[TUHS] VAX System V

[Jonathan Gray via TUHS]

On Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 11:43:31PM -0700, Kevin Bowling via TUHS wrote:
> I got a manual set for Digital VAX System V 3.2.1.  It appears to be a
> descendent of AT&T's VAX port, but it was thoroughly extended with
> large system hardware support (including CI bus) and even sundries
> like X11R4.  Compared to i.e. 3B2 System V which IMHO is pretty bare
> bones and even a little half baked.  The manuals are actually pretty
> great.
> 
> I'm not overly familiar with DEC but perusing history it seemed to be
> that Ultrix was always playing second fiddle to VMS.  VAX System V
> seems like a "more serious" UNIX, it targets the large machines:  VAX
> 11/780, 6000, 8000, 9000.  Only in the 3.2.1 release did a MVII pop
> in.
> 
> I don't think I've ever seen anything on this in the wild, the main
> customer appeared to be AT&T itself and the RBOCs.  Information online
> is scare.

Discussions tend to mention Manalapan, New Jersey.

https://www.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2004-October/004252.html
https://groups.io/g/simh/message/1963