[rescue] 3b1/7300/unixpc/s4 history [was: Wanted - 3B2]

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: wa2egp at att.net
" 
" > they were also supposedly -this-close- to releasing sVr3 for the 3b1
" > when it was canned, with a substantial performance improvement.  the
" > 3b1 os from convergent was actually berkeley based though svid
" > compliant.
" 
" I have the last version of the OS which was a sVr?.?m (not sure of the exact
" version)

3.51m, -not- alas sVr3

" because they were working on a new revision when the 3B1/7300 was
" canned so the programmers finished the job on their own and tacked on an "m"
" to indicate the previous version was "modified". :)

iirc the previous release was 3.51c.  some time before that was 3.0
and before that 2.0.  iirc another grp was working on sVr3 for the
unixpc but it was never released or afaik even completed.  3.51m was
the final polish on the berkeley-based convergent unix.  like hp-ux up
to 9, it was reworked to meet the svid but not sV-based*.

" > i also wanted to do a qic-40 floppy tape driver.  i still don't know
" > enough about driver programming today.

i was starting to think about the floppy tape driver around the time
of 3.51m, and if i'd been a hotshot kernel driver programmer it
would've been included.

" > the one schematic the manual lacks is the video chip.
" 
" Figures.

it is a little odd since afaik it's a custom chip just for the unixpc.

" If nothing else, the 3B1/7300 looked cool.  A number of years ago, I brought
" one to school and left it on my desk on to see if the little propeller-heads
" could crack the password.  Never happened.

i recall there was a way to make a backdoor that would give you root
access, but not what it was.  i used it -once- to break into a system
for which the root passwd was lost.

i still fondly recall the menu system that would string-match what you
typed instead of the pc-legacy just taking single chars.

* i was once personally told by an hp-ux developer that the sV kernel
was 'crap'.  i would guess sun thought so too, as solaris 2 made
significant progress in performance and stability when they rewrote
the kernel, about 2.4 iirc.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought