XENIX on the PC/AT

[Erik Fortune]

[lunch]

>  I've been told by people who have used Unix/Xenix on the AT (and seen 
>  the source) that the version of Xenix on the AT is just the 8086 version 
>  of Xenix with the 8286 in the AT running in 8086 compatibility mode with
>  a few minor improvements.
>  Hence it is not very surprising that the AT shows only a 2-3 times increase.

XENIX does NOT run in compatibility mode.

I've been using XENIX on the AT since late May, and have been quite
pleased.   XENIX runs in native 80286 mode on the PC/AT, and fairly 
quickly as well.   I've not run benchmarks, but subjectively the 
system feels like a lightly loaded 780.  (and A LOT faster than
my XT running PC/IX) (I've heard rumors of benchmarks that place the 
AT at roughly equivalent to 68k machines, I can't vouch for them)

>  One friend of mine said "You mean you're going to give this to 
>  paying customers?" when he first saw the Xenix 8286 Kernel.

There is a version of PC/IX (unix for the XT) out there that runs in
8086 compatibility mode.  This may have been the system that these people 
have seen.  Also, when did these people see this source??  Is it even close
to release level? I haven't seen any source for XENIX, but no source I've seen
for ANY Unix kernel has really pleased me.  Furthermore, I haven't yet found 
any bugs in my (release level) XENIX system.

>  When you are running multiuser your probably better off using a PC.

What?!!!  Please tell me that you're joking.  Please?

All in all, I like my system quite a bit, and recommend it heartily.

                                  Erik Fortune
                                  Brandeis University

CSNet: erik.brandeis at CSNet-Relay (I think)