UNIX timeline (was Re: PWB/UNIX)

[Ken Keirnan]

In article <3776 at rpp386.UUCP> jfh at rpp386.UUCP (The Beach Bum) writes:
>andy didn't include release 4.0, which as i recall was released in the
>summer of 1981.  as far as i know it was only released internally and to
>some universities which had professors on loan from the labs.
>
>i had the misfortune of having to deal with it for a short time, prior
>to xavier (where i hung out) getting release 5.0 running on the 11/45.
>i can't say much about 4.0, except that it appeared to be closer to
>5.0 than to 3.1 (did i get that right???  was it 3.2???)  we were having
>hardware trouble so no one got to use the system much.
>
>as i recall, 4.0 still fit in 128K or so of memory.  release 5.0 had to
>be trimmed down quite a ways, and it still took more than 128K.  which
>leads to the next question.  has anyone every managed to fit s5r2 on a
>pdp-11?


First, you are correct about UNIX 4.0.  This version was something of a
"pre-release" of System V that was missing several major enhancements that
eventually appeared in 5.0 (I don't remember the specifics), and yes, this
version was only released within the Bell System (I still have 4.0 running
on 2 pdp-11/70s).

Second, System V release 2 was the last release of UNIX from Bell Labs to
run on the pdp-11/70 (I don't know if it runs on the 11/45).  The pdp-11
version of release 2 is missing several operating system features and
utilities that are available on larger machines, but the "Labs" managed
to fit the kernel text into 64K.  Kernel data is larger than 64K, but is
handled by using a combination of pdp-11's "kernel" and "supervisory"
modes to map the necessary data space.  In spite of all the memory
management manipulation required, Sys VR2 runs great on the pdp-11/70.
Yes, I still have an 11/70 running SVR2, and I still find it a challange
to shoehorn large programs on to the system (Documentors Work Bench 2.0
was the most recent).

Ken Keirnan
-- 

Ken Keirnan - Pacific Bell - {att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!pbhyf!kjk
  San Ramon, California	                    kjk at pbhyf.PacBell.COM