ICL PERQ

From: Mark Green <mark_at_cs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Thu Oct 25 00:26:24 2001

> >
> > Anyone out there own an ICL Perq?
>
> No, I don't have 'an' ICL PERQ. I've got 4 of them :-)
>
> > Ive got one in storage, working last time I looked. Seem to be interesting
> > beasts, a small mini with a very early Unix (Release 3), bitmapped display,
> > 'puck' pointing device and a primitive graphical interface. Possibly one of
> > the first bitmapped display Unixes?
>
> I belive that PNX (PERQ Unix) was the first Unix to have graphics
> operations in the kernel.
>

It definitely wasn't the first Unix to have graphics in the kernel,
but it may have been the first commercial one. A number of research
groups modified the V6 kernel to support graphics. This would be
around 1975/76, before the PERQ was produced (early 1980s). The
University of Toronto V6 version had a considerable amount of
graphics code in the kernel, both for vector and raster graphics
as well as high level tablet support. The displays supported were
produced by Three Rivers, so this may be where the motivation for
hte PNX implementation came from.

The University of Toronto modifications to V6 were distributed
through USENIX, and I believe the PUPS archive may have a copy
of it.
Received on Thu Oct 25 2001 - 00:26:24 BST