Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cca!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: BBN C machine? - (nf)
Message-ID: <373@ima.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Aug-83 18:35:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ima.373
Posted: Wed Aug 10 18:35:15 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Aug-83 13:14:15 EDT
Lines: 21

#R:ucbesvax:12800006:ima:13200002:000:911
ima!johnl    Aug 10 09:34:00 1983

The BBN C/70 is a microprogrammable engine that is microprogrammed to
interpret something close to Ritchie C compiler intermediate code.  It
does indeed have ten-bit bytes, which makes practically every program you
try to port to it break.  I helped them a little when they were trying to
bring up uucp and it was bad news.  It evolved from an internal project
in which they tried reprogramming an existing C/30 and adding a little
extra hardware to see how well it would run C.

The C/30 is microprogrammed to simulate a DDP-316 (or is it 516, my
ancient history is rusty) and is what BBN is using for Arpanet IMPs these
days.

My impression, from talking to some people who work there, is that they
are no longer pushing the C/70 as a Unix engine but just as a supervisory
node in private Arpanets.  Compared to microprocessor- based systems,
it's a little expensive for what you get.

John Levine, ima!johnl