PDP 11/70 Emulator (2020)
skn.noip.me
skn.noip.me
The creator did an amazing job on this kit and it looks great in my study!
However, to say they had the "finest operating systems" is a bit of an exaggeration. You ever use Ultrix? It paled in comparison to SunOS. Example: it didn't even support shared libraries, which was a big deal with small disks.
EDIT: http://iraf.noao.edu/docs/src/dosf/unixsmg-N-3.2.html indicates that BSD based SunOS did offer shared libraries (at least late in its live, as early on it was a 3rd party project to add those: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0433/bb8fb59cc457b74b3f8ad0...).
Source: one of my first few "home computers" was a DECmate II with a 20 MB hard drive.
Also, what is that about bus compatibilty with 68k? What was that for, where can I read more about that?
Then Sun Microsystems declared bankruptcy so it could pivot off of 680x0 tech (that was no match for the VAX) and onto SPARC. (Trump’s companies and many others used the same technique.) That prompted DEC to begin developing what would become Alpha whose architecture was reportedly stolen by Intel while being shopped to them as a potential second source supplier, then misappropriated into Pentium Pro/II/III/IV models which all but killed the market for minicomputers from DEC (there was a legal settlement that resulted in Intel buying DEC’s Hudson chip FAB business unit which also produced the StrongARM chip which took hold of the nascent smartphone and Chromebook-like industries, but of course Intel sold it off because Microsoft wasn’t interested in that BS.) Intel then killed off their own amazing 432-chip (a potential VAX killer) and formally released the Alpha tech from DEC inside of Itanium, which sort of flopped around like a dying fish as the whole PC-monopoly and security nightmare began.
The DEC operating system, carefully evolved by scientists over 30 years, was first ported to Alpha, then Itanium before DEC itself wound up merged with its historic competitors that had their own 30 year old proprietary software and DEC’s system did not survive. They kept their foot on the throat of anyone who would port it to the Pentium chips long enough to make sure it never took off. Seeing it come back on rPi (which is a descendant of StrongARM) is so ironic. Maybe we could get all the crazies out there still working on Plan9 and other obscure systems to merge Android infrastructure with VAX/VMS and...
What? Is that a figurative use of the word "bankruptcy"?
The first shipping SPARC implementation was Fujitsu’s MB86900 from 1986, which was used at 16.67 (260) and 14Mhz (110).
Yes, I read a/the hardcover book on 432 and was really impressed. There was a slow build for that architecture because it was so different than x86.
Itanium is as I said and the downvote, plus raising the competing architecture that crushed DEC into oblivion once Carly “That Face” Fiorina bought Compaq/DEC and you guys finally got your paws on it and your insult (“fantasy”) tells me where you are coming from. I only hope you are retired (either in Microsoft or on Social Security )
And uhgain...Itanium was the legit successor to Alpha, Pentium Pro/II/III/IV were the illegit knock-offs that made that horrific turn of events possible.
Unix history which includes Dec PDP 11. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix