Preserving a Multics System

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Fri Oct 20 17:30:41 2000

> > The 1 CPU DPS-8/70M with 4 MW, 1 IMU, 1 18x FNP, 2 FIPS tapes, 3 FIPS D
> and
> > 1 FIPS E disk that we ran at CGI/Perigon/ACTC consumed around 1.1 MWhr of
> > electricity a day running mostly the idle program. Based on current
> utility
> > rates in Calgary, that translates to about $2,000 CDN per month. This
> > included the AC load added to the room. The configuration cited is not the
> > minimal.
>
> This is why emulators are needed for the really old stuff, even if
> it does still run.

While it didn't run Multics I worked on DPS-8's running GCOS-8 from '90-93.
That would be a fairly tiny system. Going from fairly foggy memory you
could probably fit it in a 15'x20' room, with space to spare. We had a
setup like that for our development system. ISTR, that the basic CPU and
memory would take up about 10'x3', the disks are probably the size of short
19" Racks, and the tapes are a bit bigger. It's been long enough I don't
remember which part a IMU is, but if it's what I think it is you can figure
about 6'x3', and I think the FNP (Frontend Network Processor) is in a 19"
rack. The Operator console/desk probably takes up another 6'x5'.

As I said, that's about the size of the development system I worked on, the
production system was a quad-processor system and if we did *everything*
right we could take processors out of a running system or bring them back
in. We had something like 8 tapes on the production system, a *LOT* of
disks, both fixed and removable, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if Honeywell or Group Bull doesn't have an emulator
that will run on UNIX systems for the DPS-8. After I left there I did a
little work on a DPS-6 system, which I helped decommission and move over to
HP9000/950's (think that was the right model). All the software was pretty
much directly ported over, except one application which we ran via
emulation.

A DPS-8 emulator would be kind of cool, but to truely get the feel of it
you'd have to have nightmare of emulated panels! A DPS-6 is pretty boring
comparied to a DPS-8. In both cases I hated GCOS, but still wouldn't mind
running GCOS-8 or Multics at home for the fun of it via emulation. Still
given what these systems were mostly used for and the fact that any
commercial systems were EOL'd back around '92 the odds of getting OS tapes
or anything else seems minimal.

Does anyone even know of any good DPS-8 information pages anywhere on the
net?

                                Zane
Received on Fri Oct 20 2000 - 17:30:41 BST