[TUHS] Re: Porting Unix v6 to i386

[P.A.Osborne@ukc.ac.uk (P.A.Osborne)]

On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 10:36:42AM -0600, Jeffrey S. Sharp wrote:
> > Instead we should aim at getting a "1970s version of Unix" running on a
> > PC.  So initially the teletype becomes the screen and the keyboard and
> > the disk unit becomes say the floppy drive.
> >
> > Later things can be expanded to talk IDE/SCSI whatever - but at that
> > point you are evolving the "1970s version of Unix" on a stage further -
> 
> Screen => console tty is obvious.  But why do you insist on the floppy
> drive as the storage medium?

I don't insist on it.  It was just my reckoning to get things going,  that
a floppy as an RK would be enough.

> The floppy drive subsystem has drives and a controller with a certain
> programatic interface.  The IDE/SCSI subsystem has drives and a controller
> with a certain programatic interface.  They're the same kind of thing.
> Why is one more guilty of evolving the 1970s version of UNXI?

Re-reading that last mail of mine,  I see that my mind kind of meandered.
So to be honest - I think you could well be right.

> I think that a floppy might make a good RK03/05 (capacity differences
> aside), but why not implement some RP drives with hard drives of even zip
> drives?

I don't see any particular reason not to do so.  I was attempting to
openly straighten my own thoughts out (perhaps thinking out loud is not
the best plan) and suggest that initially an RK - floppy would be a start,
and that RP - hard disk could be done later.

Paul