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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!amdcad!sono!miklg
From: miklg@sono.uucp (Michael Goldman )
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch
Subject: Re: XDS940 computer (or Xerox Sigma 9)
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.152338.27908@sono.uucp>
Date: 18 Jun 91 15:23:38 GMT
References: <1991Jun5.231450.25856@digi.lonestar.org> <13933@goofy.Apple.COM> <1991Jun12.180535.19518@sono.uucp> <1937@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Lines: 31

jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes:

>In article <1991Jun12.180535.19518@sono.uucp> miklg@sono.uucp (Michael Goldman ) writes:
>>machine.  They had some DEC-10s they ran for development.  They  had changed
>>the microcode on the DEC-10s so it would run 940 assembly code !! (Top THAT
>>you hackers !).

>No.  Tymshare went out of their way to make TYMCOM-X on the 10 look like
>TYMCOM-IX on the 940.  It has the same prompts, the programs work the
>same, and programs written in SIMPL, TYMBASIC, or SUPERFORTRAN could
>be compiled on both the 10's and the 940's with no source changes.
>The rumor about PDP-10s running 940 binaries is just folklore.

MDSI used ADP DEC-10s for development.  The product was written in 940
assembly language so the prompts and all were not the issue.  The company
had tuned the product endlessly over the 12 years and had a lot of old
programmers who were independently wealthy from the early stock gifts
and didn't mind spending all day figuring some way to save a single CPU
cycle.  It was a very math-intensive which was why the effort to tune it.
I was friends with the guy who redid the DEC microcode.  Nice guy, liked
classical music, a little free-spirited for the company.  When things started
turning down, he went to DEC to work on their DEC-10 enhancement before it
was cancelled.  Just because *you* didn't see it doesn't make it folklore.

MDSI only used 1 Tymshare DEC-10 for their compiler group.  They got it free
in return for MDSI's Pascal compiler.  MDSI wrote the compiler because they
couldn't find one they liked.  It was a very good compiler and we often said it
would make a good product, but higher-ups didn't want the hassles of marketing
a totally unrelated product.

Michael  Goldman