SCO UNIX <REPLACES> VMS and ULTRIX on new DEC product line

[Jay Vassos-Libove]

In article <29029 at usc> annala at neuro.usc.edu (A J Annala) writes:

   My friends tell me most of VMS is coded in a DEC proprietary language
   called BLISS.  BLISS exists for PDP-11's, PDP-10's, and VAXen -- DEC
   could have chosen to write a new BLISS compiler for the 80386 -- but
   that is not what happened -- instead, DEC adopted SCO UNIX for their
   new machine.  Moreover, in the process, DEC abandoned it's own ULTRIX 
   (DEC proprietary version of UNIX) in order to adopt SCO UNIX.

This is not an official DEC statement, this is just me talking.

DEC did not "abandon" Ultrix in order to "choose" SCO Unix for the PC
line that we sell. DEC chose to fill a market niche that we had not
previously been filling, and our evaluation was that SCO Unix was the
best candidate from among the existing PC Unixes.

Porting VMS to another processor is not just a matter of rewriting
a BLISS compiler, it is a matter of re-engineering the entire operating
system, since the VMS operating system makes use of VAX hardware specific
features to get performance, reliability, and security from the hardware.

Porting any brand of Unix (be it SunOS, Ultrix, etc...) is a MAJOR effort,
and not conducive to getting a product to market in any short time frame,
which I guess was one of the points of choosing existing equipment and
software/OS to repackage as our PC+Unix line - to get it out the door.

No operating systems have been abandoned, and none have any critical
flaws. Everything done here was practical and business oriented.
--

Jay Vassos-Libove                  libove at libove.det.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation      decwrl!libove.det.dec.com!libove
Detroit ACT/Ultrix Resource Center Opinions? They're mine, mine, all mine!
Farmington Hills, Michigan         and D.E.C. Can't have 'em!