[Info-vax] VMS on a PC

[FredK]

> my guess is that should VMS ever be ported to the 8086, it would require
> an EFI based  64 bit 8086 system.

EFI will soon be on all PC's (it is already on many) - it is being heavily 
pushed by Intel and Microsoft who both want to see the end of the BIOS.

> Porting costs would be
> far less if they can re-use the EFI stuff (probably vastly unchanged)
> instead of supporting the primitive BIOS.

Porting VMS starts with porting all the tools, like the VMS-specific 
compilers (start with Macro-32 and Bliss).  That is the biggest initial 
hurdle.  So before you have the first line of code ported you probably have 
1-2 years of calendar time invested.

> And since VMS has very limited hardware support (video, no sound anymore
> etc), only a subset of 8086 based servers/computers would support VMS.

I'm not sure that lack of sound is an important issue.   It's also unlikely 
that except for hobby/unsupported use, that a ported VMS would be 
*supported* except on a subset of hardware.  Just like Linux.


In any case, why are people still beating this horse?



"JF Mezei" <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote in message 
news:005e2356$0$4648$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com...
> Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply wrote:
>
>>> 1. Ported VMS to the PC/Intel Server platform;
>>
>> And lose out on hardware sales?
>
>
> my guess is that should VMS ever be ported to the 8086, it would require
> an EFI based  64 bit 8086 system. They already have EFI for VMS, and
> there are some EFI based 8086  systems around. Porting costs would be
> far less if they can re-use the EFI stuff (probably vastly unchanged)
> instead of supporting the primitive BIOS.
>
> And since VMS has very limited hardware support (video, no sound anymore
> etc), only a subset of 8086 based servers/computers would support VMS.
>
> Think of the cost savings and increased opportunities if HP got rid of
> that IA64 boat anchor and focused on 8086 based systems. Enterprise
> systems could be EFI based while consumer ones would continue to be BIOS
> based.
>
> There is however a big difference between having a proof of
> concept/midnight hack and having a productized version of VMS on 8086
> sold/supported by HP.  Until HP/Intel announce they are finally putting
> IA64 out of its misery and focusing on commodity industry standard
> architecture, HP isn't going to allow an 8086 based VMS to come out.