From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 22141 invoked from network); 27 Feb 2023 10:57:36 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 27 Feb 2023 10:57:36 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A228432A2; Mon, 27 Feb 2023 20:57:32 +1000 (AEST) Received: from lechuck.jsg.id.au (jsg.id.au [193.114.144.202]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0BAB24329B for ; Mon, 27 Feb 2023 20:57:23 +1000 (AEST) Received: from largo.jsg.id.au (largo.jsg.id.au [192.168.1.43]) by lechuck.jsg.id.au (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPS id 952ec6a0 (TLSv1.3:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256:NO); Mon, 27 Feb 2023 21:57:20 +1100 (AEDT) Received: from localhost (largo.jsg.id.au [local]) by largo.jsg.id.au (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPA id ecfe2c38; Mon, 27 Feb 2023 21:57:20 +1100 (AEDT) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2023 21:57:20 +1100 From: Jonathan Gray To: segaloco Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Message-ID-Hash: 6VL42KT7LARKZJFA3JOBR5RS2G7OW2RM X-Message-ID-Hash: 6VL42KT7LARKZJFA3JOBR5RS2G7OW2RM X-MailFrom: jsg@jsg.id.au X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: tuhs@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Any Bell 8-bit UNIX Efforts? List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Sat, Feb 25, 2023 at 07:48:45PM +0000, segaloco via TUHS wrote: > So in working on an unrelated 6502 project, I got to wondering about > UNIX on it and other 8-bits. Did some Googling, and while I was > able to turn up some attempts at UNIX-likes on 6502 as well as Z80, > the only one I found that might have some Bell connection is "uNIX" > as documented here: https://bitsavers.org/pdf/uNIX/uNIX_Jan82.pdf > > A forum post I read suggested those involved were some former Bell > folks from NJ. In any case, this begs the question for me: Were > there ever any serious attempts at an 8-bit UNIX in the labs or > Bell System at large? Certainly it would've provided quite the > challenge without much return compared with 16 and 32-bit efforts, > but does anyone know if, say, an LSX/Mini-UNIX-ish attempt was ever > made at the 6502, Z80, or other 8-bits? Thanks all! > > - Matt G. If by Bell connection you mean people. Plauger left in 1975, joined Yourdon Inc in 1975, started Whitesmiths Ltd in 1978[1]. Whitesmiths created Idris, a clone of Unix. "Idris can run comfortably where UNIX can't event fit: On an MC68000 with no memory management hardware, for example. On a bank-switched 8080 or Z80. Or on any LS-11 or PDP-11 with memory management." Whitesmiths advertisement in Computerworld, Mar 1983 [2]. Yourdon Inc, announced Omnix in 1980, a Unix-like system for Z80[3]. By 1981 it "had to be withdrawn when Yourdon were let down by its developers" [4]. [1] https://indico.cern.ch/event/318305/attachments/612388/842557/PJPlauger-ITSeminar-Fifty_years.pdf [2] https://books.google.com/books?id=RAe4jAHXAgwC&pg=PA50 [3] https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/AUUGN/AUUGN-V02.3.pdf [4] https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1164679.1164681 The last article is "UNIX on a Micro" by Cornelia Boldyreff. It briefly mentions other 8-bit Unix-likes: Cromemco's Cromix, Thinker Toys/Morrow's Micronix, Technical Systems Consultants' UniFLEX.