[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Bob Eager]

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:35:57 +0100, R.A.Omond wrote:

> Bob Eager wrote:
> 
>> *some* of the Multics features (e.g. the mapping of files into virtual
>> memory as the only method of access, thus unifying paging and I/O) were
>> incorporated into EMAS, developed at Edinburgh. That worked on anything
>> with a decent page size; started off on ICL System 4 (?) and was ported
>> to the ICL 2900. Also on the Amdahl mainframes, and the IBM XA
>> architecture (I did work to port it to a 4381).
> 
> Yes, Bob, EMAS started off on the ICL System 4/75.  The Wikipedia entry
> for EMAS at:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Multiple_Access_System
> 
> is pretty accurate as far as my memory goes.  I did my B.Sc (Computer
> Science) at Edinburgh in the mid-1970s and remember EMAS with great
> fondness.

The 2900 version was a great improvement due to the greater amount of 
virtual memory available to map files. I have report CSR-18-77 right 
here: "An Experiment in Doing it Again, But Very Well This Time"...!

I had to port quite a few programs from EMAS to VMS, and wrote libraries 
to map files in the same way using the VMS systems services.

I still have the EMAS source code...!
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