Alpha CPUs, was Re: [rescue] i860 Success

[Phil Stracchino]

On Mon, May 03, 2004 at 07:56:10PM -0700, Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez wrote:
> I believe that the first 2 releases of Unix were single user (dunno if
> they were single tasked though).
> 
> I think there were some Xenix or somesuch nix that actually ran on 8086s,
> so I assume that it must have been a real pain in the rear to get any sort
> of multiprogramming/multiuser going on that system. Wasn't Altos which
> sold 8086 based multi user systems?

Yes, I'm pretty sure Xenix would run on an 8086.  But [obdiclaimer] I've
never used Xenix, so I couldn't say for sure.

> I think I also remembered some brain dead version of Unix for x86 which
> had the 8.3 naming convention/limit (or it may be a brain fart).

Are you perchance thinking of Minix?

> And a quick question, was Xenix M$'s first OS? If that is the case, it is
> rather messed up that M$ started as an *nix shop of sorts. Ugh..

No, they bought Xenix from somebody some time after buying (or stealing,
depending who you believe) DOS.


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