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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.