Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!uwvax!astroatc!johnw From: johnw@astroatc.UUCP (John F. Wardale) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Cost of Designing a New Computer (Software) Message-ID: <673@astroatc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 15:22:33 EST Article-I.D.: astroatc.673 Posted: Mon Jan 5 15:22:33 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 5-Jan-87 22:06:46 EST References: <950@husc6.UUCP> <666@instable.UUCP> Reply-To: johnw@astroatc.UUCP (John F. Wardale) Organization: Astronautics Technology Cntr, Madison, WI Lines: 31 Keywords: hw, sw, micros, super-minis, unix Summary: big machines get more sw In article <666@instable.UUCP> amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir) writes: >In article <950@husc6.UUCP> reiter@harvard.UUCP (Ehud Reiter) writes: >>Port UNIX to new supermini - 1's of engineer man-years >>New micro system software - 100's of engineer man-years >>New supermini system software - 1000's of engineer man-years >>New mainframe system software - 1000's of engineer man-years > >You must be a hw engineer :-) There's no reason that mini or mainframe >software would be an order of magnitude bigger than micro sw. >... >it's not the size of the hw, but the functionality that determines >the effort required; You must be an applications programmer :-) Operating system issuses like performace, VM, and most importantly periferal support are greater for bigger machines. It takes losts more system software for a large Gould/Pyramid/Vax etc. than it does for an XT/AT etc. running Zenix. The point is that sw for micros is commonly much smaller (lower grade??) than for bigger systems because smaller systems usually have (can only afford) fewer functional requirements. >UNIX was written by 2 men over 2 years, and ... And has had 10K to 1M man-years of developments since them, which brings me to my second point: Doing a full port of unix to new hw (with different VM support, multiple periferal choices, and a complex I/O sub-system) is more like 10's of man-years (especially if you add a few performace hacks to tune it to your machine, and then do a bsd 4.x and System V support, or dual universe). --> Anyone know how long it took Cray to put unix on the Cray-2?