While perusing the site that Lewis gave a link to en an earlier post
(Thanks Lewis), I came across this video about the Univac C series systems.
https://digital.hagley.org/VID_1985261_B109_ID01?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=6456d02f49ec42a30406&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=23
which I found very interesting.
Two questions.
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?
2. One of the projects mentioned was a "Relational Database
Accelerator", which, I gather, never made it to market. Can someone
provide more details about this, e.g. What specifically it was supposed
to do, and why it never made it to a product?
BTW, for those interested in more "ancient trivia", a list of the links
to all the talks from that symposium that are on the site is at
https://digital.hagley.org/islandora/search/19th%20Annual%20Sperry%20Univac%20Spring%20Technical%20Symposium?type=edismax&f%5B0%5D=-RELS_EXT_isMemberOfCollection_uri_ms%3A%28%22info%3Afedora/islandora%3Aead%22%29
While perusing the site that Lewis gave a link to en an earlier post
(Thanks Lewis), I came across this video about the Univac C series systems.
https://digital.hagley.org/VID_1985261_B109_ID01?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=6456d02f49ec42a30406&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=23
which I found very interesting.
Two questions.
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?
2. One of the projects mentioned was a "Relational Database
Accelerator", which, I gather, never made it to market. Can someone
provide more details about this, e.g. What specifically it was supposed
to do, and why it never made it to a product?
BTW, for those interested in more "ancient trivia", a list of the links
to all the talks from that symposium that are on the site is at
https://digital.hagley.org/islandora/search/19th%20Annual%20Sperry%20Univac%20Spring%20Technical%20Symposium?type=edismax&f%5B0%5D=-RELS_EXT_isMemberOfCollection_uri_ms%3A%28%22info%3Afedora/islandora%3Aead%22%29
--
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
< snip >
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?
< snip >
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53 PM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld wrote:
< snip >
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?
< snip >
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
Not that it matters, but on the subject of 1100 system code names, I should like to point out that Mr. Schroth at one time posited that the 1100 Series was renamed the 2200 Series for marketing reason.
I suspect that was/is right about that, but somewhat related (as I think others have pointed out ... perhaps even you) the Company was running out of numbers for new machines.
I don't know what code names (if any) were for the 1100/40 and 1100/80 and 1100/80A, but the code name for the 1100/60 was Vanguard.
Then the Company decided that they needed to assign yet another number to the 1100/60 for some reason and so it became the 1100/70.
That only left 1100/30, 1100/50, and 1100/90 to be assigned to new machines.
So after the 1100/90 and 1100/50, the Company went to 2200/xxx for system numbers with the following C-Series systems, the 2200/600, 2200/200, and 2200/400.
I don't recall which was which, but one of the latter two was code named Liberty.
The EM 1100/2200 on a desktop that was never released, but which was apparently instrumental in the CMOS chips used in the 2200/200 and 2200/400 was code named Orion.
Then came the M-Series.
The project manager had a bad taste left in his mouth from the 1100/80 development and so he refused to assign the first M-Series machine, the number 2200/800.
The result was that the first M-Series 2200 was numbered 2200/900 and was code named Mercury.
The second M-Series system was supposed to be a lower end machine and so it was numbered the 2200/500 and was code named Quicksilver.
After that, I don't know what system numbers and code names when with which system.
The last code name I heard about was one of the systems after the 2200/500 which was code named Odyssey.
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53=E2=80=AFPM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld w= >rote:
< snip >
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product=20
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?=20
=20
< snip >
- Stephen Fuld=20
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
Not that it matters, but on the subject of 1100 system code names, I should=
like to point out that Mr. Schroth at one time posited that the 1100 Serie=
s was renamed the 2200 Series for marketing reason.
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53 PM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld wrote:
< snip >
1. Can someone give a "cheat sheet" that gives the official product
names for the each of the internal code names shown in the talk?
< snip >
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
Not that it matters, but on the subject of 1100 system code names, I should like to point out that Mr. Schroth at one time posited that the 1100 Series was renamed the 2200 Series for marketing reason.
I suspect that was/is right about that, but somewhat related (as I think others have pointed out ... perhaps even you) the Company was running out of numbers for new machines.
I don't know what code names (if any) were for the 1100/40 and 1100/80 and 1100/80A, but the code name for the 1100/60 was Vanguard.The 1100/60 could be ordered with or without EIS, the 1100/70 was a more powerful /60 *with* EIS (Extended Instruction Set).
Then the Company decided that they needed to assign yet another number to the 1100/60 for some reason and so it became the 1100/70.
That only left 1100/30, 1100/50, and 1100/90 to be assigned to new machines.
The 1100/90 came with the EIS, along with some new instructions - it may also have been the first machine with the Extended Mode instruction set.
All of the 2200 machines had EM instructions.
Which were the first ones with Paging? [...]
[...] I remember Alan K looking at the
code for that and announcing that the code was buggy and would lead to
an Exec stop if condition X happened (X may have been if it was used at all). A fix was released shortly afterwards.
So after the 1100/90 and 1100/50, the Company went to 2200/xxx for system numbers with the following C-Series systems, the 2200/600, 2200/200, and 2200/400.
I don't recall which was which, but one of the latter two was code named Liberty.
The EM 1100/2200 on a desktop that was never released, but which was apparently instrumental in the CMOS chips used in the 2200/200 and 2200/400 was code named Orion.
Then came the M-Series.
The project manager had a bad taste left in his mouth from the 1100/80 development and so he refused to assign the first M-Series machine, the number 2200/800.
The result was that the first M-Series 2200 was numbered 2200/900 and was code named Mercury.
The second M-Series system was supposed to be a lower end machine and so it was numbered the 2200/500 and was code named Quicksilver.
After that, I don't know what system numbers and code names when with which system.
The last code name I heard about was one of the systems after the 2200/500 which was code named Odyssey.
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:46:22 PM UTC-8, Andrew wrote:
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53 PM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld wrote:
snip
[...] I remember Alan K looking at the
code for that and announcing that the code was buggy and would lead to
an Exec stop if condition X happened (X may have been if it was used at >> all). A fix was released shortly afterwards.
I am familiar with the people who were responsible for paging and I trust their abilities to write good code over that of someone who just comes along and looks at it.Alan K worked for Unisys, holding courses in Arcania for years. In the meantime he'd look at the Exec and look for problems. We had one
absolute showstopper one night - an Exec stop whenever our main
Application Group was set Up - and he came round to look at it. He immediately asked the local support people if PCR nnn had been applied. "No". "Do so, now".
PCR nnn was the result of one of his UCFs, he'd seen the problem in the coding. Once that Exec Gen was through, we recovered the system and all
was fine.
The way I remember it, a Stepcontrol statement had been changed months earlier in order to make it possible to run WEBTS - this may have had to
do with Tip Session Control. We had basic security (no SECOPT1 or
higher), setting the AG UP with INIT killed the system.
If you look at the OS2200 Express documentation you will see his name mentioned as someone they relied on heavily they created the "product".
He'd retired by then but was still an authority in exec internals.
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:46:22 PM UTC-8, Andrew wrote:
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53 PM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld wrote:
[...] I remember Alan K looking at the
code for that and announcing that the code was buggy and would lead to
an Exec stop if condition X happened (X may have been if it was used at
all). A fix was released shortly afterwards.
I am familiar with the people who were responsible for paging and I trust their abilities to write good code over that of someone who just comes along and looks at it.
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:46:22?PM UTC-8, Andrew wrote:
Lewis Cole wrote:
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 1:03:53?PM UTC-8, Stephen Fuld wrote:
snip
[...] I remember Alan K looking at the
code for that and announcing that the code was buggy and would lead to
an Exec stop if condition X happened (X may have been if it was used at
all). A fix was released shortly afterwards.
I am familiar with the people who were responsible for paging and I trust their abilities to write good code over that of someone who just comes along and looks at it.
Alan K worked for Unisys, holding courses in Arcania for years. In the >meantime he'd look at the Exec and look for problems. We had one
absolute showstopper one night - an Exec stop whenever our main
Application Group was set Up - and he came round to look at it. He >immediately asked the local support people if PCR nnn had been applied.
"No". "Do so, now".
PCR nnn was the result of one of his UCFs, he'd seen the problem in the >coding. Once that Exec Gen was through, we recovered the system and all
was fine.
The way I remember it, a Stepcontrol statement had been changed months >earlier in order to make it possible to run WEBTS - this may have had to
do with Tip Session Control. We had basic security (no SECOPT1 or
higher), setting the AG UP with INIT killed the system.
If you look at the OS2200 Express documentation you will see his name >mentioned as someone they relied on heavily they created the "product".
He'd retired by then but was still an authority in exec internals.
The (unfortunately) late Alan K was very good at finding problems in
code. I often disagreed with his suggested fixes, but I always took
his UCFs seriously.
David W Schroth wrote:
The (unfortunately) late Alan K was very good at finding problems in
code. I often disagreed with his suggested fixes, but I always took
his UCFs seriously.
Oh, really bad news, I had not known.
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