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From: plocher@sally.Sun.COM (John Plocher)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: SYS V R4 - When will it be released for Generic 386 boxes?
Message-ID: <127958@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 89 01:56:39 GMT
References: <89Nov2.084419est.18471@me.utoronto.ca> <1337@uvaarpa.virginia.edu> <1989Nov10.180048.24410@telly.on.ca> <824@hsi86.hsi.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: plocher@sally.Sun.com (John Plocher)
Organization: Me, Myself and I
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+-- In <824@hsi86.hsi.UUCP> stevens@hsi.UUCP (Richard Stevens) writes
| Anyone know who will ship the first binary release of SVR4
| for any type of hardware ?
+----

As I have stated here before, my job at Sun is with a team that is
responsible for porting Sun's X11/NeWS window server to AT&T System
Vr4.0 on an AT&T WGS6386.  Our development environments include
16 Mhz AT&T boxes, 16Mhz Intel boxes, a 25Mhz Compaq, and my clone
25Mhz Abacus motherboard based system.  We get software releases
at the same time that AT&T Internal Development gets them, in a
manner similar to a "monthly snapshot" of the master development
tree.  The fact that we are "internal development" keeps me from
saying too much more about things. :-(

We are still watching all the pieces come together:  Job
control is wonderful, so are symbolic links.  The compiler is
ANSI :-) and has good transition settings for non-ANSI code.
However, there are still signs that things aren't quite done.
Installation scripts are fragile, 3rd party device support is
minimal, ....

All that aside, we all know that AT&T now resells Intel 386 boxes,
right?  We also know that there isn't too much about the Intel boxes
that is different from the average run-of-the-mill clone box, right?
Therefore it should be safe to say that the AT&T version of Vr4.0
should run on any 386 or 486 clone. It also is a good rule of thumb
that it takes several months to do a final Beta/QA/QC/production
cycle.

Intel has said it will have a release by Q2-90; that sounds to me
like the earliest it could be.  Just work backwards:
	May		Release (Q2-90)
	April		1 Month Production
	Jan-March	3 Months Beta/QA/QC/driver development
	December	Final source shipment to Intel (maybe)

Don't forget that your favorite 3rd party device driver developer
won't get their own copy of Vr4 till May, so you may have to wait
even longer to take advantage of all your nifty hardware ....

	-John Plocher