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=-0.8 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 a3439ad4 for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:14:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 932439C228; Wed, 22 Jan 2020 10:14:25 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8B8759C201; Wed, 22 Jan 2020 10:14:04 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id DC7A39C1FF; Wed, 22 Jan 2020 10:14:02 +1000 (AEST) Received: from central.weird.com (unknown [198.96.117.51]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 076389C14A for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2020 10:14:02 +1000 (AEST) Received: from (invalid client hostname: bind: DNS error: DNS lookup for A for 'more.local': Unknown host)more.local ((no PTR matching greeting name)S01060026bb6c284e.ok.shawcable.net[24.71.254.93] port=48530) by central.weird.com([198.96.117.51] port=587) via TCP with esmtp (4828 bytes) (sender: ) (ident using UNIX) id for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2020 19:14:00 -0500 (EST) (Smail-3.2.0.122-Pre 2005-Nov-17 #77 built 2019-Dec-29) Received: from (invalid client hostname: the DNS A record (with the targegt address [10.0.1.129]) for the hostname 'more.local' does not match the expected address [10.0.1.129])more.local ((no PTR matching greeting name)future.local[10.0.1.133] port=59211) by more.local([10.0.1.129] port=25) via TCP with esmtp (4318 bytes) (sender: ) id for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2020 16:14:00 -0800 (PST) (Smail-3.2.0.122-Pre 2005-Nov-17 #1 built 2015-Feb-17) Message-Id: Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 16:14:00 -0800 From: "Greg A. Woods" To: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list In-Reply-To: <20200120180432.GJ28686@mcvoy.com> References: <20200117195908.GF15253@ancienthardware.org> <20200118035051.GC481935@mit.edu> <20200118041913.GB67053@eureka.lemis.com> <20200119024900.GA15860@mit.edu> <20200119031225.GI67053@eureka.lemis.com> <20200119035808.GK67053@eureka.lemis.com> <20200119132551.GC15860@mit.edu> <20200120180432.GJ28686@mcvoy.com> User-Agent: Wanderlust/2.15.9 (Almost Unreal) SEMI-EPG/1.14.7 (Harue) FLIM/1.14.9 (=?ISO-8859-4?Q?Goj=F2?=) APEL/10.8 EasyPG/1.0.0 Emacs/25.3 (x86_64--netbsd) MULE/6.0 (HANACHIRUSATO) X-Face: ; j3Eth2XV8h1Yfu*uL{<:dQ$#E[DB0gemGZJ"J#4fH*][ lz; @-iwMv_u\6uIEKR0KY"=MzoQH#CrqBN`nG_5B@rrM8,f~Gr&h5a\= List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Reply-To: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --pgp-sign-Multipart_Tue_Jan_21_16:13:56_2020-1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable At Mon, 20 Jan 2020 10:04:32 -0800, Larry McVoy wrote: Subject: Re: [TUHS] Early Linux and BSD (was: On the origins of Linux - "an= academic question") >=20 > I know those Nat Semi chips very well, or did at the time. I so wanted to > love those chips, the instruction set felt like whoever did the PDP-11 > did the 320xx chips. But they couldn't produce chips without bugs and > that killed them. It's a crying shame, I liked the instruction set > WAY better than the VAX. The VAX seemed really messing compared to=20 > the PDP-11, the 320xx chips seemed clean. Might be rose colored=20 > glasses but that's my memory. I held a lot of anticipation for the NS chips as well, and I remember well excitedly going around to trade shows for a year or two and playing around with the very few Unix systems based on them that showed up on occasion. =46rom what I understand it was really only the original NS32016 that was too buggy to be trusted. The NS32032 was a bug-fix release that also came a full 32-bit external bus, and the NS32532 a while later was quite a contender at the time in terms of performance (wikipedia says "about twice as performant as the competing MC68030 and i80386"). In the end though I discovered the ATT 3b2 systems and their also quite nicely orthogonal WE32000 CPUs (though in the end I never did write more than a very simple demo program in assembler, just to know I could). My copy of the WE32100 Information Manual sits right beside my VAX Instruction Reference Manual. Sadly the 3B2s I had were never as powerful as a PC532 was though -- more like the sluggish i386 and m68k systems of the day. --=20 Greg A. Woods Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack Planix, Inc. Avoncote Farms --pgp-sign-Multipart_Tue_Jan_21_16:13:56_2020-1 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: OpenPGP Digital Signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iF0EABECAB0WIQTWEnAIIlcZX4oAawJie18UwlnHhQUCXieTxwAKCRBie18UwlnH hThYAJ9Bvx1HQ5YLvbbn2GGRy8uxpIYDNwCgyVoAO5W89MuhgBjZbzsGud2Ddrg= =cBmA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --pgp-sign-Multipart_Tue_Jan_21_16:13:56_2020-1--