[Info-vax] OT: obscure PDP11 OSes (even more dinosaury)

[Dirk Munk]

bill at server3.cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
> In article <1d839638-6951-4b1c-b10c-9ff0313d344b at googlegroups.com>,
> 	johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk writes:
>> On Friday, 12 June 2015 18:26:37 UTC+1, Alan Frisbie  wrote:
>>> On 06/12/2015 07:14 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>
>>>> Oh, and there was another from DEC that I think would have been in the same
>>>> class as VAXELN.  It was called IAS, I think.  But I know of no copies of it
>>>> still inexistence.  At least I have never been able to get a copy anywhere.
>>>
>>> I have the distribution tapes for IAS v3.0.   They will be part of the
>>> archive of 9-track tapes I am creating (TPC and TAP container files).
>>> They are all 800 BPI, so they will get copied after I finish all the
>>> 1600 BPI ones (I will have to switch to a different system and tape drive).
>>>
>>> IAS was a variant of RSX-11D, and I enjoyed using it back in the late 1970s.
>>>
>>> Right now, the project is on hold until I can get a replacement CPU daughterboard
>>> for my Alpha XP1000.   It died last Friday, so I am currently Alpha-less.  :-(
>>>
>>> Alan Frisbie
>>
>> Good to hear that IAS isn't completely forgotten. I had the pleasure
>> of working with it on 11/70 in the late 1970s, after it effectively
>> replaced 11D. Another play one day might be fun.
>>
>> DECUS proceedings were forever full of folk complaining about sysgens
>> on RSX. I didn't really understand, as SYSGEN was a largely foreign
>> concept on 11D and (especially) IAS.
>>
>> John Harper's page on IAS:
>> http://www.john-a-harper.com/ias.html
>>
>> I *thought* I'd seen an IAS3.1 downloadable somewhere but can't
>> quickly find it, neither a local private copy nor a websearch
>> reference. 3.0 seems relatively widely distributed, often on
>> the darker fringes of the web, so a Known Trustworthy copy
>> would be handy. Manuals seem to exist for IAS3.4 but I'd moved
>> on to the world of VMS and UNIX by that time.
>>
>> Another PDP11 OS was Venix11, from Venturcom.
>
> Just another flavor of Unix.  If you have Ultrix-11 the rest are just
> fluff.  :-)
>
>>
>> Bill may have been getting muxed ip between MicroPower PASCAL
>> (DEC-developed ROMable/netloadable RTOS with RT11 host toolkit
>> for low end PDP11) and VAXELN. That well known auction site has
>> a copy of Introduction to MicroPower Pascal AA-M388A-TC on offer
>> for $16.25 at the moment.
>>
>> If it's just the manual's content you want, it's
>> already on Bitsavers (thank you) e.g.
>> /pdf/dec/pdp11/rt11/micropowerPascal/AA-M388A-TC_IntroToMicroPowerPascal_Jan82.pdf
>>
>> There's also a slight chance Bill may be thinking of VENIX11 from
>> Venturcom, a UNIX V7 (?) derivative sold with alleged realtime
>> capabilities (iirc - it was a loooong time ago).
>>
>
> No, I think I just forgot that IAS was RSX-11 based.  But i am still
> pretty sure it had real-time capabilities.  Venix I can't see doing
> real-time.  The only machine I ever saw a version of Venix for was
> the Pro and i can't imagine who would try running real-time on their
> office automation machine.  :-)
>
> Of course, all of this still doesn't explain how the VAX was
> "a best-seller" when compared to the PDP-11 when the PDP-11
> sold 50% more systems.
>
> bill
>

Because one VAX could do the work of several PDP-11's?