raw rumour: VAX 8600 & Ultrix

[Guy Harris]

> > 
> >   Rumour of unknown quality:  DEC won't have Ultrix running on the VAX
> > 8600 for at least 1 year.  Can anyone comment on this?  What about the
> > supposedly standard VAX architechture?
> 
> My understanding -- not speaking officially, you understand -- is 6 months
> to availability.  (The architecture is standard and Ultrix-32 will run on
> it.)

"Standard" depends on where you look.  There are a lot of things that the
OS has to depend on that are *not* standardized in the VAX Architectural
Manual.  The I/O subsystem differs a bit between models; f'rinstance,
UNIBUS interrupts are handled quite a bit differently between the 780
and the 750/730.  Therefore, the architecture may be standardized but it
still can take 6 months to get UNIX (or VMS, for that matter) running on
a new implementation.  (If it takes much longer than that, have a nice long
talk with the implementors...)

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy