Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!xylogics!merk!alliant!linus!think.com!barmar From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: Multics - Whats the current status? Keywords: Multics Message-ID: <1990Aug30.044101.28351@Think.COM> Date: 30 Aug 90 04:41:01 GMT References: Sender: news@Think.COM Distribution: na Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 30 In article multics@MTS.RPI.EDU (Richard Shetron) writes: >Whats the current status of the Multics hardware and software? I used to be >a Multics analyst for HIS about 10 years ago and I've been thinking of >working on a version for the 386 chip. I figure other people may be of >similier mind and figured I'd ask here. I've heard that HIS is/has canceled >Multics. Is there any old pre HIS versions that might be public domain from >the project MAC days? Honeywell Information Systems (now Bull HN Worldwide Information Systems, or just Bull) capped Multics development about five years ago. There's still a small group of developers in Phoenix supporting the system for existing customers, but it's no longer being marketed. Efforts in the past by third parties to get the rights to Multics source code in order to port and market it on other hardware have failed miserably. There never has been a public domain version; at the time of its conception it was a joint project with GE and Bell Labs, and presumably had joint copyright. I've seen and heard of Multics clones running on the 386. I once saw a friend using MicroPrimos on a portable Compaq, and it looked externally like Multics (but I don't know whether it did dynamic linking and all the other neat Multics stuff). And Richard Soley, formerly of AI Associates, told me that he implemented a Multics clone for the 386, I think as part of the HummingBoard project (a Lisp accelerator for Golden Common Lisp). -- Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar