From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 8ba8f623 for ; Tue, 5 Nov 2019 16:21:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 9FDE99C0BA; Wed, 6 Nov 2019 02:21:30 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7563C93D6D; Wed, 6 Nov 2019 02:21:15 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 9F3A393D6D; Wed, 6 Nov 2019 02:21:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: from smtp-out-3.mxes.net (smtp-out-3.mxes.net [198.205.123.68]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 255EE93D2E for ; Wed, 6 Nov 2019 02:21:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: from Customer-MUA (mua.mxes.net [10.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.mxes.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id C7E0727376 for ; Tue, 5 Nov 2019 11:21:11 -0500 (EST) From: Ronald Natalie Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 12.4 \(3445.104.11\)) Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2019 11:21:10 -0500 References: To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society In-Reply-To: Message-Id: <8C50B42C-CDF9-47FE-B2D7-AB980C059099@ronnatalie.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3445.104.11) X-Sent-To: Subject: Re: [TUHS] Amdahl UTS, AIX/370, AIX/ESA X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" One of my first jobs I did for the company that I ended up working for = decades was a job for IBM FSD to put a second ethernet interface in to = =E2=80=9Csecure XENIX=E2=80=9D (a MLS system) to allow the system to be = used for downgrading classified material. This gave us an in with IBM = FSD and this led to us doing work with an IBM on a pair of microchannel = i860 coprocessor cards called the Wizard and the W4. We ported AIX to = both of them. The cards ran inside of another AIX PS/2 system so the = TCF was really handy in allowing apps that only had 386 versions to run, = the ability to maintain a common file system, and to share peripherals. = Indeed, I think the major reason IBM used the TCF concept is it gave = the 370 version of the thing an easy way to interoperate with user=E2=80=99= s on the PS/2=E2=80=99s. 3270=E2=80=99s and other terminals designed = for the mainframe really weren=E2=80=99t suited for UNIX. The initial Wizard card had no I/O other than the host PS/2. It was = really more or less an academic experiment (the cards were also buggy). = Two amusing things however came out of that port. The AIX for the = PS/2 had this thing to multiplex the normal VGA display (outside of X) = called the =E2=80=9CHigh Function Terminal.=E2=80=9D Our i860 version = was less capable so it was denoted the =E2=80=9CLow Function = Terminal.=E2=80=9D The other was that I hacked the -mm macro package = to mimic the style of the IBM manuals so we could write =E2=80=9CIBM-ish=E2= =80=9D documentation. The W4 card was interesting. It had 4 i860 processors along with = it=E2=80=99s own framebuffer. One of my employees spent a lot of time = of in Owego fixing the memory system (the whole thing was set up with = these Xilinx PGAs that were easy to update in the field). Amusingly, = the machine-specific parts of the W4 version of the AIX kernel had more = in common with the 370 version than the i386 version. I spent weeks = out at the IBM Palo Alto Science Center doing work on this project. I = had managed to inadvertantly shutdown the main AIX/370 in the cluster = (such is a problem when things get too transparent). Of course, = while I had experience using VM/CMS before (both at the University of = Maryalnd and at Rutgers), I=E2=80=99d never really much dealt with the = operations side of the 370. But I found my way to a 3270 and typed = =E2=80=9Cipl aix=E2=80=9D with at the command line with extreme = optimism, but that was indeed all it took.