[TUHS] Unix Circuit Design System

[Clem Cole]

Funny you should ask....

I had the last known virgin copy of that UCDS a few years ago, which we
managed to save.  Dennis declared it part of V7 (just a little late being
distributed), which we promptly sent to Warren, who has the source in his
archives.    Note it uses a tektronix 40xx terminal as the native screen.
It's been years since I used it, but I may be able to answer a few
questions.  I suspect the biggest issue with trying to use with xterm
emulation is that lack of the two wheels that the tek terminals had.

Good luck,
Clem

On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Michele Ghisolfo <ghisolfo.m at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello all!
>
> While I was reading the article "A Research UNIX Reader:  Annotated
> Excerpts
> from the Programmer's Manual" from Douglas McIlroy, I learnt of a set of
> utilities for designing electronic circuits.  Here is a brief quote of this
> article:
>
> "CDL (v7 pages 60-63)
>
> Although most users do not encounter the UNIX Circuit Design System, it
> has long
> stood as an important application in the lab.  Originated by Sandy Fraser
> and
> extended by Steve Bourne, Joe Condon, and Andrew Hume, UCDS handles
> circuits
> expressed in a common design language, cdl.  It includes programs to create
> descriptions using interactive graphics, to lay out boards automatically,
> to
> check circuits for consistency, to guide wire-wrap machines, to specify
> combinational circuits and optimize them for programmed logic arrays
> (Chesson
> and Thompson).  Without UCDS, significant inventions like Datakit, the
> 5620 Blit
> terminal, or the Belle chess machine would never have been built.  UCDS
> appeared
> in only one manual, v7."
>
>
> I looked it up on the 7th Edition's Manual and I haven't found references
> of
> this system.  I also searched a v7 system image downloaded from TUHS and
> got no
> results.  However I got some references of this system in USENET
> archives.  In
> particular, two hierarchies, net.draw and after net.ucds were dedicated to
> it.
> Apparently two of the binaries of the system were called "draw" and
> "wrap".  I
> also found a manual of a similar system which I suppose is the UCDS
> descendant
> in the 1st Edition of Plan 9.  This is the link of the document:
>
> http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/1st_edition/cda/
>
> However that edition of Plan 9 is not publicly released and I could not
> find
> it in following editions.  But since v7 Unix is available, I hope it may
> be possible to get hold of an older release at least.
>
> Does anyone have any information?
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
>     --- Michele
>
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