[TUHS] Earliest UNIX Workstations?

[Warner Losh]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 8:58 AM Paul Ruizendaal <pnr at planet.nl> wrote:

>
> As a result of the recent discussion on this list I’m trying to understand
> the timeline of graphical computing on Unix, first of all in my preferred
> time slot ’75 -’85.
>
> When it comes to Bell Labs I’m aware of the following:
>
> - around 1975 the Labs worked on the Glance-G vector graphics terminal.
> This was TSS-516 based with no Unix overlap I think.
> - around the same time the Labs seem to have used the 1973 Dec VT11 vector
> graphics terminal; at least the surviving LSX Unix source has a driver for
> it
> - in 1976 there was the Terak 8510; this ran primarily USCD pascal, but it
> also ran LSX and/or MX (but maybe only much later)
> - then it seems to jump 1981 and to the Blit.
> - in 1984 there was MGR that was done at Bellcore
>
> Outside of the labs (but on Unix), I have:
>
> - I am not sure what graphics software ran on the SUN-1, but it must have
> been something
>

If this is the sun microsystem sun-1, the leaked sources online suggest
that these initially ran a V7 port by Unisoft. This switched to a 4.2BSD
port maybe before it went to customers as SunOS 1.0 if other leaked sources
can be believed.

If this is the Standford Unix Networked (?) sun, then I don't know.


> - Clem just mentioned the 1981 Tektronix Magnolia system
> - Wikipedia says that X1 was 1984 and X11 was 1987; I’m not sure when it
> became Unix centered
>

I believe very early. It ran first on the VS100, and I believe that those
machines at project athena were running Unix, but I'm not sure of the cut
over from Stanford V. Another thread posted the X announcement which was in
June 1984. There was also a pointer to a blog about pictures of the W
window system. None exist, it seems. The windowing system pictured in the
glossy marketing sheets for the VS100 were for VMS and VMS Windowing
System. I'd put money against the first X running on VMS. :)

We had X10R3 running on Sun 3/50s in our lab, though more often they ran
SunView since it was faster and more familiar to the admins that ran the
machines. This was in 86 or 87 I believe.


> - Sun’s NeWS arrived only in 1989, I think?
>

No. It had to be late 1987 or 1988 because I ran that on the Sun 3/60 that
the Hydrology department that I worked for ran. I didn't run it often, mind
you, and the 'generic terminal emulator for any termcap entry' terminal was
cool, but it was just a notch too weird for a daily driver.

Warner


> Outside of Unix, in the microcomputer world there was a lot of cheap(er)
> graphics hardware. Lot’s of stuff at 256 x 192 resolution, but up to 512 x
> 512 at the higher end. John Walker writes that the breakout product for
> Autodesk was Interact (the precursor to AutoCAD). Initially developed for
> S-100 bus systems it quickly moved to the PC. There was a lot of demand for
> CAD at a 5K price point that did not exist at a 50K price point.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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