[TUHS] PDP-11 questions

[Doug McIlroy]

> First, I was wondering when Bell Labs got that first PDP-11/20 what
software (if any) came with it? 

> I have this bit set that they didn't get anything, they wrote a
cross-assembler on another machine. I know that when it came, it didn't have a
disk (wasn't ready yet), so it ran a chess problem (memory only) for quite a
while until the disk came.

That is exactly right. Unix was up and running as a time-sharing
system with remote access before a primitive DOS emerged from DEC.
The chess problem was enumeration of closed knight tours.

Doug