The x-kernel was originally the concept of Norman C. Hutchinson at the University of British Columbia and Larry L. Peterson of the University of Arizona. Several people at the University of Arizona have made contributions to the current release, including Peter Druschel, Hasnain Karampurwala, Ed Menze, David Mosberger-Tang, Sean W. O'Malley, and Hilarie Orman. The Alpha standalone system was developed by David Mosberger-Tang as a starting point for the Scout operating system. The Irix port was done at the University of Massachusetts by Erich Nahum and David Yates. Many people have contributed protocols to the x-kernel as noted in appendix A.