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From: Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org>
To: Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>
Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org
Subject: Re: [TUHS] First Unix-like OSes not derived from AT&T code?
Date: Mon, 2 May 2022 09:16:40 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <9EB92333-42A7-401E-A273-D35A681B02A5@iitbombay.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAC20D2Nr8wf8OLuJXbT=d31bHEJLsk2+AGsNFF21m2i8sEp_uw@mail.gmail.com>

On May 2, 2022, at 8:43 AM, Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
> 
> Thoth Thucks....   [Kelly Booth gave me one of these tee's years go].
> 
> Mike Malcolm did not try to clone UNIX - for one thing, it was in B [which Steve Johnson has spread the gospel of same on his sabbatical).  It was not until the Thoth rewrite that became QNX that they tried to ensure all of the Unix behaviors and APIs.  Mike was certainly had an influence by UNIX and IIRC his thesis and the Thoth papers reference/compare it.

IIRC Gordon Bell and Dan Dodge worked with Thoth as students but QNX is not derived from it. I ran across QNX at a contract job in 1986 or so[1]. Back then it fit in 8KB. IIRC the original few versions were mostly written in assembly language or had substantial portions in assembly while most of Thoth was written in C[2]. The original QNX was basically a message passing microkernel. Unix APIs came in much later.

[1] I had to debug some obscure problem where the QNX was running on a text to speech board plugged in a PC and was connected to an IBM 370 system. The TTS system was used to allow a salesperson to place an order or something. It failed randomly. In the end it turned out to be an "undocumented" h/w bug in 286 (Intel knew about it but they denied when we asked!). I caught it in the act using a logic analyzer! Anyway, I had to get pretty familiar with QNX then.

[2] In 1981 AMD tried to get into computer business via AMC (American Micro Computers). They  used Thoth! I interviewed there but in the end joined Fortune Systems.

  reply	other threads:[~2022-05-02 16:18 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 79+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2022-05-01  9:30 Andrew Warkentin
2022-05-01 11:43 ` Ron Natalie
2022-05-01 11:56   ` Rob Pike
2022-05-01 14:03     ` Kenneth Goodwin
2022-05-03  4:37       ` Jim Carpenter
2022-05-01 14:09   ` Kenneth Goodwin
2022-05-01 18:08     ` ron minnich
2022-05-01 18:22       ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2022-05-01 19:49         ` Dan Stromberg
2022-05-01 20:37           ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2022-05-02  2:08       ` Kenneth Goodwin
2022-05-02  9:21         ` Dr Iain Maoileoin
2022-05-02 20:19           ` Rich Morin
2022-05-02 21:30             ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 21:36             ` Dan Cross
2022-05-10 15:28         ` Mary Ann Horton
2022-05-10 16:08           ` Warner Losh
2022-05-10 16:40             ` Heinz Lycklama
2022-05-10 16:42             ` James Frew
2022-05-14  2:56             ` Mary Ann Horton
2022-05-10 16:59           ` Clem Cole
2022-05-10 17:18             ` Clem Cole
2022-05-10 18:05               ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2022-05-10 19:27                 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2022-05-10 19:08               ` Henry Bent
2022-05-10 19:33                 ` Richard Salz
2022-05-10 20:18                   ` Ronald Natalie
2022-05-11 16:20                     ` James Frew
2022-05-11 16:51                       ` Paul Winalski
2022-05-10 20:28                   ` Henry Bent
2022-05-10 20:43                   ` Warner Losh
2022-05-10 20:46                   ` Clem Cole
2022-05-11 16:44                     ` Paul Winalski
2022-05-11 17:09                       ` Clem Cole
2022-05-11 17:35                       ` Larry McVoy
2022-05-12  0:16                         ` George Michaelson
2022-05-13  2:46                         ` Adam Thornton
2022-05-15  0:48                           ` Larry McVoy
2022-05-15  5:36                             ` Adam Thornton
2022-05-15 13:37                               ` Larry McVoy
2022-05-12  5:22                       ` Warner Losh
2022-05-12 12:06                         ` Ron Natalie
2022-05-12 12:43                           ` John Cowan
2022-05-15  2:00         ` Stuart Remphrey
2022-05-02  2:42       ` Phil Budne
2022-05-02  6:46         ` Ron Natalie
2022-05-02 13:50           ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 14:46             ` tytso
2022-05-02 15:38               ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 20:31                 ` Warner Losh
2022-05-03  5:01                   ` tytso
2022-05-03 11:35                     ` Richard Salz
2022-05-02 23:30           ` Gregg Levine
     [not found]           ` <CAK7dMtD08weh+97mx+ncrq0cxprKgke42C0vFYNPnBkd8Fx9Sg@mail.gmail.com>
2022-05-03  7:28             ` Ronald Natalie
2022-05-02 12:59         ` Kenneth Goodwin
2022-05-02 14:13           ` Richard Salz
2022-05-02 13:14         ` tytso
2022-05-02 13:32           ` Larry McVoy
2022-05-02 13:16         ` Dan Cross
2022-05-02 14:14           ` Miod Vallat
2022-05-02 14:50             ` ron minnich
2022-05-02 16:13             ` Al Kossow
2022-05-02 18:46               ` Miod Vallat
2022-05-02 19:54               ` Chet Ramey
2022-05-02 21:17             ` Dan Cross
2022-05-02 23:49               ` George Michaelson
2022-05-03  7:22                 ` Ronald Natalie
2022-05-03  7:40               ` Miod Vallat
2022-05-03  8:03                 ` Ron Natalie
     [not found]               ` <CAEoi9W4eD8AF=FwjMT-KPRfyYgD+qgVvE1u3sBwiovm4=1WWLg@mail.g mail.com>
2022-05-03 12:14                 ` John Foust via TUHS
2022-05-01 20:55 ` Michael Huff
2022-05-03  4:55   ` Jim Carpenter
2022-05-02 15:43 ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 16:16   ` Bakul Shah [this message]
2022-05-02 16:19     ` Bakul Shah
2022-05-02 17:14       ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 16:29     ` Larry McVoy
2022-05-02 17:42     ` Clem Cole
2022-05-02 17:59       ` Bakul Shah

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