Aix Running on Clones?

[Steve Dyer]

In article <17516 at hydra.gatech.EDU> hh2 at prism.gatech.EDU (HAAS) writes:
>So if anyone is willing to give us some clue as to what would be required
>to run a LICENSED COPY of AIX on ANY machine other than one manufactured 
>by IBM, it would be greatly appreciated.

I really doubt you could do this without AIX PS/2 source.  It's just
that the system distributed by IBM is completely customized for a
microchannel PS/2 environment with certain-sized fixed disks attached
to the embedded IBM controllers, and so on.  I'd even be suspicious of
trying this on a microchannel clone, not that there are many of them.

What you're looking for is essentially what SCO and ISC have done to
the original Intel/AT&T 386 UNIX distribution--take a distribution
which might be limited to a small subset of controllers/video adaptors
and add enough support that it will run on the vast majority of 386
systems constructed out of generic parts.  While the work is "trivial",
the support isn't fast, easy or cheap.  I surmise that Locus, the
source of AIX PS/2's primary technology, has not done this either
because of a marketing agreement with IBM (plus, IBM contributed large
parts of AIX PS/2), or, as likely, it simply isn't practical given the
dominance of Sys V.3 and soon, Sys V.4 systems in the 386/486 marketplace.
IBM can sell AIX PS/2 because it's taking advantage of a niche market.
A small company like Locus probably has its hands full already and can't
afford to be another SCO or ISC.

I agree that it's a real shame that you can't run AIX PS/2 on anything
other than an overpriced IBM machine, because it's really a quite
creditable version of UNIX, with many of the features which people
had been waiting for in SysV.4.  It's also the only place you can currently
buy Locus distributed system technology (unless you have a spare 370
around to run AIX 370).  The TCF facility seems a bit "weird" compared
to NFS or AFS until you get used to it, and then it's rather addictive.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer at ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
dyer at arktouros.mit.edu, dyer at hstbme.mit.edu