Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!brl-adm!brl-sem!ron From: ron@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Cost of Designing a New Computer Message-ID: <556@brl-sem.ARPA> Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 18:22:16 EST Article-I.D.: brl-sem.556 Posted: Mon Jan 5 18:22:16 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 5-Jan-87 23:37:59 EST References: <950@husc6.UUCP> <666@instable.UUCP> Organization: Electronic Brain Research Lab Lines: 13 In article <666@instable.UUCP>, amos@instable.UUCP (Amos Shapir) writes: > UNIX was written by 2 men over 2 years, and the same version ran on minis > & mainframes Ken and Dennis may have labored for 2 years for the first PDP-11 UNIX but that isn't the same version that runs on minis and mainframe nor what we expect today in a software product called UNIX. Even neglecting changes that occurred in versions 5, 6, 7, System III, System V, VR2...UNIX doesn't just pop out of the box and run on a new architecture. First you have to come up with a C compiler and then you can get down to work. I'd expect it would take you longer to port UNIX to any new machine than you think, but it is easier than porting something like VMS. At least most of the source code will be compatible.