UNIX timeline (was Re: PWB/UNIX)

[Andrew Tannenbaum]

> I've recently acquired a copy of the PWB/UNIX User's Manual in two volumes,
> (one section looks like the current User's Manual and the other like the 
> Programmer's Manual) printed in May 1977. Can anyone tell me where PWB/UNIX 
> fits in to the UNIX history? I've never heard of it before.

There were two major versions of PWB/UNIX, 1.0 was V6 based, 2.0 was v7
based.  The PWB (Programmer's Workbench) group were UNIX developers
whose major charter was to develop economical UNIX systems as front
ends to real computers (like IBM, Univac, Honeywell), so that a system
analyst could have one terminal on his desk instead of three terminals
(or cardreaders), he could use one editor - one integrated set of tools.

Some of the major contributions of PWB are the MM macros for troff and
the UNIX RJE stuff (which was heavily used in Bell Labs, at least when
I was there - until 1983).  See the paper "The Programmer's Workbench"
by Dolotta, Haight, and Mashey, in the classic UNIX BSTJ from the
summer of 1978.

While at MASSCOMP, I drew up this timeline of UNIX history
until AT&T SVR2/4.2BSD.

	Andrew Tannenbaum   Interactive   Boston, MA   +1 617 247 1155
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>
'\"	tbl | troff
'\"	need a blank line to init troff state
.sp .5i
.TS
box;
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		Great Moments in UNIX System History
=
1969		Thompson fiddles with filesystem ideas on Multics
		Thompson ports "space travel" from MULTICS to
		GECOS to PDP-7, hacks UNIX filesystem and...
		UNIX V1 written in assembly by Thompson for PDP-7&9
_
1970		Thompson intends to write FORTRAN using TMG, writes B instead.
		After being denied for $.5M for a research DEC-10, Ossanna
		asks for $65K for a new PDP-11/20 for text processing research.
		Ordered in May, comes in August
		Runs UNIX in core until disk comes in December
		Kernighan suggests name UNIX
_
1971	Feb	UNIX V2 PDP-11/20 in assembly language on unprotected hardware
		Work begins on C
	Summer 	BTL patent dept runs text processing on 11/20 UNIX
	Nov	UNIX V1 manual
_
1972	Jun	UNIX V2 manual
		UNIX gets pipes
_
1973	Feb	V3 Manual
	Feb	UNIX V3 PDP-11/34 40 45 60 70 multiprogramming
		C runs on Honeywell 6000, IBM 370
	Oct	UNIX first mentioned in public at ACM 4th SOSP
		Snyder Portable C MIT Masters Thesis
		PWB/UNIX conceived - RJE SCCS PWB/MM
		MERT designed for PDP-11/45
_
1974	June	V4 Manual
	July	CACM UNIX paper "The UNIX Timesharing System"
		UNIX V5 university release
_
1975	May	UNIX V6 manual
_
1976		UNIX V6 commercial release
		LSX LSI-11 UNIX (Minimum Configuration ~$7000)
		Feasibility study for UNIX under VM/370 at Princeton
_
1977	early	Work begins on Interdata 8/32 UNIX port at Bell Labs
		Interdata 7/32 UNIX port at at U Wollongong Australia
		UNIX V6 commercial sublicenses
		USG UNIX Generic Issue 3 (UNIX V6 based)
	May	PWB/UNIX 1.0 (UNIX V6 based) Bell Release
	Jun	John Lions' commentary on UNIX V6
	late	MERT Release 0
_
1978	Spring	Johnson and Ritchie Interdata (later PE) port complete
	Jul	Bell System Tech Journal UNIX issue, Part 2 Vol. 57 No. 6
		current: USG UNIX, PWB/UNIX, UNIX V6, Research UNIX
		UNIX TS 1.0 (UNIX V7 based) Bell release
		UNIX 32V VAX port (UNIX V7 based)
_
1979	Jan	UNIX V7 manual
	Apr	UNIX RT (supersedes MERT)
	Jun	PWB/UNIX 2.0 (UNIX TS based) Bell release
	Dec	3BSD UNIX VAX virtual memory
_
1980	Feb	UNIX TS 1.3 VAX & PDP-11 Bell release
	Apr	UNIVAC 1100 UNIX TS 2.0+ Bell release
	Jun	UNIX TS 2.0 VAX only Bell release
	Jun	UNIX 3.0 (replaces TS and PWB) Bell release
	Oct	4.0BSD UNIX
_
1981	March	UNIX/370 Bell Release
	Mar	3B UNIX 3.0 Bell Release
	Jun	4.1BSD UNIX
_
1982	Jun	UNIX 5.0 Bell release
_
1983	Aug	4.2BSD manual
	Dec	UNIX System V Release 2 manual
_
.T&
r r r.
		Andy Tannenbaum MASSCOMP 9/84
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