[TUHS] PC/IX, VPIX, DOS/merge, etc. [was Re: History of non-Bell C compilers?

[Charles H Sauer (he/him)]

Heinz would certainly be more definitive than me regarding the ISC 
products, but ...

o IIRC, the name "PC/IX" was only used for the PC/XT release
- PC/IX was my first hands on access to Unix
- VPIX was bundled with PC/IX version
- I used VPIX minimally, don't remember much about it
- when I got a PC/AT for my office, I switched to Xenix because it took 
advantage of the 286
- there are various copies of PC/IX available, e.g., 
https://winworldpc.com/product/pc-ix/10, also subsequent ISC 386 
products there, pursuing is buried deep on my todo list
o Dell SVR3 was based on Interactive UNIX for 386, but eschewed VPIX in 
favor of DOS/Merge from LCC 
(https://notes.technologists.com/notes/2008/01/10/a-brief-history-of-dell-unix/)
o Dell SVR4 was independent of both ISC & LCC except that it included 
DOS/merge
- the Dell SVR4 that I've made available for ancient hardware, 86Box and 
VirtualBox runs DOS/merge acceptably in my minimal testing

Charlie

On 3/13/2024 10:33 AM, Warner Losh wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 9:28 AM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mrochkind at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     @Clem Cole <mailto:clemc at ccc.com>,
> 
>     I don't remember what it was. But, the XT had an 8088, so certainly n
> 
>     o 386 technology was involved.
> 
> 
> Venix could also run DOS. There is a kernel module (well .o) that 
> handles it...
> 
> Warner
> 
>     Marc
> 
>     On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 8:38 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com
>     <mailto:clemc at ccc.com>> wrote:
> 
>         @Marc
> 
>         On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 1:18 PM Marc Rochkind
>         <mrochkind at gmail.com <mailto:mrochkind at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>             At a trade show, I bought a utility that allowed me to run
>             PC-DOS under PC/IX. I'm sure it wasn't a virtual machine.
>             Rather, it just swapped back and forth. (Guessing a bit there.)
> 
>         Hmm ... you sure it was not either VPIX or DOS/Merge -- ISC
>         built VPIX in cooperation with the Phoenix Tech folks for PC/IX.
>         I always bought a copy with it, but it may have been an option. 
>           LCC did DOS/Merge originally as part of the AIX work for IBM
>         and would become a core part of OS/2 Warp IIRC.  Both Merge and
>         VPIX had some rough edges but certainly worked fine for DOS 3.3
>         programs.  The issue tended to be Win and DOS graphics-based
>         programs/games that played fast and loose, bypassing the DOS OS
>         interface and accessing the HW directly.  For instance, I never
>         got the flight simulator (Air War over Germany) for Dad's WWII
>         plane (P-47 Thunderbolt) to run under either (i.e., only under
>         DOS directly on the HW. FWIW: In that mode, Dad said the
>         simulator flew a lot like how he remembered it).
> 
>         Both Merge and VPIX used the 386 VM support and a bunch of work
>         in the core OS.   Heinz would have to fill us in here.  The
>         version of the 386 port ISC delivered to AT&T and Intel only had
>         the kernel changes to allow the VM support for VPIX to be linked
>         in, but it was not there.   IICR (and I'm not sure I am) is that
>         Merge could run on PC/IX also, but you had to replace a couple
>         of kernel modules.  It certainly would work on the AT&T and
>         Intel versions.
>         ᐧ
> 
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     /My new email address is mrochkind at gmail.com
>     <mailto:mrochkind at gmail.com>/
> 

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