From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 14f2ef6c for ; Thu, 11 Apr 2019 01:07:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 54B9794929; Thu, 11 Apr 2019 11:07:33 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D934C94926; Thu, 11 Apr 2019 11:07:01 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4CB8C94926; Thu, 11 Apr 2019 11:06:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from booboo.lectroid.com (booboo.lectroid.com [45.56.103.166]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 13FF994925 for ; Thu, 11 Apr 2019 11:06:58 +1000 (AEST) Received: from booboo.lectroid.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by booboo.lectroid.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id x3B16vdk002892 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2019 21:06:57 -0400 Received: from localhost (pat@localhost) by booboo.lectroid.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id x3B16uIQ002888 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2019 21:06:57 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: booboo.lectroid.com: pat owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2019 21:06:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Pat Barron X-X-Sender: pat@booboo.lectroid.com To: tuhs@tuhs.org Message-ID: User-Agent: Alpine 2.21 (LFD 202 2017-01-01) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Re: [TUHS] Paper discussing Unix boot process? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" The more I think about this, the more I'm sure I'm barking up the wrong tree... >From bits and pieces I've been able to recall, the thing I am looking for was not about Unix - it was about TOPS-20. It was a timeline of the system bootstrap activities from power-on to the point where users could log in. I still don't remember where I found it originally, but at least now I'm pretty sure I've been looking in all the wrong places... I believe it originated at CMU, but I don't know for sure that that's where I originally located it. The actual problem I'm trying to solve is, at this point in my professional career, I'm starting to interact with a lot of people (even experienced software developers) who just have no clue of what has to happen to get a computer from the point of "power-on" to the point where they can actually use it to do things. This makes me sad... So, I'm looking for something that I can point these people to that could clue them in... I think the whole bootstrap process is useful to understand for a lot of reasons, partly because it makes you think about all the little fiddly details that have to be attended to to make the computer do what you want - when I was first learning about this, I remember being particularly fascinated by what had to happen to prepare for that moment at which you turn on the MMU, to make sure that the system continues executing in a place you expect it to, in the right processor mode. I know most people that I interact with are using Linux or Windows on Intel-architecture machines, but the boot process for Unix on the PDP-10 or VAX (or even TOPS-20 on the PDP-10) I thought would be a much simpler thing to understand. Though maybe that's the wrong thought process, maybe I should just find something related to Linux that is comparable (even though I think it's more complicated). While searching, I also came across a decent presentation by a friend of mine who teaches at CMU, and discusses hardware that people probably actually work with right now, but I think it would be best consumed along with the actual lecture that it goes with. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~410-f08/lectures/L20_Bootstrap.pdf Maybe I'll find what I was originally looking for at some point, but after spinning on this for most of the day, I don't think it's related to Unix... --Pat.