[Info-vax] VMS Software needs to port VAX DIBOL to OpenVMS X86 platform

[1tim....@gmail.com]

My bad, call it faulty memory... was pretty certain that there was a compelling architecture and OS that was to take over after the PDP-11. It got killed and VMS was pushed. Cutler started out on the other and was moved to VMS. This was around '72 / 73 -ish that it was started. I believe it was akin to TOPS, but 32 bit instead of 36. Oh well, won't be the first thing I mis-remember from those days....

On Wednesday, December 23, 2020 at 11:54:02 AM UTC-7, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2020-12-23 17:41:24 +0000, 1tim.... at gmail.com said: 
> 
> > I stand corrected. MICA was his baby and a lot of it found its way 
> > into VMS, more of it found its way into NT
> Work on MICA started well after VAX/VMS was available. 
> 
> IIRC, with work on VAXELN also happening between VAX/VMS and MICA. 
> 
> MICA was intended to address various of what had been learned from 
> designing and building VAX/VMS. 
> 
> Little (none?) of MICA was retrofit or otherwise found its way into 
> VAX/VMS; into what was later renamed OpenVMS. DEC management decisions 
> largely prevented that work from happening. 
> 
> It would have been interesting to see OpenVMS replaced with MICA, with 
> the existing environment kept around as a subsystem for compatibility 
> with existing apps. There'd be other work needed to update MICA for 
> better contending with more current hardware and limits and tooling and 
> expectations. That work seems unlikely, given the current finances and 
> expectations and the current market for operating systems. And VSI 
> doesn't have MICA source code, and anybody that does have that source 
> code is unlikely to share it. 
> 
> For those interested, there's an archive of some contemporary 
> documentation and memos for PRISM and MICA here: 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/prism/
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC