From: aek@spies.com (Al Kossow) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch,alt.sys.pdp11,vmsnet.pdp-11 Subject: Re: (S.U.N.) was RAD50 (was: Q: Why not (2^n)-bit?) Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 10:44:43 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. Lines: 49 Message-ID: References: <8tsj42$eqd@weyl.math.psu.edu> <3A01F61A.8BB96759@bellatlantic.net> <8tsue0$fbn@weyl.math.psu.edu> <3A02F844.B1C91C7@bellatlantic.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: haxrus.apple.com X-Trace: news.apple.com 973277083 15215 17.205.21.66 (3 Nov 2000 18:44:43 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.apple.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Nov 2000 18:44:43 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!news.imp.ch!psinet-eu-nl!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news.tele.dk!204.94.211.44!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!forum.apple.com!news.apple.com!haxrus.apple.com!user Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:67397 alt.sys.pdp11:293 In article <3A02F844.B1C91C7@bellatlantic.net>, "Jeffrey S. Dutky" wrote: > Alexander Viro wrote: > > If you can show a document where ITS would be spelled with > > dots - you are welcome. Ditto for SUN, etc. > > > > One question, though: are you suggesting that SUN is an > acronym of some kind? Stanford University Network, not to be confused with Sun Microsystems, which has always been spelled 'Sun'. Since this was posted to AFC, The original board set for the SUN '3M' workstation was a 68000 processor board, a 3mbit 'experimental' Ethernet co-designed with Xerox PARC, and a bitmapped graphics board. The 3mb ethernet card was used by PARC in their Dicentra routers, based on a Multibus form factor 'Wildflower' processor, running Mesa. Since it was a Multibus card set, other cards (notably the 3Com 10mb Ethernet, Cental Data multi channel serial, and a SCC card for Apple Localtalk) were used also. The board designs were licensed to several companies. The original Sun Microsystems workstation used these, and ran Unisoft Unix. Most of the other companies that bought the design (Forward Technologies, et. al.) stuck with some variant of Unisoft Unix. The thing that put SMI on the map was getting 4.2BSD running, with a redesign of the processor board to use a 68010 and offering a 'brain transplant' for systems in the field. SGI also used this CPU design in the earliest IRIS systems, replacing the simple bitmapped graphics card with their much more complicated graphics designs. The earliest 'cisco routers may have been based on this design as well (the only SUN-based routers I ever saw was on the Stanford campus, though) One other operating system to mention that ran on the SUN hardware was Cheriton's V kernel. -- The eBay Curse: "May you find everything you're looking for.."