Talk:Tube (BBC Micro)
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Unofficial Unix Variant[edit]
I've searched for information about the 'unofficial UNIX port', but unable to find anything? Is there a reference for this or just misinformation? AaronSJackson (talk) 23:56, 25 July 2015 (UTC)
Logica were supposed to produce a port of Xenix but it's unclear whether they did. See for example http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Mags/AU/AU_Aug85_WorkstationPutsPowerOnDesks.pdf "Logica to port Xenix" and also https://archive.org/stream/Acorn_User_Number_024_1984-07_Redwood_Publishing_GB/Acorn_User_Number_024_1984-07_Redwood_Publishing_GB_djvu.txt "Once Acorn has decided to accept the chip set, Logica is confident there will be no delay in implementing Xenix." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.125.34.247 (talk) 19:21, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
The "unofficial" terminology is misleading: it could be taken to mean "rumoured", "planned", "unreleased" or done by some other party. From some investigations that have been done in conjunction with adding sources to the Acorn Business Computer page, it appears that some kind of Unix (or clone, given that Idris was noted very early on) was considered desirable for the Gluon (an early second processor concept based on the 32016), and this became more specific to Xenix, which (probably alongside other Unix System III variants) had been ported to the 32016 by HCR Corporation with some Logica involvement likely to concern the specific Acorn hardware, by the time the ABC 210 was being developed. Whether a specific port of Xenix was ever done for the ABC 210 or Acorn Cambridge Workstation, the media archives do not say. My current perspective suggests that it was either (1) put off repeatedly and never actually commissioned, (2) not actually delivered (perhaps the work was put on hold and then cancelled), or (3) it was delivered in some form but the hardware didn't lend itself to running Unix. Anyway, "planned" is about as much as we know. Since the PC532 platform supported NetBSD, it is not inconceivable that such a variant might run on an Acorn 32016-based system with MMU, which would probably be rather more "unofficial". PaulBoddie (talk) 22:26, 29 October 2020 (UTC)