UNIX/32V is an early version of the

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

from

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, released in June 1979. 32V was a direct

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

of the

Seventh Edition Unix Seventh Edition Unix, also called Version 7 Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commercial ...

to the DEC

VAX VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The VA ...

architecture.

Overview

Before 32V, Unix had primarily run on DEC

PDP-11 The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, ...

computers. The Bell Labs group that developed the operating system was dissatisfied with DEC, so its members refused DEC's offer to buy a VAX when the machine was announced in 1977. They had already begun a Unix port to the

Interdata 8/32 The Model 7/32 and Model 8/32 were 32-bit minicomputers introduced by Perkin-Elmer after they acquired Interdata, Inc., in 1973. Interdata computers are primarily remembered for being the first 32-bit minicomputers under $10,000. The 8/32 was a m ...

instead. DEC then approached a different Bell Labs group in Holmdel, New Jersey, which accepted the offer and started work on what was to become 32V. Performed by Tom London and John F. Reiser, porting Unix was made possible due to work done between the Sixth and Seventh Editions of the operating system to decouple it from its "native"

environment. The 32V team first ported the C compiler (Johnson's

pcc PCC may refer to: Science and technology * Pearson correlation coefficient (''r''), in statistics * Periodic counter-current chromatography, a type of affinity chromatography * Portable C Compiler, an early compiler for the C programming language ...

), adapting an assembler and loader written for the

version of Unix to the VAX. They then ported the April 15, 1978 version of Unix, finding in the process that " e (Bourne) shell ..required by far the largest conversion effort of any supposedly portable program, for the simple reason that it is not portable."Thomas B. London and John F. Reiser (1978)
A Unix operating system for the DEC VAX-11/780 computer
Bell Labs internal memo 78-1353-4. UNIX/32V was released without

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very l ...

paging, retaining only the swapping architecture of Seventh Edition. A virtual memory system was added at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

by Bill Joy and

Özalp Babaoğlu Ozalp Babaoğlu (born August 10, 1955 in Ankara, Turkey), is a Turkish computer scientist. He is currently professor of computer science at the University of Bologna, Italy. He received a Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of California at Berke ...

in order to support

Franz Lisp In computer programming, Franz Lisp is a discontinued Lisp programming language system written at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, UCB) by Professor Richard Fateman and several students, based largely on Maclisp and distribu ...

; this was released to other Unix licensees as the Third

Berkeley Software Distribution The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

(3BSD) in 1979. Thanks to the popularity of the two systems' successors, 4BSD and

UNIX System V Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...

, UNIX/32V is an antecedent of nearly all modern Unix systems.

References

External links

The Unix Heritage Society
(TUHS) a website dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of historical UNIX systems
Complete distribution of 32V with source code

Source code of the 32V kernelInstallation instructions and download for SimHA MS Windows program
that installs the SIMH emulator and a UNIX/32V image.
Information about running UNIX/32V in SIMH
{{DEFAULTSORT:UNIX 32V Bell Labs Unices Discontinued operating systems 1979 software

Overview

See also

References

Further reading

External links