What *was* the Tahoe?

[Dave Horsfall]

On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, Michael Sokolov wrote:

>    I have noticed that the Tahoe architecture is big-endian (I use this to
> easily tell between VAX and Tahoe binaries and filesystem dumps). Is this
> what you mean? Or is there any more backwardness?

It's basically a big-endian Vax.  When disassembling code, I never knew
whether to wear my Vax hat or my Motorola hat :-)  I believe that the
Harris 7, the ICL Clan etc were just badge-engineered.  Nice machine,
and no relation to the CCI 5/32 and the 5/32X (680x0) other than the
manufacturer.

>    At least the FPU card was optional, since the Tahoe code in BSD has a
> emulator for it.

And the Ethernet card cost AU$10,000 (ca. 80s).  It had a STUPID ribbon
cable connector to the D15 socket; misalign it by one pin (easy to do),
since there was no key; you had to count 13 pins down) and you blew the
card.  I did, once...

-- 
Dave Horsfall VK2KFU  dave at geac.com.au  Ph: +61 2 9978-7493 Fx: +61 2 9978-7422
Geac Computers P/L (FGH Division) 2/57 Christie St, St Leonards 2065, Australia


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