[TUHS] Re: UNIX on (not quite bare) System/370

[segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org>]

All I can comment is there are a number of #ifdef u370 sections added to System V.  Happened somewhere between 3.0 and 5.0, likely UNIX/TS.  This is my understanding of Bell-adjacent platform work:

PDP-7          - Research, 1969
PDP-11         - Research, 1970
Interdata 8/32 - Research, 1977
VAX            - Research, 1979 (or did USG do 32V, it's sitting in my USG folder...)
3B20           - UNIX/TS 4.x, 1981
System/370     - UNIX/TS?, 198x
3B5            - Release 5.0, 1982
M68000         - System V, 1983
Z8000          - System V, 1983

And sources are obvious for PDP-7, PDP-11, Interdata, and VAX. 3B20 I based on the 4.1 manual, unsure if it was integrated any earlier. M68000 and Z8000 are based on entries in the AT&T documentation catalogue from 1984, among other things, they mention System V documentation for M680000 and Z8000.  The machid man page in System V lists pdp11, u3b, u3b5, and vax.  The 370 references I'm aware of are all in code.  I can try and pinpoint that if anyone wants me to look, a grep for u370 should suffice though.  In any case, machid in my 5.0 manual does not list M68000, Z8000, nor System/370.

Also ran upstairs and checked some of my other manuals, I find no reference of machid in the SVR2 era manual I have, but it isn't a formal release-version manual, it's "The UNIX System User's Manual" with the red AT&T cover that was the motif at the time.  It seems to be a much more general manual, meant to encompass multiple versions and just the basics.  It's actually pretty interesting in typography and layout, I'll see if that thing has been scanned yet, and if not, will add it to my list.

Checking the actual System V branded manual, it removes the 3b5 reference, perhaps 3b5 was still pretty internal at the time.  The 3b5 reference *is* in the Bell Labs Release 5.0 manual variant, so appears to have just been scrubbed from commercial release material.

Fast forwarding to SVR4, that adds u3b2, u3b15, and u370, so System/370 UNIX was formalized and promoted somewhere between SVR1 and SVR4, pointing more strongly to it being the work of USG and the UNIX/TS line.  That's my initial analysis, I feel like I saw mention of 370 in some sort of papers from around this timeframe, so will respond if I find anything else.  Unfortunately I have a gaping SVR2/SVR3 hole in my library that I don't intend to fill until I work my scan backlog down.

- Matt G.

------- Original Message -------
On Monday, December 19th, 2022 at 9:38 AM, Phil Budne <phil@ultimate.com> wrote:


> The October 1984 BSTJ article by Felton, Miller and Milner
> https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/otherports/ibm.pdf
> 
> Describes an AT&T port of UNIX to System/370 using TSS/370
> underpinnings as the "Resident System Supervisor" and used as the 5ESS
> switching system development environment.
> 
> I also found mention at http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.x09
> chapter 9 of http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ with footnote 96:
> 
> Ian Johnstone, who had been the tutor at University of New
> South Wales working with Professor John Lions, was one of the
> researchers invited to Bell Labs. He managed the completion at
> AT&T Bell Labs of the port of Unix to the IBM 370 computer. See
> "Unix on Big Iron" by Ian Johnstone and Steve Rosenthal, UNIX
> Review, October, 1984, p. 26. Johnstone also led the group that did
> the port to the AT&T 2B20A multiprocessor system.
> 
> I found
> https://ia902801.us.archive.org/3/items/Unix_Review_1984_Oct.pdf/Unix_Review_1984_Oct.pdf
> "BIG UNIX: The Whys and Wherefores" (pdf p.24), which only offers rationale.
> 
> Also:
> 
> "IBM's own involvement in Unix can be dated to 1979, when it
> assisted Bell Labs in doing its own Unix port to the 370 (to
> be used as a build host for the 5ESS switch's software). In
> the process, IBM made modifications to the TSS/370 hypervisor
> to better support Unix.[12]"
> at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AIX#cite_ref-att-s370-unix_12-0
> 
> Is there any other surviving documentation about the system?
> Any recall of what branch of AT&T UNIX it was based on?
> 
> Thanks!
> Phil