[rescue] Cold War hardware movements - was Re: WTB: Functioning VAX machine

[vintagecoder at aol.com]

>From jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de Wed Feb 22 06:49:46 2012

> On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:01:13 -0500
> Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
>> Plus, given the importance of PDP-11 clones, the Soviet bloc must have
>> had hardware at some point; if the embargo had been perfect they'd have
>> invented their own architecture, I speculate. They certainly were
>> capable of it. It's not clear what real benefit compatibility is, under
>> the circumstances.

> Well. Software. If you have compatible hardware you can reuse all the
> software.

Quite so! Without hardware or a good emulator the software becomes quickly
worthless.

> Software is much easier to replicate then hardware.

Maybe sometimes but not always. When they wanted to "port" MVS they found
it easier to port the hardware! Until now nobody has been able to write a
compatible MVS z/OS etc. from scratch. Instead they replicated the hardware
in software...


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