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Anybody here actually collect Unix stuff?

There were other 8-bit multiuser systems. From a utility standpoint, I don't think that Unix was a good model for the very small systems, at least not in the business world. We got a whole lot more mileage by simply integrating mutli-user features into our BASIC runtime. When we ported the whole thing to Xenix running on a 6 MHz 80286, we found there was virtually no performance gain over a 5 MHz 8085 version. Given the cost of the extra hardware, that was a little disappointing.
 
Frank Durda has written at length about the kluge that was Xenix/286. Xenix/68K, as used on the Lisa and the Tandy 6000, was quite a bit more efficient. The archives of comp.sys.tandy should be consulted......

MP/M worked ok, and there were other good systems for 8bitters that weren't Unix or Unix like, but the smallest efficient Unixlike OSes are possibly best exemplified by Coherent.

I never ran Cromix or Micronix (or for that matter MP/M) so I can't comment on their speed, but I can comment that Xenix/68K on the Tandy 6000 was fairly responsive and had good multiuser performance for the day. But that wasn't an 8-bit OS, either, but 32-bit (while one may argue that the 68000 and 68010 were 16-bit by virtue of the size of the data bus, the OS bittedness is a completely different matter, as the registers and opcodes are 32-bit and in principle the same code could run on the definitely 32-bit 68030).

Of the modern 8 bit CPU's, an ATMega2560 or similar (the ATmega128 especially) should be able to have enough RAM to run a real Unix, at least something in the Seventh Edition (V7) timeframe, or 2.11BSD maybe. SVR4 not likely, but the Seventh Edition is just as much real Unix as SVR4 is. But FreeRTOS or even the Ethernut's NUT/OS is a better choice (NUT/OS runs on ATmega128 AVR hardware).


EDIT: Also there was UZI, UZI180, UZI280, and UZIX for the MSX, all Z80-based. And I mis-stated above that Micronix was able to run the Bourne shell; it was UZIX 2.0 that did that, sorry.

Further EDIT: Apparently all the UZIX and UZI versions have been fused together as 'FUZIX' and it is available at https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX and it apparently has gone past V7 features into SysIII and SysV territory.
 
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My "holy grail" is an AT&T PC 7300 that I try on-again, off-again to get working. I have all of the AT&T Unix documentation and disks with it.

It has an issue somewhere in the RAM circuitry, based on the diagnostic LEDs. I tried the shotgun approach of replacing all RAM but the error is still there.

Some day when I have time I plan to get one of these and learn to troubleshoot at the circuit level: http://www.bitscope.com/product/
 
Nothing intentional, I try to narrow my collection to 8-bit ones, but if it literally comes to my hands, why not?
So I have:
- Sun SPARC 20, awaits diagnosing,
- Sun Ultra1, working, with NVRAM machined and CR2032 installed in it.
- IBM "Power Series 850" in a desktop casing, installed and dual-booted NT4 and OS/2 here. It's like RS/6000
- IBM "ThinkPad 850" notebook (architecture is RS/6000), with WinNT on external SCSI drive (internal 2.5" SCSI hard disk is missing, but I bought ADTX module, just in case),
- Some old SuSE Linux server OS in original box. I don't even remember version.

@AmigaJules
Few years ago I bought 8-channel Saleae clone. I use it rarely, usually when reverse engineering protocols, for diagnostics I still use old good TTL probes. Well, if I had >24 channels maybe I could use it to dump EPROMs in circuit by sniffing the states?
 
Ah, so you've got OS/2 PowerPC. How well does it work on that machine? (Keeping in mind it's a hacky prototype, naturally.)

I have one of the Type 6020 "ThinkPad 800" systems, but it runs AIX, as G-d and possibly IBM intended. ;)
 
Works? Better say crashes. It's hard to make it do any simple job without strange errors, a nasty pop-up console with error or just freeze.
In OS/2 for PPC, there is a collection of undocumented, binary-only, unfinished hacks. For example, typical way to dual-boot WinNT is to use ARC. It is not possible to hook OS/2 up into it, so I use just 2 SCSI drives and boot menu. Some time ago while trying not to crash the system wandering on a hard disk I found a boot manager "prototype". This early OS/2 has its boot manager hidden as some EXE in a hidden directory, which of course doesn't work at all because it's something like ARC loader terribly "linked" to executable (not in definition of program linking, more like "I'll recompile it as exe and see will it launch from double-click") which should be probably executed from partition, which does not exist in design used to boot OS/2. Last time I analyzed it 2 years ago, but such things persists in my memory.

AIX in these computers is a really good OS. It has CDE, which is very ergonomic if only screen resolution is big enough, and in fact i18n in AIX has been done much better than Linux (speaking about console level, not GUI yet it's still better than recently open-sourced CDE). It's not visible for English users, but in AIX installed with different language many things have been translated and programs use error codes to avoid problems with troubleshooting multiple language systems.
 
ahm said:
If so, what do you have?
And what are you looking for?
Click to expand...

Yup. Besides early IBM PC's and PS/2s, I collect older Sun workstations. Currently, I have a Sun 2/120, 3/60, 3/50 without the monitor, Sparc 5 and 20, and UltraSPARC 2. I'd love to find another Sun 2, but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon. I used to have a framebuffer for it and that's long gone. Last I checked, it still boots up.

**EDIT** - Once upon a time, I had an IBM RS/6000 that never worked. Right now, I own 3 of 'em (circa 2002/2003, but not sure if that's still vintage). Also had some older HP PA-RISC workstations, a DEC Multia that I never got around to installing IRIX/VMS on. Once had the chance to acquire a Next workstation and an AT&T UNIX PC, but didn't. Anything vintage and UNIX, I'm interested in.
 
I've seen a couple of your guys elsewhere (vintage mac stuff etc..)

I have an sick *cough/sneeze* SE/30 that should run AUX as well as an 040 accelerator for it that I haven't tried yet. A Plus and Powerbook 190.

AT&T Unix PC 3B1 (the enhanced model of the 7300) I have no disks but I do have a floppy disk emulator I intend to use to shelp disks between it and my workstation. I've also had ruminations of building a clone of the ethernet card out of surplus components for it.

I have a fairly vast Sun4c/Sun4m/Sun4d/Sun4u + a T2000 that hosts http://gh0stwriter.net . The complete list would be 2x SS2 one of which works and has a weitek powerup with Redhat 6.2 installed. SparcStation LX with my custom spun gentoo installed from a few years back (derived from Magnus Lindholms work and suggestions), SS5 I think it has NetBSD on it but i haven't booted it in years it is a 70Mhz model. 2x SS10 which are functional but not setup to run at the moment, SS20 + 512MB ram + dual SM81 + extra fans this was also running my gustom gentoo install but it kept crasing when emerging. I'm going to have a go at using pkgcore at some point instead of portage to work around that python exception. 2x SS1000 and an SS1000E none of which boot at the moment I think they all need PSU rebuilds I have one rebuild in progress.

Oh and my Sparcbook 3GX running OpenBSD 4.5... its pretty sweet. I want to 3d print a case similar to it and put something more modern in it with a keyboard like the Powerbook 1400 has.

C128 + 1541UII upgrade (I haven't gotten this working as well as I would like.... interfacing these to newer TVs is a pain), there are supposed to be some almost Unix like operating systems for C64 I might play around with that someday.

I also have a Brother Opus Typewriter, Blue-Chip daisywheel printer (made for C64 which I intend to get working with a serial adapter but haven't had much success), and an ImageWriter II. Also while on non unixy stuff.. I have a Connectix Quikcam B&W model... which works with the Powerbook 190 its pretty neat.
 
cb88 said:
2x SS1000 and an SS1000E none of which boot at the moment I think they all need PSU rebuilds I have one rebuild in progress.
Click to expand...

I'd love to have an SS1000/SS1000E again. That's "one that got away" that I wish I had back...

I still have a bunch of RAM for those if you think you need some.

I _may_ have the software set for the 3B1. I used to herd those back a long time ago. If you need me to dig, let me know.
 
Back in the day, just before SysV, there were a number of "minicomputer-ish" micros based on the 68K. Plexus is one that comes to mind. Anyone have one of those? (Plexus was actually peddling those as alternatives to a VAX!). How about some of the WE minis, say a 3B5? (3B2 doesn't count)

Forgot to mention that there are various ports of Unix to PIC32. Here's one of 4.4BSD on a PIC32MZ CPU.
 
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pkhoury said:
Yup. Besides early IBM PC's and PS/2s, I collect older Sun workstations. Currently, I have a Sun 2/120, 3/60, 3/50 without the monitor, Sparc 5 and 20, and UltraSPARC 2. I'd love to find another Sun 2, but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon. I used to have a framebuffer for it and that's long gone. Last I checked, it still boots up.
Click to expand...

I also have a Sun 2/120, 2/50, several 3/50, several 3/60, a 3/110, 3/460, 3/470, 4/260, 4/470, SS1000E, SS2000E, lots of IPC, IPC, and LX including RDI luggables made from those motherboards, SPARCbooks, some Voyagers, and a bunch more SPARC servers.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Back in the day, just before SysV, there were a number of "minicomputer-ish" micros based on the 68K. Plexus is one that comes to mind. Anyone have one of those?
Click to expand...

There were also a few that were based on the Z8000 in the same era. I still have the Zilog S8000/21 that I bought from a defunct company in the mid 80ies. The machine had a broken tape drive and an EPROM with bit rot. But after fixing that it served me well getting mail over uucp and things like that. It ran ZEUS which was System III derivative.

Olivetti also had a machine based on Z8000 and then there were eastern block DDR clones with Z8000. Maybe there were more?
 
I have The vi User's Handbook in mint condition if anybody's interested in it.

It is the 1st edition Copyright © 1984.

http://www.alibris.com/VI-Users-Handbook-AT-T-Bell-Laboratories/book/23809016

11918051_862113600533872_2033097512_n.jpg


The above pic is not of my copy; as I mentioned the one I have is mint. If you're interested and want a pic of the actual book I will supply one.
 
AT&T 3B2\400
DEC Multia VX40 (166Mhz Alpha)
HP 98561A (9000/310)
HP 98579B (9000/370)
HP 9000/382
HP Apollo 735
HP C240 PA-RISC
HP Visualize C3700
HP Integral PC
IBM PowerServer 220
IBM RS/6000 7009-26 (C10)
IBM RS/6000 7012-380
IBM RS/6000 E20 7024 PowerPC 604 133Mhz Tower
IBM RS/6000 E30 7024 PowerPC 604 133Mhz Tower
IBM RS/6000 F30 7025
IBM RS/6000 7043 (43P-140)
IBM RS/6000 44p Model 7044-170 400MHZ
SAIC Galaxy 1100 Portable Workstation (PA-RISC)
Silicon Graphics Personal Iris
Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo
Silicon Graphics Indy Cyclone
Silicon Graphics Indigo2
Silicon Graphics Octane
Silicon Graphics O2
Sun Ultra 80 Elite 3D
 
ClassicHasClass said:
Ah, the Galaxy 1100. Nice machine, mil-spec. Mine suffered some physical damage and I was unable to repair it :(

The RDI PrecisionBook I have now satisfies my portable PA-RISC, er, needs.
Click to expand...

That RDI PrecisionBook is a really nice machine too!

The RISC laptop/portables including the IBM RS/6000 860 are rare commodities these days.
 
m_thompson said:
That one will run Solaris.
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Unlikely. The only supported models are 6015, 6040, 6042, 6050, 6070, and 7248. The 7043's resemblance to the 7248 is only skin-deep, and Solaris can't cope with a PPC604e at all. If you install the 604e upgrade into a 7248, the kernel crashes pretty much immediately.
 
I know I'm late to the party here, but I'll jump in with my collection of UNIX restorations and favorites:

Convergent Technologies MightyFrame
AT&T Unix PC

I'm interested in any and all parts/programs for the above 2 machines, but particularly the MightyFrame, since that seems to be the rarest.

Rarer still seems to be the

Convergent Technologies MiniFrame

If anyone has remaining hardware for the MiniFrame, I'd love to see some.

Best of luck on everyone here with their UNIX Collections and restorations!
-AJ
http://MightyFrame.com
 
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