8 Feb
2012
8 Feb
'12
8:36 a.m.
On 2012-02-07 14.03, Cameron Kaiser<spectre at floodgap.com> wrote:
I very much doubt Unix ever could run on a PDP-8. The biggest reason
being the shortage of memory.
However, C have nothing to do with this question, as Unix was not
written in C initially. I suspect the answer to the question could be
the PDP-7, on which Unix was initially implemented (in assembler).
However, many would probably hardly recognize it as Unix by todays
standards. Unix was rewritten in C after it had moved to the PDP-11.
The PDP-7 was an 18-bit machine, so memory space was somewhat acceptable.
The original PDP-11 didn't have an MMU, and Unix on that was probably a
tight fit, as well as being somewhat restricted.
Johnny
> So, does anyone have a record for oldest or
weakest computer running Unix?
> The Z80 definitely did it. Maybe the 8080 could. I don't think the PDP-8
> could. I've been trying to figure out if the PDP-8 could handle C, and
> the answers I get range from "I don't know" to "Definitely
not".
> Something I'd really like to see is a Z-machine running on the PDP-8.
A
while back I asked about PDP-8 Unices. I don't remember any replies, though
I seem to remember some existed.