4 ms·
I'm very interested to know why this port is taking so long. Few human resources? Not a priority? Lots of assembly code?
by aarroyoc 7y ago
I'm very interested to know why this port is taking so long. Few human resources? Not a priority? Lots of assembly code?
- skissane 7y ago> I'm very interested to know why this port is taking so long. Few human resources? That would be my guess. I don't know how big VMS Software is, but I doubt they are that big. The market they are addressing is limited in size, and is almost certain to shrink rather than grow, so it would be difficult to justify a massive investment in developers. OTOH, how long did the VAX->Alpha port take? How long did the Alpha->Itanium port take? How long would have HP taken if they'd decided to commit to an x86 port themselves?
- ch_123 7y agoSee: http://www.dtjcd.vmsresource.org.uk/pdfs/dtj_v04-04_1992.pdf http://www.dtjcd.vmsresource.org.uk/pdfs/dtj_v04-04_1992.pdf (page 113 of the PDF) http://www.decus.de/events/alphamigration/vortraege/porting_openvms_to_integrity.pdf http://www.decus.de/events/alphamigration/vortraege/porting_... It sounds like both took about two years to reach first boot on the target platform. Both involved considerably more people and resources than the VSI port to x86.
- eej71 7y agore: VAX->Alpha I don't know when they started it - but it was available to customers late 1994 if memory serves. The Itanium port was announced Sep 2001? A usable version for customers to deal with - spring 2005?
- icedchai 7y agoAlso consider DEC and HP had enormous engineering organizations. And Alpha was designed as extension of the VAX architecture, so presumably the port was less complicated. You can still find references to "EVAX", for "Extended VAX" in some of the headers, along with the EV* CPU model numbers. Itanium I know less about...