[geeks] Microsoft Surface...

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> From: "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com>
>> Date: 2007/06/06 Wed AM 11:54:43 CDT
>> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>> Subject: Re: [geeks] Microsoft Surface...
> 
>> On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 11:42:39AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>> TRS-80 Model I and Model II each had COBOL and FORTRAN compilers too.
>> Wait a minute, TRS-80 model I and II (and I think there was a IV)
>> were 8080 type computers (I think they actually had Z80's).
> 
> Yep, Z-80 CPUs in the Model I, II, III, and IV. [0]
> 
>> The Model II ran Xenix. It was an entirely different animal.
> 
> Xenix ran on the Z-80 CPU, and was sold by... Microsoft!

No, it didn't.  The Model II had a Z80A, and ran TRSDOS and BASIC.

Microsoft did not write Xenix.  They ported UNIX V7 and called it Xenix
because their license did not include permission to use the name, only the
code.  Their first port was to the Z8001 CPU, and they added some BSD elements
during the port.  They later ported to the PDP-11 and the 68000 CPUs.

The next Xenix releases were based on SysIII and in 1985 or so they moved to a
SysV based and ported to the 80286.  They called that release Xenix 2.

At that point Microsoft started work on OS/2 and quit selling Xenix, but kept
using Xenix internally for years

Xenix at one time had the largest installed base of UNIX in the world.

Regarding the TRS-80 Model II: you guys are confusing it with the Model 16.

The Model 16 added a 6MHz 68000 CPU, and it ran TRS-Xenix, licensed from
Microsoft.  You could purchase an upgrade to turn a Model 2 into a 16.

You could also run TRSDOS-16, but almost no one did because there were not
many applications for it and little interest.


-- 
shannon / There is a limit to how stupid people really are, just as there's
-------'  a limit to the amount of hydrogen in the Universe.  There's a lot,
but there's a limit.  -- Dave C. Barber on a.f.c.