Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!udel!haven!decuac!lemans.dec.com!lemans.det.dec.com!libove From: libove@libove.det.dec.com (Jay Vassos-Libove) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: SCO UNIX VMS and ULTRIX on new DEC product line Message-ID: Date: 3 Jan 91 15:54:52 GMT References: <29014@usc> <2777E87B.6392@tct.uucp> <29027@usc> <29029@usc> Sender: news@lemans.dec.com Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Detroit Ultrix Resource Center Lines: 34 In-reply-to: annala@neuro.usc.edu's message of 26 Dec 90 08:56:23 GMT In article <29029@usc> annala@neuro.usc.edu (A J Annala) writes: My friends tell me most of VMS is coded in a DEC proprietary language called BLISS. BLISS exists for PDP-11's, PDP-10's, and VAXen -- DEC could have chosen to write a new BLISS compiler for the 80386 -- but that is not what happened -- instead, DEC adopted SCO UNIX for their new machine. Moreover, in the process, DEC abandoned it's own ULTRIX (DEC proprietary version of UNIX) in order to adopt SCO UNIX. This is not an official DEC statement, this is just me talking. DEC did not "abandon" Ultrix in order to "choose" SCO Unix for the PC line that we sell. DEC chose to fill a market niche that we had not previously been filling, and our evaluation was that SCO Unix was the best candidate from among the existing PC Unixes. Porting VMS to another processor is not just a matter of rewriting a BLISS compiler, it is a matter of re-engineering the entire operating system, since the VMS operating system makes use of VAX hardware specific features to get performance, reliability, and security from the hardware. Porting any brand of Unix (be it SunOS, Ultrix, etc...) is a MAJOR effort, and not conducive to getting a product to market in any short time frame, which I guess was one of the points of choosing existing equipment and software/OS to repackage as our PC+Unix line - to get it out the door. No operating systems have been abandoned, and none have any critical flaws. Everything done here was practical and business oriented. -- Jay Vassos-Libove libove@libove.det.dec.com Digital Equipment Corporation decwrl!libove.det.dec.com!libove Detroit ACT/Ultrix Resource Center Opinions? They're mine, mine, all mine! Farmington Hills, Michigan and D.E.C. Can't have 'em!