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 23878 invoked from network); 11 Feb 2023 03:52:11 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 11 Feb 2023 03:52:11 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8FC3441C68; Sat, 11 Feb 2023 13:52:05 +1000 (AEST) Received: from lechuck.jsg.id.au (jsg.id.au [193.114.144.202]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 1376441C4C for ; Sat, 11 Feb 2023 13:51:59 +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 964a97b5 (TLSv1.3:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256:NO); Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:51:55 +1100 (AEDT) Received: from localhost (largo.jsg.id.au [local]) by largo.jsg.id.au (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPA id 6439e886; Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:51:55 +1100 (AEDT) Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:51:55 +1100 From: Jonathan Gray To: Larry McVoy Message-ID: References: <3e272d72-b77a-d347-b5c3-7ed19482e5af@gmail.com> <3h5FEAegoTs6FrhHODiW-rBdB59dt_Rmr4G0PIw7flqaJLsmorgPsilm4f2aJkDud-qEljDjnCJcE1uY05Iw4HNQcyNG4W3wzVlLD0UZfLg=@protonmail.com> <1863dd20b08.2952.27ce34798ec5af9926fa49424fa0531c@henare.com> <20230211005322.GF28037@mcvoy.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20230211005322.GF28037@mcvoy.com> Message-ID-Hash: YTJKYTOVKVXAC6RD2WP3SYT5L4537AVO X-Message-ID-Hash: YTJKYTOVKVXAC6RD2WP3SYT5L4537AVO X-MailFrom: jsg@jsg.id.au X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; 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: project athena (was Re: Setting up an X Development Environment for Mac OS) List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 04:53:22PM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote: > On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 07:13:41PM -0500, Henry Mensch wrote: > > that would have happened before I arrived in April of 1986. my first job at Athena was to. get folks off those XTs and (mostly) ATs. > > > > This was wildly unsuccessful and unpopular because the replacement hardware wouldn't be similarly capable... and also because, even then, there were more things that could be plugged into XTs and ATs. The old platform was perceived as more versatile. > > > > - Henry > > So the "old platform" was the National 32016 addon cards that somehow > ran a Unix? It seems that configuration wasn't used. "Phase I: The off-the-shelf system ... The closest approximation to the intended workstation environment economically feasible on available Digital hardware at the time the project began was minicomputer time-sharing systems. Approximately 50 VAX 11/750 minicomputers have been installed, each with six to eight graphics-capable terminals. ... The closest approximation to the eventual workstation configuration available in the IBM catalog for Phase I was the PC/AT personal computer, with a Professional Graphics Display and 3COM Ethernet interface. Approximately 160 PC/AT's have been installed. The software environment consists of PC/DOS, plus a set of higher level languages and application packages chosen to simplify moving to an eventual UNIX environment. In addition, 105 PC/XT personal computers, mostly with Color Graphics Display, have been installed, primarily for use as laboratory experiment controllers and also as cluster print servers for the PC/AT's." Evolution to the Athena Workstation Model: An Overview of the Development Plan http://web.mit.edu/saltzer/www/publications/athenaplan/d.pdf > > I'd love to learn more about that, I really liked the 320xx architecture, > seemed like a winner but my memory is they were buggy. Still would like > to get some idea of what it was like to run on an XT/AT with that card > plugged in. Did you boot DOS and that somehow booted Unix or what? > > --lm Multiple companies made these kinds of cards. Some are mentioned in an ad: https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_MiniMicroS_110087111/page/20/mode/2up http://www.cpu-ns32k.net/Defhard.html http://www.cpu-ns32k.net/Opus.html http://bitsavers.org/pdf/opusSystems/32k/800-00237-000_Opus_100pm_User_Manual_1987.pdf The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board, Part 1: The Hardware https://archive.org/details/BYTE_Vol_10-08_1985-08_The_Amiga/page/n127/mode/2up The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board, Part 2: The Software https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1985-09/page/n103/mode/2up