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Cyhist Jan 21 1997 E
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Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 08:14:30 -0800
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: mcjones@pa.dec.com
Subject: CM> Re: Early Microsoft history
X-To: Bob Bickford <rab@well.com>
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:40:10 -0500 from "CYHIST
Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU> <9701210541.AA03595@mail2.digital.com>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Re emulation as a development technique: I agree with Robert Bickford that this was used long before Gates and Allen. A couple of cases I'm personally familiar with.
1. At the Center for Research in Management Science, U.C. Berkeley, in 1972, we built a dual-processor timeshared system using Digital Scientific Meta4 microprogrammable processors (one running a custom-designed APL "virtual machine", and the other running a generalized systems programming language. We debugged our microcode on an emulator running on an SDS 940 under the Berkeley 940 timesharing system. The microcode was installed in the processor by using a knife to peel foil squares off a PC board; mistakes were hard to correct, so we worked hard to eliminate all the bugs on the emulator. (By the way, the principal investigators of this project, Chuck Grant and Mark Greenberg, went on to start "Kentucky Fried Computers", which became Northstar, a purveyor of CP/M computers featuring one of the first 5.25" floppy systems. Mark recently passed away.)
2. At the Computer Center, U.C. Berkeley, in 1968, we were developing the CAL Timesharing System for the CDC 6x00. The Computer Center already had a 6400 running CDC's SCOPE batch system. We debugged the kernel and I/O drivers of our timesharing system on an emulator running on SCOPE. This gave us better debugging tools, and in the mean time other users could run batch jobs on the expensive computer. (We later got a second 6400, but machine time was always fought over.)
Paul McJones
mcjones@pa.dec.com
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: mcjones@pa.dec.com
Subject: CM> Re: Early Microsoft history
X-To: Bob Bickford <rab@well.com>
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:40:10 -0500 from "CYHIST
Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU> <9701210541.AA03595@mail2.digital.com>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Re emulation as a development technique: I agree with Robert Bickford that this was used long before Gates and Allen. A couple of cases I'm personally familiar with.
1. At the Center for Research in Management Science, U.C. Berkeley, in 1972, we built a dual-processor timeshared system using Digital Scientific Meta4 microprogrammable processors (one running a custom-designed APL "virtual machine", and the other running a generalized systems programming language. We debugged our microcode on an emulator running on an SDS 940 under the Berkeley 940 timesharing system. The microcode was installed in the processor by using a knife to peel foil squares off a PC board; mistakes were hard to correct, so we worked hard to eliminate all the bugs on the emulator. (By the way, the principal investigators of this project, Chuck Grant and Mark Greenberg, went on to start "Kentucky Fried Computers", which became Northstar, a purveyor of CP/M computers featuring one of the first 5.25" floppy systems. Mark recently passed away.)
2. At the Computer Center, U.C. Berkeley, in 1968, we were developing the CAL Timesharing System for the CDC 6x00. The Computer Center already had a 6400 running CDC's SCOPE batch system. We debugged the kernel and I/O drivers of our timesharing system on an emulator running on SCOPE. This gave us better debugging tools, and in the mean time other users could run batch jobs on the expensive computer. (We later got a second 6400, but machine time was always fought over.)
Paul McJones
mcjones@pa.dec.com
______________________________________________________________________
