[TUHS] VAX System V

[Jonathan Gray via TUHS]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 06:04:49PM +1000, Jonathan Gray via TUHS wrote:
> 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

Also discussed in an internal DEC video, uploaded to youtube by
David Price (around 1:29:27).

1988-03-03 ULTRIX Strategy and Positioning -- DVN #056
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0XikPpbMic&t=5367s

"Ed Manning:
We at this present time have some confusion in the field regarding
exactly what our Unix products are.  There is Ultrix, which is for the
most part certainly what we've been talking about here today.  Ultrix
with SVID compliance on the System V side.  But then there is this other
product that exists, that people keep hearing about, and they keep
calling me and asking about.  What is this System V in New Jersey?
Should I sell it?  Do I need it?  Is Ultrix really what we're selling?

Don McInnis:
The New Jersey System V effort, for people who aren't familiar with it.
For years, AT&T has paid Digital Equipment to port their operating
system, exactly, over to our processors.  And they in turn use that on
products that they build in the networking environment.  Digital has
recently made a decision internally, to make that available to other
customers in the telecommunication industries.  And even outside the
telecommunication industries, to people who want what that product
offers very specifically.  There's a control process in place because
we're not able to support many of those sites, even from a field
delivery standpoint, even from a distribution standpoint.  But for
somebody who wants, identically, what System V is from AT&T and none of
the value added that Digital provides on top of it, we'll make that
available, if it's approved, to those customers."