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I honestly love coming to HN to see posts like this and comments like yours. It is always so neat to see the other sides of software engineering. You listed 4 a

I honestly love coming to HN to see posts like this and comments like yours. It is always so neat to see the other sides of software engineering. You listed 4 acronyms and I have no idea what any of them are or how they fit into this story but all I want to do is deep dive into each one. It is also awesome to see people so interested in things that I've never even encountered before.

zik 7y ago
IRIX [1] was the version of SVR4 UNIX which ran on SGI [2] computers. QEMU [3] is an emulator used to run programs for one machine on another. N64 [4] is the Nintendo 64 games console. SGI Indy [5] was a desktop SGI workstation from 1993. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics [3] https://www.qemu.org/ https://www.qemu.org/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64 [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Indy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Indy
- ehsankia 7y ago
  I love how you use 3 acronyms to describe the first acronym. It's acronyms all the way down!
  - lstamour 7y ago
    SVR4: UNIX System V Release 4 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V UNIX: Actually Unix. Not an acronym. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix
    - tyingq 7y ago
      "Unix. Not an acronym." Sorta. "In 1970, the group coined the name Unics for Uniplexed Information and Computing Service (pronounced "eunuchs"), as a pun on Multics, which stood for Multiplexed Information and Computer Services."
      - etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
        Uniplexed sounds like a joke word.
        tyingq 7y ago
        It was. They were poking fun at Multics being too bloated and complex.
- mastrsushi 7y ago
  Thank you, manual google paster.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  > QEMU [3] is an emulator used to run programs for one machine on another. More specifically one processor architecture to another. E.g. running on your desktop (usually an x86 based architecture) a Linux Operating System designed and compiled for a Raspberry Pi (ARM based architecture) and it's incompatible architecture. In this case they're running software designed for the same processor that the Nintendo 64 was targeting which so happens to also have ran a Unix OS known as IRIX.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- the-dude 7y ago
  [5] Often referred to as 'the pizzabox' IIRC edit: oh, says it right there in the Wiki
  - gbacon 7y ago
    Also the Sun SPARCstation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation

zik 7y ago

IRIX [1] was the version of SVR4 UNIX which ran on SGI [2] computers. QEMU [3] is an emulator used to run programs for one machine on another. N64 [4] is the Nintendo 64 games console. SGI Indy [5] was a desktop SGI workstation from 1993. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics [3] https://www.qemu.org/ https://www.qemu.org/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64 [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Indy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Indy

ehsankia 7y ago
I love how you use 3 acronyms to describe the first acronym. It's acronyms all the way down!
- lstamour 7y ago
  SVR4: UNIX System V Release 4 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V UNIX: Actually Unix. Not an acronym. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix
  - tyingq 7y ago
    "Unix. Not an acronym." Sorta. "In 1970, the group coined the name Unics for Uniplexed Information and Computing Service (pronounced "eunuchs"), as a pun on Multics, which stood for Multiplexed Information and Computer Services."
    - etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
      Uniplexed sounds like a joke word.
      - tyingq 7y ago
        It was. They were poking fun at Multics being too bloated and complex.
mastrsushi 7y ago
Thank you, manual google paster.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
> QEMU [3] is an emulator used to run programs for one machine on another. More specifically one processor architecture to another. E.g. running on your desktop (usually an x86 based architecture) a Linux Operating System designed and compiled for a Raspberry Pi (ARM based architecture) and it's incompatible architecture. In this case they're running software designed for the same processor that the Nintendo 64 was targeting which so happens to also have ran a Unix OS known as IRIX.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
the-dude 7y ago
[5] Often referred to as 'the pizzabox' IIRC edit: oh, says it right there in the Wiki
- gbacon 7y ago
  Also the Sun SPARCstation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation