ford@amix.commodore.com (Mike "Ford" Ditto) (02/08/91)
I sent this to the comp.sys.amiga.announce moderator Monday night and it hasn't shown up yet, so here it is in comp.unix.amiga. Please see <944@amix.commodore.com> in comp.newprod for an official announcement of the A3000UX. To avoid the commercial-advertisement- in-a-tech-group syndrome, this article is a technical summary, and does not discuss availability, price, or distribution channels. Amiga Unix System V Release 4, Amiga Version 1.1 has been released for inclusion in production A3000UX systems. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. BASIC HARDWARE DESCRIPTION -------------------------- The A3000UX is: An Amiga 3000 (assuming for the moment that anyone reading this knows what that is) with 25 MHz 68030, and the usual Amiga stuff (keyboard/mouse/floppy/serial/parallel/graphics/video/etc.) 4 or 8 Meg of fast 32-bit RAM on the motherboard A 100 or 200 Meg SCSI hard disk Ethernet card Amiga Unix System V Release 4 operating system software The two configurations planned for immediate release are: 8 Meg RAM + 200 Meg disk, with Ethernet card 4 Meg RAM + 100 Meg disk, no Ethernet (Actually, there are still rumors at this point that both configurations might include the Ethernet card.) The systems come with the Unix software already installed on the hard disk. An optional/extra QIC-150 streaming cartridge tape drive (A3070) is necessary to reinstall the software or to install future software updates or certain third-party software. The A3070 drive is external and removable, allowing one tape drive to be sufficient for several A3000UX machines. Amiga Unix as a software-only package is not yet available. When it becomes available, there is no technical reason why it can't support A2000 systems as well as A3000 systems. The details have not been worked out yet. BASIC SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION -------------------------- Amiga Unix is AT&T Unix System V Release 4, the latest commercial release of the genuine Unix operating system. This release is notable for its "merging" of previous AT&T System V releases, BSD Unix, and features of SunOS and Xenix, along with new features from AT&T research versions of Unix. SVR4 is probably the most complete Unix system in use today in terms of inclusion of all the elements that an experienced Unix user would expect from previous Unix systems. Amiga Unix enhances the AT&T release with Amiga-specific features and commonly used freely redistributable software. SVR4 from AT&T includes: BSD Unix compatibility at the command and C source code levels AT&T System V compatibility Bourne, Korn, and C shells, all with BSD-style job control On-line manual pages and "man" command ANSI C compiler and complete software development system POSIX 1003.1 and X/Open XPG3 compatibility AT&T/Motorola m68k ABI (Application Binary Interface) Traditional Unix document preparation system (nroff, troff, -ms, -mm, -mv, eqn, tbl, pic, grap, troff->postscript filters, etc.) uucp telephone networking and electronic mail X window system (X11R3; X11R4 in next release) Open Look graphical user interface TCP/IP over Ethernet Berkeley internet programs (telnet, ftp, rlogin, rcp, etc.) AT&T RFS file sharing Sun NFS file sharing (client and server) Sun Remote Procedure Call functions Berkeley Unix sockets facility AT&T TLI networking interface /proc filesystem -- file-oriented process manipulation Virtual File Systems, including Berkeley Fast File System, traditional Unix file system, and "/proc"; others can be added Symbolic links Dynamically linked shared libraries New VM implementation: mapped files, address space control, dedicated disk cache replaced by VM filesystem access Selectable process scheduling classes, including time-sharing and real-time schedulers ... and other features too numerous to mention. To that foundation, Amiga Unix adds: Quick and easy installation/configuration The first time you run the system you answer a few simple questions (nodename, network info, system passwords), and the system is then ready to use. Virtual screens There can be 10 login sessions, selected by the function keys, and each one can open additional screens for graphics display. A windowing system such as X can optionally be run in any or all of these sessions. Unlike some IBM-PC Unix systems, these virtual screens are not special text-only terminals that can't be used when graphics or a window system are in use; terminal and graphics screens all coexist simultaneously. Amiga hardware device drivers with source code Support for Amiga floppy drives and serial port, A3000 and A2091 SCSI interfaces, A2065 Ethernet, A2232 serial card "Public" programs with source code GNU Emacs and the GNU C Compiler (GCC) elm mail interface USENET news software (bnews, rn, nntp, rrn) less, shar, sc, send and reply, miscellaneous other public domain programs games Our own custom supplemental documentation set (tutorial, user's guide, command reference, and installation guide) Capability to share a system and disk with AmigaDOS AmigaDOS is included with all A3000UX machines at no charge. At boot time, a menu can be accessed to allow a choice of Unix or AmigaDOS. Either can be made the default. bru (backup and restore utility) Pre-installed configuration Amiga UNIX and AmigaDOS are already installed on the (large) hard disk. You plug in the machine, connect your monitor, turn it on, and UNIX comes up. It is pre-installed with all of Release 4. The distribution tape also includes optional archives with source code to the public domain programs and development utilities for X and Open Look. High resolution 256 color X server for A2410 TIGA graphics card Although this has been demonstrated at lots of shows, I don't think the card is available yet, but it should be released soon. The native X that works right out of the box is high resolution, but monochrome. A color version will soon follow. HISTORY ------- Amiga Unix System V Release 4 and Amiga hardware were demonstrated at the AT&T/Unix International SVR4 product rollout at Uniforum in November, 1989. Amiga Unix SVR4 has been at beta sites, primarily universities and developers, since the beginning of last summer. We have approximately 750 units in the field, plus hundreds of users who have been working with our earlier releases and SVR3. We plan to upgrade all these users as part of our major launch, taking place later this month. We also have lots of people using Amiga Unix on 2500s, but this is not an official product. Also, this is an international product, with beta sites in at least seven different countries. Internally, we in the Unix engineering and documentation groups have all been using Amiga Unix for our development work for at least the past year. We compile our programs, the entire Unix system, and the kernel, using the compiler on our release. Our machines are the exact same models you all can buy, with no extras. (We use the standard configuration, which has 9 MB RAM, 200 MB hard disk, and Ethernet.) We created all our own documentation using Amiga Unix and the X Window System. We read news, display GIFs, send mail to and from our homes, write fractal programs, do Postscript screens and scans and printouts, write zillions of shell scripts, use xterms and xclocks, collect and distribute the Amiga Unix Tech Notes, and in general function as if we have several rooms filled with superior graphic workstations. We don't use these systems because we have to; we use them because they're the best Release 4 machines we can get, and we need to know how Release 4 works. When there is a question about a Release 4 feature, we check our own machines, not somebody else's. Someone on the net asked if this machine is solid. The answer is simple. We use it; it's solid. Amiga Unix and the A3000UX were shown at UniForum '91 in Dallas. The show demo included live video teleconferencing under Amiga Unix, Genlock, and, NewTek's video toaster over a Unix network. The latest version includes a number of fixes and additions to the version we've been beta testing for the past few months. The first build of A3000UX units with Amiga Unix Version 1.1 has been ordered, as has the documentation. (This is our third print run, the first for Version 1.1, and we've ordered 2000 copies!) WHAT'S NEXT ----------- Meanwhile, we're close to finishing Version 2.0, which includes some major enhancements: X11R4 - fast, lean X An expanded and user-selectable installation and configuration program new GCC-compiled kernel and utilities improved compatibility with AmigaDOS improved tape, floppy, and serial drivers MS-DOS 1.44 MB floppy driver Plus, lots of other neat things, like gdb and native color X, that are in process but may not make it by 2.0. Some of us are already using the alpha 2.0 release, including X11R4, and it's fast. Although we are all busy working on future versions of Amiga Unix, we welcome questions and discussion in this newsgroup or email. We will reply when we can. - Commodore-Amiga Unix Development Group
cpetterb@es.com (Cary Petterborg) (02/08/91)
In article <1011@amix.commodore.com> ford@amix.commodore.com (Mike "Ford" Ditto) writes: > Please see <944@amix.commodore.com> in comp.newprod for an official > announcement of the A3000UX. To avoid the commercial-advertisement- > in-a-tech-group syndrome, this article is a technical summary, and does > not discuss availability, price, or distribution channels. > > ---Stuff Deleted--- > > Although we are all busy working on future versions of Amiga Unix, we > welcome questions and discussion in this newsgroup or email. We will > reply when we can. > > - Commodore-Amiga Unix Development Group When will someone post information about availability, price, and dist- ribution channels? Certainly you guys can get a "Marketing Dept." sponsored announcement about these things and post that can't you? There are many out here in the world who would be interested and I don't think people reading this newsgroup would mind the information being provided as long as it wasn't really "commercial", but just informational. Cary Petterborg -- _______________ Cary Petterborg (801)582-5847 x6446 Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. Simulation Division SLC, UT 84108 USENET: utah-cs!esunix!cpetterb INTERNET: cpetterb@esunix.es.com
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (02/10/91)
>SVR4 from AT&T includes: > > BSD Unix compatibility at the command and C source code levels (Note that this is, of course, done with extra libraries for BSD compatibility and a "/usr/ucb" directory for those commands that differ, a la Sun and various other vendors.) > On-line manual pages and "man" command So AT&T finally put them back? Or did Commodore buy the on-line man page product and include that? > Traditional Unix document preparation system (nroff, troff, -ms, > -mm, -mv, eqn, tbl, pic, grap, troff->postscript filters, etc.) Sounds like Commodore bought DWB and folded that in; "*roff" and stuff made it into AT&T's S5R4, but mainly for "BSD compatibility", which means they folded in the ancient V7-vintage "*roff" in BSD. DWB isn't bundled with S5R4, unless something's changed since I last heard.... > Virtual File Systems, including Berkeley Fast File System, > traditional Unix file system, and "/proc"; Also, as I remember, "/dev/fd", implemented as a file system - opening "/dev/fd/N" gives you either a file descriptor referring to the object that file descriptor N refers to, or a "dup" of file descriptor N, I don't remember which. > Dynamically linked shared libraries Which don't require as much effort to set up as did the S5R3 shared libraries; the S5R4 implementation is derived from the SunOS 4.x one. You also get a procedural interface to the run-time linker (compatible superset of the SunOS 4.1 interface), so that you can build a package of routines into a shareable object and, in a main program, map that shareable object in given its file name, and look up procedures in that object by name and get pointers to them.
ford@amix.commodore.com (Mike "Ford" Ditto) (02/10/91)
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes: > > On-line manual pages and "man" command > So AT&T finally put them back? Or did Commodore buy the on-line man > page product and include that? SVR4 now includes the man pages and the BSD man program, but it's not very will integrated. AT&T doesn't, as far as I know, provide makefiles or anything that install the man pages in a format readable by the man program. We ended up essentially writing a new man program anyway. > > Traditional Unix document preparation system (nroff, troff, -ms, > > -mm, -mv, eqn, tbl, pic, grap, troff->postscript filters, etc.) > > Sounds like Commodore bought DWB and folded that in; "*roff" and stuff > made it into AT&T's S5R4, but mainly for "BSD compatibility", which > means they folded in the ancient V7-vintage "*roff" in BSD. DWB isn't > bundled with S5R4, unless something's changed since I last heard.... Oops. Now that you mention it, I realize that I lied: pic and grap are not included for that very reason; the rest are part of the BSD troff. We are debating whether to include DWB in future releases; evidently it's rather expensive per binary license. My only complaint about the BSD troff after using it for a while now is that it trashes bit 7 of input text, meaning that international characters are out. (I use a sed script to turn the ones I need into overstrike commands.) Of course the latest DWB we have has the same problem; I am hoping there is an improved version. > Also, as I remember, "/dev/fd", implemented as a file system An implementation detail that I didn't consider interesting (and do consider pointless -- /dev/fd/ would have been better implemented as a regular device driver unless you want, for example, readdir to only show fds currently open). -=] Ford [=- "The number of Unix installations (In Real Life: Mike Ditto) has grown to 10, with more expected." ford@amix.commodore.com - The Unix Programmer's Manual, uunet!cbmvax!ditto 2nd Edition, June, 1972. ford@kenobi.commodore.com
ford@amix.commodore.com (Mike "Ford" Ditto) (02/11/91)
bruce@cs.su.oz (Bruce Janson) writes: > >(Note that this is, of course, done with extra libraries for BSD > >compatibility and a "/usr/ucb" directory for those commands that differ, [ ... ] > Yes, it works nicely but I prefer the way MIPS does it, e.g. /bsd43 is > an alternate hierarchy that gets you access to their (MIPS') 4.3bsd [ ... ] Funny, I really like the SVR4 scheme for BSD support; I think it's done The Right Way. Rather than adding a jillion new BSD system calls, or an entire "BSD execution environment", they made new system calls that are general enough to support posix, BSD, old SYSV and the new SYSV stuff. Then you just use whichever library (and associated include files) that provide the interface your code needs. There is one drawback, and that's when looking at truss(1) output. "Hmm, my source code called `signal', why is the program calling `sigprocsyssetmaskvec'?" (imaginary exagerated example) AT&T did do some stupid things in the SVR4 system interface, but the BSD compatibility design isn't one of them, IMHO. -=] Ford [=- "The number of Unix installations (In Real Life: Mike Ditto) has grown to 10, with more expected." ford@amix.commodore.com - The Unix Programmer's Manual, uunet!cbmvax!ditto 2nd Edition, June, 1972. ford@kenobi.commodore.com
scottf@cai.uucp (Scott Fleming) (02/12/91)
I read the announcement and it sounds great. My only question it the price...
I'm currently attending a jr college and would like to buy a 3000UX-D for
school as well as work. I called to get prices, but I fear that they are only
for the bigger institutions. If that is out of reach, I heard that the
educational discount was going to be revised in Feburary. So, can someone
please e-mail (or post here for others) any price information that you might
have, or the date that it might take effect. Thanks for your time and help.
Scott
Bix: sfleming