MULTICS Installation, Halifax

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Thu Nov 2 13:30:17 2000

> >I should have mentioned that Multics also was closely tied
> >to a 36-bit word size... a re-implementation could probably
> >get around this, but a port would be difficult...
> >
> >However, a port would work for an emulator, where you'd have
> >control of all aspects of the target architecture.
>
> Well.... Then How about one of the following Chips? Itanium, Alpha,
> PA-RISC, or UltraSparc? Would a 64-bit computer be able to
> handle running a 36-bit OS?

Certainly... in fact, this topic generated some heat.

It's my contention that being bottom-feeder commodity equipment,
the Intel line would be more cost-effective than an Alpha. But
that's irrelevantif you've got a box of surplus Alpha chips
lying around. And the IA64 won't quite be bottom-feeder commidity
for a year or two, at least. ;-)
 
> On the emulator side there are definitly 36-bit systems emulated on 32-bit
> chips, and even on 16-bit systems (at least IIRC, the 68000 is a 16-bit
> chip).

I'm still waiting to get my hands on one of these mythical PDP-10
emulators... I want my own DECSYSTEM-10, even if it's really
running on an old Mac.
 
regards,
-dq
Received on Thu Nov 02 2000 - 13:30:17 GMT