I don’t think PS/2 hardware is going to be an issue. The i386 i/o architecture is
pretty much the same, in/out instructions, despite the cute allusion in the name to the
IBM Channel architecture, the microchannel is just another PC memory bus like the ISA it
“replaced.” Not to say it had some good features to it (the idea of a card ID and better
spped). The machines also had a few ISA slots.
From: TUHS [mailto:tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org] On Behalf Of Clem Cole
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2017 8:52 AM
To: Wesley Parish
Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society
Subject: Re: [TUHS] UNIX on S/370
On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 1:35 AM, Wesley Parish <wobblygong(a)gmail.com> wrote:
As would I. I'd also be interested in that i386 AIX Clem mentioned
A big issue/hurdle I suspect is that AIX/386 was done for a PS/2 HW; (microchannel) which
besides IBM and NCR, there is not a lot of in the wild. So simulation might be a PITA.
Also the graphics was done for some IBM specific displays (I've forgotten the names),
that nobody else made (which were really expensive at the time IIRC -- which again may
have been an issue on why this was not popular).
We had a lot of Gateway 386 (ISA/EISA based) PC's at Locus which were the system of
choice we used for TNC prototyping and all we had in Boston and San Diego. The LA guys
must have had AIX running on them; but I'm not sure if that code was ever released.
I'd have to ask some one like Hopfield who would have done that kind of hacking.