Help on Altos 586 system...

From: Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram_at_cnct.com>
Date: Tue Dec 30 21:22:58 1997

Jeff Kaneko wrote:
>
> Stuff I forgot to mention . . . .
>
> <SNIP>
>
> > >
> > > When Xenix boots, it indicates that the machine has 840k of RAM, but says
> > > little else. I'm not even sure right at the moment what processor is in
> > > it. (not dug that far under the panels)
>
> It uses an 8086 (10Mc). Xenix ran almost exclusively on 8x86 CPU's,
> although according to the _Microcomputer Buyers Guide_ (1983):
>
> "Micro$oft is enhancing UNIX for commercial applications and porting
> it to the popular 16-bit microprocessors such as the Intel 8086,
> Zilog Z-8000, Motorola 68000 and Digital PDP-11."

The 586 was not the first Xenix system from Altos -- their first as I
recall was an overpriced and unreliable 68000 system. The TRS-80
Model 16 blew it away, so Altos switched over to the 8x86 and after a
while converted to SCO -- as Tandy did later, much to my annoyance.

Microsoft was never able to create a viable consumer product out of
Xenix, although they picked up a lot of good ideas during the effort
of starting the project, which is why MS-DOS went beyond its
CP/M-clone beginnings to add features such as the tree directory,
(fake) I/O redirection, (fake) pipes, (fake) device independence,
etc.. starting with version 2.0. They sublet the project to Altos,
Tandy and SCO in that order, which companies actually produced
products. SCO having no other business _except_ software naturally
went for the 8x86 market, and eventually dominated that end of the
Unix business for quite a few years, and now they own the rights to
all of the original AT&T source code via the buyout from Novell. Of
course, they're losing ground to Linux every day. And they _don't_
own the Unix trademark -- that's owned by The Open Group.
<http://www.opengroup.org/public/tech/unix/trademark.html>
(Tandy Xenix is where I fell into the black hole of Unix, and there's
a Tandy 6000HD with a slightly ailing hard disk controller less than
six feet from me which I _will_ resurrect).

Oh, Altos Xenix appeared in early '82, Tandy Xenix in Jan '83, and SCO
started shipping software in Sept '83. The latter two from personal
memory, as I was actually paying attention at the time. The initial
SCO offering for the XT left much to be desired, the AT version was a
_lot_ better, but they conquered the market with Xenix/386.
-- 
Ward Griffiths
Two thousand yeare since Bethlehem and still we hear the lie,
that after years of hopes and fears the best part's when we die.
Received on Tue Dec 30 1997 - 21:22:58 GMT

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