On Wed, 2004-03-31 at 19:15, William Donzelli wrote:
> > Ah, but there's your problem. You're thinking that AIX is unix. It _is_
> > UNIX(tm), but it really really isn't unix. It's a very proprietary OS
> > with a very slick unix user interface and API.
>
> Yes, under the covers it apparently shares a bit with OS/400.
Umm, no. AIX has nothing in common with OS/400. The main reason is
that OS/400 didn't (doesn't) run on the 32-bit POWER. It was only when
IBM started to move to 64-bits that the Austin lab (home of POWER & AIX)
and Rochester lab (home of AS/400 & OS/400) were told to build 1 64-bit
processor that could be used by both.
OS/400 uses an extra bit (33-bits and 65-bits) for it's weird protection
scheme.
It is true that the AIX kernel (on POWER & PPC) was a custom written
control program (written at T.J. Watson Research Center) with UNIX
semanitics layered on top. This was to take full advantage of the
POWER's architecture (especially in the VM area) that would have been
too much work to adapt a "standard" unix kernel to.
--
TTFN - Guy
Received on Thu Apr 01 2004 - 09:43:55 BST