[TUHS] Unix Circuit Design System

[lm@mcvoy.com (Larry McVoy)]

Any chance this was code that turned into the Ousterhout stuff, I think it
was called spice?

On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 07:20:40PM +0100, Michele Ghisolfo wrote:
> Hello all!
> 
> While I was reading the article "A Research UNIX Reader:  Annotated Excerpts
> from the Programmer's Manual" from Douglas McIlroy, I learnt of a set of
> utilities for designing electronic circuits.  Here is a brief quote of this
> article:
> 
> "CDL (v7 pages 60-63)
> 
> Although most users do not encounter the UNIX Circuit Design System, it has long
> stood as an important application in the lab.  Originated by Sandy Fraser and
> extended by Steve Bourne, Joe Condon, and Andrew Hume, UCDS handles circuits
> expressed in a common design language, cdl.  It includes programs to create
> descriptions using interactive graphics, to lay out boards automatically, to
> check circuits for consistency, to guide wire-wrap machines, to specify
> combinational circuits and optimize them for programmed logic arrays (Chesson
> and Thompson).  Without UCDS, significant inventions like Datakit, the 5620 Blit
> terminal, or the Belle chess machine would never have been built.  UCDS appeared
> in only one manual, v7."
> 
> 
> I looked it up on the 7th Edition's Manual and I haven't found references of
> this system.  I also searched a v7 system image downloaded from TUHS and got no
> results.  However I got some references of this system in USENET archives.  In
> particular, two hierarchies, net.draw and after net.ucds were dedicated to it.
> Apparently two of the binaries of the system were called "draw" and "wrap".  I
> also found a manual of a similar system which I suppose is the UCDS descendant
> in the 1st Edition of Plan 9.  This is the link of the document:
> 
> http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/1st_edition/cda/
> 
> However that edition of Plan 9 is not publicly released and I could not find
> it in following editions.  But since v7 Unix is available, I hope it may
> be possible to get hold of an older release at least.
> 
> Does anyone have any information?
> 
> Thank you in advance!
> 
>     --- Michele

-- 
---
Larry McVoy            	     lm at mcvoy.com             http://www.mcvoy.com/lm