13 Mar
2024
13 Mar
'24
9:50 p.m.
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-un…)
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(a)gmail.com
<mailto:mrochkind@gmail.com>> wrote:
@Clem Cole <mailto:clemc@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(a)ccc.com
<mailto:clemc@ccc.com>> wrote:
@Marc
On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 1:18 PM Marc Rochkind
<mrochkind(a)gmail.com <mailto:mrochkind@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
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