Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!iconsys!ron From: ron@iconsys.UUCP (Ron Holt) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Unix optimized for SPARC? Keywords: OSF, SPARC Message-ID: <255@iconsys.UUCP> Date: 29 Jun 88 21:08:21 GMT References: <253@iconsys.UUCP> <4722@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> Reply-To: ron@iconsys.UUCP (Ron Holt) Organization: Icon International, Inc., Orem, Utah Lines: 33 In article <4722@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> barnett@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce G. Barnett) writes: >In article <253@iconsys.UUCP> ron@iconsys.UUCP (Ron Holt) writes: >|Of course, >|there are very machine specific sections of the Unix kernel, the VM code >|being a good example, but other than that, how could Unix be optimized >|for SPARC? > >I agree with your sentiment. Optimizing it for a RISC machine, >along with the other ABI's, should increase the portability of the kernal. > >But that is an old topic. The new one is that OSF plans to >remove all of the AT&T code eventually. Pardon me for asking a question for which you already know the answer. At least you could have answered my question before changing the subject. I have not read every article that has ever been posted to this group. I would still like an answer to the original question. Why is there all this fear that AT&T/Sun will steer the evolution of Unix towards a particular chip considering Unix's characteristic of portability. This fear seems unfounded. Email me if this has already been discussed. >Does anyone have a guestimate on the amount of effort this would take? >And how do you prove you weren't influenced by the AT&T code? These would be a good questions for Richard Stallman since he is also trying to produce a version of Unix free of AT&T code. He states in the GNU documentation: "I must avoid reading Unix source code." The founding OSF members certainly have read AT&T source code. -- Ron Holt UUCP: {uunet,caeco}!iconsys!ron Software Development Manager ARPANET: icon%byuadam.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu Icon International, Inc. BITNET: icon%byuadam.bitnet Orem, Utah 84058 PHONE: (801) 225-6888