XNU based on Mach
XNU is the computer operating system (OS) kernel developed at Apple Inc. since December 1996 for use in the Mac OS X (now macOS) operating system and released as free and open-source software as part of the Darwin OS, which in addition to macOS is also the basis for the Apple TV Software, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS OSes. XNU is an abbreviation of X is Not Unix.Originally developed by NeXT for the NeXTSTEP operating system, XNU was a hybrid kernel derived from version 2.5 of the Mach kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University, which incorporated the bulk of the 4.3BSD kernel modified to run atop Mach primitives, along with an application programming interface (API) in Objective-C for writing drivers named Driver Kit.After Apple acquired NeXT, the kernel was updated with code derived from OSFMK 7.3 from OSF, and the FreeBSD project, and the Driver Kit was replaced with new API on a restricted subset of C++ (based on Embedded C++) named I/O Kit.