[TUHS] Re: PCS Munix kernel source

[Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>]

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On Wed, Aug 10, 2022 at 4:29 AM Holger Veit <hveit01@web.de> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have uploaded the kernel source of 32 bit PCS MUNIX 1.2 to
> https://github.com/hveit01/pcs-munix.
>

This is really cool!


> MUNIX was an AT&T SVR3.x implementation for the German PCS Cadmus
> workstations in the 80's. They were
> based on Motorola 68020 CPUs on a DEC QBUS.
>

Fun times that combination...


> The interesting feature of this kernel is the integration of the
> Newcastle Connection network
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Connection) which I found,
> beyond a tech report https://assets.cs.ncl.ac.uk/TRs/175.pdf, no further
> references for.
>
> The kernel source was reverse engineered and verified (see readme in the
> distribution who this was done) from the binary tape at
> ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/cm/pcs/sw/IS0371P.tap (Computer
> museum of the University of Stuttgart), and to my knowledge reveals the
> Newcastle connection code for the first time in a commercial Unix.
>
> The Github package includes the kernel sources, i/O drivers, several
> standard libraries, the disassembled boot ROM and for reference, two of
> my tools, a partial syscall emulator pcsrun which allowed me to run the
> C compiler and other native binaries outside the PCS hardware/Unix
> environment, and a disassembler pcsdis for the specific COFF dialect
> (note that IDA will produce garbage without a specific patch).
>

I love it. This is quite similar, though further along, than my on-again
off-again efforts to do the same with Venix 86/R for my Rainbow...

Warner

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