UNIX and C on Sperry Hardware

[Kee Hinckley]

<FLAME>

Sperry does have UNIX, but don't read that to mean that Sperry
supports UNIX, or that it runs very well (unless Bell has fixes
that haven't distributed).  I did some work using UNIX running on
an 1100/60 at (the now closing) Sperry Research Center.  It does
run, but the UNIX appears to be somewhere inbetween V7 and Sys 3.
In addition you have two choices of how to connect to it; you
can use dialup asyncronous (at 1200 baud), or hardline syncronous
on Sperry Computer System (read UNIVAC) terminals.  The latter has
some rather strange interactions (due to the lack of a full ascii
keyboard) and doesn't allow any use of visual software from
Berkeley.  (There is also the additional problem of porting
Berkeley software, which occasionally makes assumptions about
computers that do not work well on a machine with 36 bit words
and one's complement arithmetic.  If anyone from Sperry tells you 
they are supporting UNIX (and the last I heard they had said they 
were going to), you might ask them just how they plan on doing it
(and where the support work is being done).  The Research Center
in Sudbury was essentially the only Sperry site doing any work 
on it, and they decided to shut it down.  My impression has been 
that they are using UNIX as a means of keeping their customers from
switching to VAXen.  On the other hand, I am rather bitter about 
the company from my own experiences and am feeling rather biased
about the subject.  Take it as you may.

<FLAME OFF>
                                Kee Hinckley
                                Apollo Computer Inc.
                                Chelmsford, MA