> From: "Ron Natalie"
> I'm pretty sure that swapping in V6 took place to a major/minor number
> configured at kernel build time.
Yup, in c.c, along with the block/character device switches (which converted
major device numbers to routines).
> You could create a dev node for the swap device, but it wasn't used for
> the actual swapping.
Yes.
> We actually dedicated a full 1024 block RF11 fixed head to the system in
> the early days
Speaking of fixed-head disks, one of the Bell systems used (IIRC) an RS04
fixed-head disk for the root. DEC apparently only used that disk for swapping
in their OS's... So the DEC diagnsotics felt free to scribble on the disk.
So, Field Circus comes in to work on the machine... Ooops!
Noel
> From: Clem Cole
> To be honest, I really don't remember - but I know we used letters for
> the different partitions on the 11/70 before BSD showed up.
In V6 (and probably before that, too), it was numbers:
http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/man/man4/rp.4
So on my machine which had 2 x 50MB CalChomps, with a Diva controller, which
we had to split up into two partition each (below), they were dv00, dv01, dv10
and dv11. Letters for the partitions made it easier...
> The reason for the partition originally was (and it must have been 6th
> edition when I first saw it), DEC finally made a disk large enough that
> number of blocks overflowed a 16 bit integer. So splitting the disk
> into smaller partitions allowed the original seek(2) to work without
> overflow.
No, in V6 filesystems, block numbers (in inodes, etc - also the file system
size in the superblock) were only 16 bits, so a 50MB disk (100K blocks) had to
be split up into partitions to use it all. True of the RP03/04 in V6 too (see
the man page above).
Noel
Ingo wrote:
> i have been working hard to reduce the number of options of low usefulness
Ah, soothing classical Unix Musik, so rare in the cacophonous Linux era.
Doug
Ray Tomlinson, computer pioneer, was born on this day in 1941. He is
credited with inventing this weird thing called "email" on the ARPAnet, in
particular the "@" sign to designate a remote host (although some jerk --
his name is not important -- is claiming that he was first).
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
Clem Cole:
On the other hand, we still 'dump core' and use the core files for
debugging. So, while the term 'drum' lost its meaning, 'core file' - might
be considered 'quaint' by todays hacker, it still has meaning.
====
Just as we still speak of dialling and hanging up the phone,
electing Presidents, and other actions long since made obsolete
by changes of technology and culture.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
> From: Warner Losh
> Drum memory stopped being a new thing in the early 70's.
Mid 60's. Fixed-head disks replaced them - same basic concept, same amount of
bits, less physical volume. Those lasted until the late 70's - early PDP-11
Unixes have drivers for the RF11 and RS0x fixed-head disks.
The 'fire-hose' drum on the GE 645 Multics was the last one I've heard
of. Amusing story about it here:
http://www.multicians.org/low-bottle-pressure.html
Although reading it, it may not have been (physically) a drum.
> There never was a drum device, at least a commercial, non-lab
> experiment, for the VAXen. They all swapped to spinning disks by then.
s/spinning/non-fixed-head/.
Noel
Does anyone know if UToronto's MRS database system (from about 1979) has
survived? It was described in:
Robert Hudyma, John Kornatowski, Ivor Ladd. MRS: A microcomputer
database management system. Proceedings of the 1981 ACM SIGSMALL
symposium on Small systems and SIGMOD workshop on Small database
systems, pp 174-180.
Apparently it was distributed to over 50 unix sites. This is the
software which became the MISTRESS and later EMPRESS products.
De
The recent Empress and earlier PC[67]300 conversations have churned my
failing memory to catch up on the CTIX versions I ran throughout the
1980s.
I (sort of) remember 5.x and 6.x as being the releases we faced. The 5.x
ones were derived from SVR1 IIRC. When 6.x arrived, SVR2+ was the order
of the day, but I don't recall much or anything of SVR3 creeping in.
Certainly no RFS or the like. And Convergent wasn't shy about letting
bits of Berkeley code sneak in when that made sense.
I think the UUCP code got a significant update between 5 and 6. Didn't
the 5.x uucico have the "window > 3 == core dump" bug? By 6.x I recall it
grew 'G' protocol (at least).
Any ex-Convergent hacks on the list who can fill in the blanks?
--lyndon
We lost software engineer Dick Hustvedt on this day in 2008, following
severe injuries in a vehicle accident. He contributed much to RSX-11 and
VMS, including the infamous "microfortnight" and the SD730 Fixed Head
Solar Horologue. An obituary of him can be found at
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2008/04/23/dick-hustvedt-the-consumma…
(and it's worth reading).
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
We lost Robert Taylor, computer scientist and Internet pioneer, on this
day in 2017. Amongst other things, he helped invent the mouse, pioneered
computer communications leading up to ARPAnet, developed the computer
science lab at Xerox...
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
