Any Computer History Buffs Out There?

[shygye]

Bell Labs had strong ties to universities and gave the source code for Unix so computer science depts could play with it. This is how the different flavors of Unix developed as profs and students modified and added code.

 

The VAX 11/780 had a key switch. One position of the switch was PDP 11/70! So you could run the VAX as a supersized 11/70.

 

When I worked at Bell Labs we bought a VAX and ran Berkley Unix because the ATT Unix did not support virtual memory at that time (Unix III?).

[Sporty]

The VAX 11/780 had a key switch. One position of the switch was PDP 11/70! So you could run the VAX as a supersized 11/70.

 

Sorry, NO Key Switch, early on backward compatability was considered important, and it was advertised in the beginning, BUT never realy happened

 

As with VMS and Unix, at Boot time, the console system uploaded the microcode, for the operating system.

 

Before the system release, I know some of the folks that worked on "Compatability Mode", the market place was not interested in it, so within the first year the ability was scrapped, and soon forgotten.

 

When I worked at Bell Labs we bought a VAX and ran Berkley Unix because the ATT Unix did not support virtual memory at that time (Unix III?).

 

Not positive, but I think virtual memory management, did come in with Unix 5, from Berkley, might be wrong on that.

 

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

Not positive, but I think virtual memory management, did come in with Unix 5, from Berkley, might be wrong on that.

 

I'm quite sure you are right about that. To my knowledge BSD UNIX was tha first one to have virtual memory management. However I'm not sure that it was avalable for the VAX before VMS as VMS was developed for the VAX. On the other hand BSD UNIX also introduced sockets which is the basis for most internet communicationtoday.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK