New Unix emulator for VMS available

[dbj at RICE.ARPA]

From:  Dave Johnson <dbj at RICE.ARPA>

The Computer Science Department of Rice University is proud to announce the
availability of "Phoenix", a Unix 4.1 BSD kernel emulator for VMS, and
"Tucson", a nearly complete set of the standard Unix software distributed by
Berkeley with 4.1 plus many locally written programs.  Phoenix and Tucson
have been developed at Rice University over the past few years, and have
been in beta-test at various sites outside of Rice for nearly a year.
Phoenix and Tucson currently run under VMS versions 3.0 to 3.6 and will
probably track future versions of VMS as they become available.  All
distributions of both Phoenix and Tucson include full source code.

Phoenix is a nearly complete emulation of 4.1 BSD Unix for VMS.  The
philosophy of the project is that every Unix program should run under
Phoenix unmodified, even if it takes advantage of very obscure Unix
function and behavior.  As examples, we have ported with little or no
modification such programs as:

    o  C shell with full job control
    o  Gosling's EMACS
    o  Franz Lisp
    o  Macsyma
    o  UUCP
    o  Yale T
    o  Pascal, Fortran 77

The system is completely compatible with 4.1 BSD at the Unix object code
level, so source isn't needed to port most programs.

Major omissions in this first release of Phoenix include:

    o  full file sharing for multiple writers
    o  remapping of some keyboard control characters (^C, ^U, DEL)
    o  ptrace and the debuggers
    o  pseudo-teletypes
    o  multiplexed files

We are considering expanding the system to emulate important 4.2 features,
particularly networking, as a long-term goal.  Also, when VMS 4.0 is
available from DEC, we plan to release a new version to take advantage of
new VMS features provided by 4.0.

The Tucson package contains almost everything distributed by Berkeley in
their standard 4.1 distribution, except the Unix kernel itself.  Tucson
includes most standard Unix programs from 4.1 BSD, together with all of the
standard Unix libraries, the on-line "Unix Programmer's Manual" pages, etc.
Also included are several locally developed Unix programs, and versions of
standard software with significant improvements or bug fixes.

The distribution of Phoenix was delayed by a legal dispute which has now
been resolved.  As a result of the settlement, the Phoenix kernel itself is
now the property of SRI International, but Rice may sublicense and
distribute the system for $600 per CPU.  Universities and government labs
must have a Bell Unix source license to receive the system.  Commercial
sites must also have a binary or source license for "Eunice" from SRI or The
Wollongong Group in addition to a Unix source license.  Tucson licenses are
available only from Rice University for a distribution fee of $100 per site
(for an unlimited number of CPUs).  A Bell Unix source license is also
required to receive Tucson.  Both Phoenix and Tucson are licensed "as is",
and no maintenance will be provided.  However, full source code is included
with both, and bug fixes and new releases will be available at an additional
charge.

To get more information on the distribution of Phoenix and Tucson or to
receive licensing materials, send a request to our Software Distribution
Coordinator:

    Wendy Wong
    Department of Computer Science
    Rice University
    P.O. Box 1892
    Houston, TX 77251

or send network mail to:

    phoenix-request at rice.ARPA                  (Arpanet,CSNet)
    {lbl-csam,convex}!rice!phoenix-request     (UUCP)

Please include your U.S. Mail address in all correspondence.

------------------------------
Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
VMS is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.