Ultrix on an 11/730?

From: Michael Sokolov <msokolov_at_ivan.Harhan.ORG>
Date: Thu Jan 29 23:53:39 2004

Curt vendel <curt_at_atarimuseum.com> wrote:

> Ah! Sorry, I didn't get into Dec Vax stuff until 94' and didn't start
> working with Ultrix till 95'

I started my VAX life at an even later date! 1997. So yes, I am a late comer
to the club. I saw a VAX for the first time in my life in 1997. But I wanted
to run 4.3BSD and I was determined to do whatever it takes to do it. So I
learned the VAX terminology and genealogy, learned how to make my way around
the VAX world, and learned that original 4.3BSD ran only on VAXen so huge and
so rare (an 11/7xx wasn't exactly a readily obtainable item even in 1997, much
less today) that I would never be able to run one. I learned that to make
4.3BSD run on a VAX of the kind I could lay my hands on and run in an apartment
I would have to actually do major work on the code first. Now imagine me back
then in 1997-98 thinking about the prospect of making major changes to a VAX
UNIX kernel while having virtually no knowledge of VAX architecture and system
programming. But I was determined. A good ClassicCmp friend provided me with
literature (VAX Architecture Reference Manual, VAX Architecture Handbook, and
VAX Hardware Handbook), and I learned the VAX architecture and instruction set.
I read and studied everything I could about VAXen. And it has paid off: I know
VAX really well now, people consult with me on deep VAX hardware questions, I
successfully maintain a VAX operating system, and I'm even working in the
background (though not too many cycles dedicated to it right now) on the design
of a new VAX CPU chip.

> I remember we got into the lab I think it
> was a Dec Infoserver, their first webserver and it was running Ultrix as I
> recall, [...]
> Actually, I think the infoserver was running OSF Unix???

Maybe we are talking about different things, but InfoServer runs a special
proprietary embedded OS and it is not a web server, it talks a special
proprietary protocol. Unless I'm totally mistaken on that one. (InfoServer
was a fairly unusual beast.)

MS
Received on Thu Jan 29 2004 - 23:53:39 GMT