Re: [TUHS] SPARC is CRAPS spelled backwards.

[Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl>]

> Did the 5150 have a UNIX available anywhere near its launch date?   I know
> that it had DOS, CP/M-86, and the UCSD p-System relatively early on.  It's
> not clear to me whether Xenix ever supported the original PC; were there
> other early porting efforts?

The first version of Venix-86 ran on the PC/XT, almost a 5150, in May 83. It was V7 based. I think it was the first Unix on a PC.

Heinz Lycklama (who did Unix LSX and MX at Bell labs in the 70’s) did PC/IX about a year later, based  on Sys III. This was marketed by IBM.

Based on the early Xenix porting chart here http://seefigure1.com/2014/04/15/xenixtime.html , a PC/XT version of Xenix appeared around the same time as PC/IX. However, if the chart is correct there may have been Xenix versions for other 8086-based machines a year before that. Note that in this chart the “Xenix 2.0” and “Xenix 3.0” labels refer to MS internal versions, i.e. these numbers are not to be confused with the marketing labels IBM PC Xenix 2.0 and 3.0.

These versions are a hole in the TUHS archive (unless they are in the confidential archive). It would be wonderful if MS would open up pre-1984 Xenix on the occasion of Unix 50th. These builds would well illustrate the broad Unix portability, which was unique at the time.

Paul