[TUHS] Re: History of non-Bell C compilers?

[Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>]

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Thanks.  Fair enough.  You mentioned PC/IX as *ISC's System III*

I'm not sure I ever ran ISC's System III port—only the V.3 port - which was
the basis for their ATT, Intel, and IBM work and later sold directly.   I'm
fairly sure ISC also called that port PC/IX, but they might have added
something to say with 386 in the name—I've forgotten. [Heinz probably can
clarify here]. Anyway, this is likely the source of my thinking. FWIW:  The
copy of PC/IX for the 386 (which I still have on a system I have not booted
in ages) definitely has VPIX.
ᐧ

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 11:28 AM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind@gmail.com> wrote:

> @Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>,
>
> I don't remember what it was. But, the XT had an 8088, so certainly no 386
> technology was involved.
>
> Marc
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 8:38 AM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
>
>> @Marc
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 1:18 PM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> At a trade show, I bought a utility that allowed me to run PC-DOS under
>>> PC/IX. I'm sure it wasn't a virtual machine. Rather, it just swapped back
>>> and forth. (Guessing a bit there.)
>>>
>> Hmm ... you sure it was not either VPIX or DOS/Merge -- ISC built VPIX in
>> cooperation with the Phoenix Tech folks for PC/IX. I always bought a copy
>> with it, but it may have been an option.   LCC did DOS/Merge originally as
>> part of the AIX work for IBM and would become a core part of OS/2 Warp
>> IIRC.  Both Merge and VPIX had some rough edges but certainly worked fine
>> for DOS 3.3 programs.  The issue tended to be Win and DOS graphics-based
>> programs/games that played fast and loose, bypassing the DOS OS interface
>> and accessing the HW directly.  For instance, I never got the flight
>> simulator (Air War over Germany) for Dad's WWII plane (P-47 Thunderbolt) to
>> run under either (i.e., only under DOS directly on the HW. FWIW: In that
>> mode, Dad said the simulator flew a lot like how he remembered it).
>>
>> Both Merge and VPIX used the 386 VM support and a bunch of work in the
>> core OS.   Heinz would have to fill us in here.  The version of the 386
>> port ISC delivered to AT&T and Intel only had the kernel changes to allow
>> the VM support for VPIX to be linked in, but it was not there.   IICR (and
>> I'm not sure I am) is that Merge could run on PC/IX also, but you had to
>> replace a couple of kernel modules.  It certainly would work on the AT&T
>> and Intel versions.
>> ᐧ
>>
>
>
> --
> *My new email address is mrochkind@gmail.com <mrochkind@gmail.com>*
>

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