace, and in September his International Fanclub was opened. On September 19, Miyavi started his second worldwide tour, "Neo Tokyo Samurai Black 2009/2010", in Moscow, Russia. He held 17 concerts in Europe, visiting Austria, Hungary and Italy for the first time. The tour immediately continued in South America, with concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The United States leg was canceled due to illness and an injury, but Miyavi managed to perform in November at Anime Matsuri, Texas. On December 31, he signed a new contract with EMI Music Japan.


title: Miyavi

text: On March 10, 2010, his first single with EMI was released, "Survive", via iTunes. The worldwide tour was continued on March 28, with the concert at Human Stage, Okinawa, and nationwide. In June and early July he toured throughout the United States and Canada, and in October for the first time in Australia. On September 15, his eleventh major single was released, "Torture". On October 13, his fifth studio album was released, "What's My Name?", which charted as twenty-sixth. On November 6, he performed at the "EMI Rocks" 50th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena.


title: Miyavi

text: In March 2011, a new world tour, titled "What's My Name?", began in Europe, with his first visit to Belgium. In April the tour continued in Japan, while in July Miyavi performed in France, and in September at the Mount Taishan MAO Rock Festival in China. In May 2011, a live album, "Live in London 2011", was released, which was recorded during the London concert in March. On October 5, his twelfth major single, "Strong", was released, in collaboration with Japanese rapper Kreva. It was followed by the North American leg of the tour. Miyavi performed in South America at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, and visited Venezuela, Peru and Colombia for the first time.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second "EMI Rocks" event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1", was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, "Samurai Sessions vol.1", his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts.


title: Miyavi

text: On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, "Miyavi", was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts.


title: Miyavi

text: On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film "Unbroken". He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2013, Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top of the World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour.


title: Miyavi

text: His next album "The Others" was released on April 15, 2015, produced by Grammy Award winning Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders. The song "Alien Girl" was dedicated to Angelina Jolie, while his title song, "The Others" was later released in a different version to support UNHCR. The album ranked 10th on Oricon and was followed by a two-part nationwide tour, a Europe tour (his fifth on the continent) and a concert in South Korea.


title: Miyavi

text: On April 29, Miyavi released a digital single, "Afraid to Be Cool"/"Raise Me Up". His next album, "Fire Bird" came out on August 31, 2016, and ranked 11th on Oricon. The artist followed it up with a nationwide tour "MIYAVI Japan Tour 2016 "NEW BEAT, NEW FUTURE"", which included 10 stops. The last performance was held at Makuhari Messe, and was broadcast live on Abema TV, with more than 100,000 viewers watching.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2017, he played a cameo role in the movie "". In February, the singer revealed a North American and European tour. As a part of Live Nation's "Asia on Tour", Miyavi performed in 14 cities, including Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. He embarked on a solo international tour entitled Fire Bird World Tour. The tour began in Seoul on February 29 and ended in Berlin on May 10, with shows in countries including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In March, Miyavi performed at South by Southwest for the first time in his career. On March 29, he released a digital single titled "Live to Die Another Day", which is the theme song of the live-action film "Blade of the Immortal". To commemorate his 15th year as a solo artist, Miyavi embarked on a Japanese tour—"MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live "NEO TOKYO 15"" started on May 21, with Miyavi releasing an anniversary compilation album, "All Time Best: Day 2", on April 5.


title: Miyavi

text: In 2018, Miyavi covered "Pink Spider" for the Hide tribute album "Tribute Impulse," and was also cast as Byakuya Kuchiki in the live-action film adaptation of "Bleach." On February 23, 2019, Miyavi performed an album release concert for "Samurai Sessions Vol. 3: Worlds Collide" at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles with guest performers Duckwrth, Mikky Ekko, Che’nelle, and Yuna. On March 1, 2019, the supernatural action film "Stray" was released in the U.S., featuring Miyavi in the villain role of Jin. In April 2019, Miyavi performed a headlining concert at Anime Boston. In October, it was announced that Kyoto-based sake brewery launches a new product named after Miyavi.


title: Miyavi

text: On December 18, 2019, it was announced during an event held at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo that Miyavi would transfer to Japanese talent company LDH Japan, starting in January 2020. Miyavi, who had been independently active in the music industry for 10 years, explained his decision by mentioning that during those years he often wished for friends to work with and that he resonated with LDH's values, especially their approach to international expansion. He also announced that he would release two solo albums in 2020 and was planning a Japan tour.


title: Miyavi

text: On February 14, 2020, it was revealed that Miyavi would release one album before the Tokyo Olympics in summer and one afterwards. The first album, "Holy Nights", was released on April 22 and accompanied by a national tour titled "MIYAVI“Holy Nights”JAPAN TOUR 2020".


title: Miyavi

text: He provided the ending song for the anime "ID:Invaded". The series also used his songs "Up", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly".


title: Miyavi

text: In 2021, Miyavi made his voice acting debut as the character Kōketsu in the anime film "". In November 2022, Miyavi was announced as a member of the supergroup The Last Rockstars, along with fellow musicians Yoshiki, Hyde, and Sugizo.


title: Miyavi

text: On March 14, 2009, Miyavi married Japanese-American singer Melody. The couple has three children, Lovelie "Aily/Aspen" Miyavi (born July 29, 2009, in Japan), Jewelie Aoi (born October 21, 2010, in Japan), and Skyler Kakeru (born February 24, 2021, in the United States). From 2014 to 2021, Miyavi and his family were living in Los Angeles, California, having moved to the area during the release of his film "Unbroken". After the birth of his son Skyler, he and his family returned to Japan and currently live in Tokyo. After becoming a father, Miyavi toned down his on-stage attire.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, Moffett Federal Airfield and NASA Ames Research Center to the northwest, Mountain View to the northwest, Los Altos to the southwest, Cupertino to the south, and Santa Clara to the east.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale's population was 155,805 at the 2020 census, making it the second most populous city in the county (after San Jose) and the seventh most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: As one of the major cities that make up California's high-tech area known as Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale is the birthplace of the video game industry, former location of Atari headquarters, and the location of a fictional computer game company in the 1983 film "WarGames". Many technology companies are headquartered in Sunnyvale and many more operate there, including several aerospace/defense companies.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale was also the home to Onizuka Air Force Station, often referred to as "the Blue Cube" due to the color and shape of its windowless main building. The facility, previously known as Sunnyvale Air Force Station, was named for the deceased Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka. It served as an artificial satellite control facility of the U.S. military until August 2010 and has since been decommissioned and demolished.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale is one of the few U.S. cities to have a single unified Department of Public Safety, where all personnel are trained as firefighters, police officers, and EMTs, so that they can respond to an emergency in any of the three roles.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Library services for the city are provided by the Sunnyvale Public Library, located at the Sunnyvale Civic Center.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: When the Spanish first arrived in the 1770s at the Santa Clara Valley, it was heavily populated by the Ohlone Native Americans. However early on with the arrival of the Spaniards, smallpox, measles and other new diseases greatly reduced the Ohlone population. In 1777, Mission Santa Clara was founded by Franciscan missionary Padre Junipero Serra and was originally located in San Jose (near what is now the San Jose International Airport runway).


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1843, Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas was granted to Francisco Estrada and his wife Inez Castro. Portions of the land given in this grant later developed into the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Two years later, in 1844, another land grant was provided to Lupe Yñigo, one of the few Native Americans to hold land grants. His land grant was first called Rancho Posolmi, named in honor of a village of the Ohlone that once stood in the area. Rancho Posolmi was later known as Rancho Ynigo.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Martin Murphy Jr. came to California with his father as part of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844. In 1850, Martin Murphy Jr. bought a piece of Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas for $12,500. Murphy established a wheat farm and ranch named Bay View. Murphy had the first wood-frame house in Santa Clara County; it was shipped from New England. The house was demolished in 1961 but was reconstructed in 2008 as the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum. When he died in 1884, his land was divided among his heirs.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1860, The San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road was allowed to lay tracks on Bay View and established Murphy Station. Lawrence Station was later established on the southern edge of Bay View.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In the 1870s, small fruit orchards replaced many large wheat farms, because wheat farming turned uneconomical due to county and property tax laws, imports and soil degradation. In 1871, Dr. James M. Dawson and his wife Eloise (née Jones) established the first fruit cannery in the county. Fruit agriculture for canning soon became a major industry in the county. The invention of the refrigerated rail car further increased the viability of an economy based upon fruit. The fruit orchards became so prevalent that in 1886, the San Jose Board of Trade called Santa Clara County the "Garden of the World".


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In the 1880s, Chinese workers made up roughly one third of the farm labor in Santa Clara County. This percentage reduced over time after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. In the following decade, the 1890s, many immigrants from Italy, the Azores, Portugal, and Japan arrived to work in the orchards.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1897, Walter Everett Crossman bought 200 acres (809,000 m) and began selling real estate. He advertised the area as "Beautiful Murphy" and later, in the 1900s, as "the City of Destiny". Also in 1897, Encinal School opened as the first school in Murphy. Previously, children in the town had to travel to Mountain View for school. The area also became known as Encinal.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1901, the residents of Murphy were informed they could not use the names Encinal or Murphy for their post office. Sunnyvale was given its current name on March 24, 1901. It was named Sunnyvale as it is located in a sunny region adjacent to areas with significantly more fog.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale continued to grow and in 1904, dried fruit production began. Two years later, Libby, McNeill & Libby, a Chicago meat-packing company, decided to open its first fruit-packing factory in Sunnyvale. Today, a water tower painted to resemble the first Libby's fruit cocktail can label identifies the former site of the factory.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Also in 1906, the Joshua Hendy Iron Works relocated from San Francisco to Sunnyvale after the company's building was destroyed by fire after the 1906 earthquake. The ironworks was the first non-agricultural industry in the town. The company later switched from producing mining equipment to other products such as marine steam engines.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1924, Edwina Benner was elected to her first term as mayor of Sunnyvale. She was the second female mayor in the history of the state of California.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1930, Congress decided to place the West Coast dirigible base in Sunnyvale after "buying" the parcel of farmland bordering the San Francisco Bay from the city for $1.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: This naval airfield was later renamed Naval Air Station Moffett and then Moffett Federal Airfield and is commonly called Moffett Field.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1939, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner of NASA) began research at Ames Laboratory.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: During World War II, the war economy began a change from the fruit industry to the high-tech industry in Santa Clara County. The Joshua Hendy Iron Works built marine steam engines, naval guns and rocket launchers to aid in the war effort. As the defense industry grew, a shortage of workers in the farm industry was created. Immigrants from Mexico came to Sunnyvale to fill this void of workers.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Following the war, the fruit orchards and sweetcorn farms were cleared to build homes, factories and offices.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1950 the volunteer fire department and the paid police department were combined into the department of public safety.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Since then, numerous high-tech companies have established offices and headquarters in Sunnyvale, including Advanced Micro Devices and Yahoo.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The first prototype of Atari's coin-operated "Pong", the first successful video game, was installed in Sunnyvale in August 1972 in a bar named Andy Capp's Tavern, now Rooster T. Feathers. Atari's headquarters were located at 1196 Borregas Avenue in north Sunnyvale.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: By 2002, the few remaining orchards had been replaced with homes and shops. However, there are still city-owned orchards, such as the Heritage Orchard next to the Sunnyvale Community Center.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In 1979, an indoor mall called Sunnyvale Town Center opened in what used to be a traditional downtown shopping district. After years of successful operation, the mall started to decline in the 1990s. After numerous changes in plans and ownership, the mall was demolished in 2007.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In November 2009, previously closed portions of the main streets in downtown Sunnyvale were reopened as part of the ongoing downtown redevelopment of the Sunnyvale Town Center mall, marking the first time in over three decades that those street blocks have been open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Part of the project involved building new apartment buildings, however during the Great Recession the property was repossessed by Wells Fargo in 2009; the developer countersued, leaving the project in legal limbo through 2015.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The two office buildings are now fully occupied by Apple and Nokia. Mixed-use developments have been built at the former Town and Country location near the Plaza del Sol just north of Murphy Avenue. By mid 2015, new multistory apartment complexes had opened, including a number of ground-floor businesses, and the lawsuit against Wells Fargo was resolved in the bank's favor. The development was sold to Sares Regis in late 2016. Redwood Square reopened as a park in 2017. Many apartments are occupied, and more are being completed in 2020. A Whole Foods Market and AMC Theatres multiplex opened in October 2020.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: In the 2010s, Sunnyvale became home to operations from numerous major technology companies including Apple, LinkedIn (now headquartered in Sunnyvale), Google, Walmart Labs, and 23andMe. Google in particular has announced major development plans in the Moffett Park area, adjacent to Moffett Field.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (3.09%) is water. Its elevation is 130 feet above sea level.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Like most of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sunnyvale has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csb"), with cool, moist winters and warm, very dry summers. Average daytime summer temperatures are in the high 70s, and during the winter, average daytime high temperatures rarely stay below . Snowfall is rare, but on January 21, 1962, and February 5, 1976, measurable snowfall occurred in Sunnyvale and most of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sunnyvale was briefly hit by tornadoes in 1998, but otherwise they are extremely rare.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Sunnyvale had a population of 140,081. The population density was . The racial makeup of Sunnyvale was 60,193 (43.0%) White, 2,735 (2.0%) African American, 662 (0.5%) Native American, 57,320 (40.9%) Asian, 638 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 12,177 (8.7%) from other races, and 6,356 (4.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26,517 persons (18.9%). Non-Hispanic Whites were 34.5% of the population in 2010, compared to 74.7% in 1980.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The Census reported that 139,232 people (99.4% of the population) lived in households, 380 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 469 (0.3%) were institutionalized.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: There were 53,384 households, out of which 18,614 (34.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 28,583 (53.5%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 4,629 (8.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, 2,341 (4.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,386 (4.5%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 357 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 13,457 households (25.2%) were made up of individuals, and 3,775 (7.1%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61. There were 35,553 families (66.6% of all households); the average family size was 3.15.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The population was spread out, with 31,435 people (22.4%) under the age of 18, 9,350 people (6.7%) aged 18 to 24, 50,919 people (36.3%) aged 25 to 44, 32,721 people (23.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 15,656 people (11.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.9 males.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: There were 55,791 housing units at an average density of , of which 25,623 (48.0%) were owner-occupied, and 27,761 (52.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.4%. 68,895 people (49.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 70,337 people (50.2%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Companies based in Sunnyvale include Infinera, Fortinet, Intuitive Surgical, Juniper Networks, LinkedIn, Proofpoint, Inc., and Trimble Inc.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: The City of Sunnyvale uses the council–manager form of government, with a city council consisting of seven members elected to fill individual seats. Starting in November 2020, the mayor is directly elected to a four-year term in a city-wide election. The six council members are elected to four year terms from six districts in even-year elections. The vice-mayor is selected from the six city council members by the mayor and city council, serving a one-year term. The city council hires a city manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city government.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: Sunnyvale is the largest city in the United States that uses a consolidated department of public safety, with sworn officers who are fully cross-trained to perform police, firefighting, and emergency medical services. Officer assignments are rotated annually, with some specialist assignments lasting up to five years. Sunnyvale has had a consolidated DPS since 1950.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: For elementary and middle schools, most of the city is in the Sunnyvale School District, while some parts are in the Cupertino Union School District, the Santa Clara Unified School District, and the Mountain View Whisman Elementary School District.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: For high schools, most of the city is in the Fremont Union High School District (the parts that are part of the Sunnyvale School District or Cupertino Union School District for primary schools), and those areas of Sunnyvale are divided between Fremont High School and Homestead High School. Some parts of the city are in the Santa Clara Unified School District.


title: Sunnyvale, California

text: French American School of Silicon Valley (FASSV, ) is a private elementary school in Sunnyvale, which opened in 1992. It is recognized as a French international school by the AEFE.