3 ms·

For those who didn't know what this was and (wrongly) thought it was some sort of IBM-compatible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipe

For those who didn't know what this was and (wrongly) thought it was some sort of IBM-compatible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC

bobmcnamara 3y ago
But it sorta was! I had a 3B1. You could run DOS inside a window in the main environment.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  Like, MS-DOS? How? It doesn't seem to have had an x86 CPU to run it on. (I'm assuming this predates emulation like we might use today for that kind of thing.) Edit: Oh, kept reading the wikipedia article and found the mention of an 8086 expansion card. That's cool:)
  - nopakos 3y ago
    We had PC emulators on the 68000 based Atari ST in the 80s. No extra hardware needed, but very slow! And I'm sure that emulators was a thing from the very first computers.
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      Amigas as well, that is how some of my friends would do their assignments on high school.
    - wkat4242 3y ago
      Yeah and one of the reasons was that every byte had to be reversed due to the endianness. So it was never going to be anything but slow. There were pc addon boards for this reason for both Amiga and Atari but they were expensive as they were basically a whole pc on a board.
      - rob74 3y ago
        I had one of these in my Amiga 500: https://www.edsa.uk/blog/the-kcs-power-pc-board https://www.edsa.uk/blog/the-kcs-power-pc-board (this was before the PowerPC CPUs appeared on the market, so the name wasn't as confusing as it sounds today). In addition to being a PC board, it also doubled as a memory expansion and RTC when you were using the host Amiga system.
      - bobmcnamara 3y ago
        Mine had an 8086 too!
    - alxlaz 3y ago
      Some systems also had expansion cards with an x86 processor on them. A more recent example would be Sun's SunPC and SunPCI cards -- you plugged these in a SBus or PCI slot, and ran x86 code on a real x86 processor. IIRC that's actually what the AT&T Unix PC did, too, but I'm not sure (I never owned one).
      - sanxiyn 3y ago
        See "DOS-73 Technical Reference" on the linked page for details. Yes, DOS-73 expansion cards had 8086 CPUs.
      - mschaef 3y ago
        Sun also briefly made a 386 based workstation. It didn't do well, but it could run DOS via V86 in a window on an otherwise Sun desktop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i
    - jasomill 3y ago
      The ST was at least a cost-effective way to emulate a PC very slowly. Not so much for SoftPC for VMS, which cost as much as an entry-level ST for the software alone: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/catalog/Digital_US_Software_Price_List_19950403.pdf#page=161 http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/catalog/Digital_U... But hey, MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 would have at least both fit comfortably on a single TK50 cartridge or 9-track open-reel tape, so at least you weren't stuck in front of the console swapping floppies waiting for the products to install.
- philpem 3y ago
  Ah, you had a DOS-73 expansion card?
  - bobmcnamara 3y ago
    That must've been it! My friend and I bought them used at a yard sale at the end of the airport from a couple who had worked at TWA - they were former TWQ machines. I don't think we ever opened them.
    - philpem 3y ago
      Nice setup! I have a 7300 and a 3B1 (7300 is single half-height hard drives, 3B1 is two HH or one full-height). One has a Combo Card (RAM and serial) and a Floppy Tape card, I can't remember what the other has, but cards have been pretty thin on the ground. A DOS-73 or network card would be extremely nice to have. The emulator actually started life because I couldn't find a machine for sale at a price I could afford, but the manuals were on Bitsavers. Someone later sold me the 7300 and 3B1.
nxobject 3y ago
It's a perfectly good personal computer, though!
- rob74 3y ago
  Yeah, back in the 80s, "PC" wasn't synonymous with "IBM PC/clone" yet. That only happened by the mid/end 90s, when all "personal computer" competitors (except for the Mac) had been forced out of the market...
vram22 3y ago
You could connect a phone to it. I think I saw an old magazine article (maybe BYTE) about it once, which said that, and had a photo of it, with the phone. The Wikipedia article article says it had 3 phone jacks.
rob74 3y ago
I originally thought this was an emulator to run (original) AT&T Unix applications on a PC. Then I googled it and found the article you linked. The photo in the article doesn't really give you a good idea of how the system looked like when in use, here's a better one: https://oldcomputers.net/pics/att-unix-pc-left.jpg https://oldcomputers.net/pics/att-unix-pc-left.jpg . If the keyboard is attached to the main case, the design makes it look so flush that you can overlook the fact that it's detachable.
- philpem 3y ago
  > thought this was an emulator to run (original) AT&T Unix applications on a PC Technically it is, if you mean System V for MC68k :)

For those who didn't know what this was and (wrongly) thought it was some sort of IBM-compatible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC

bobmcnamara 3y ago

But it sorta was! I had a 3B1. You could run DOS inside a window in the main environment.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
Like, MS-DOS? How? It doesn't seem to have had an x86 CPU to run it on. (I'm assuming this predates emulation like we might use today for that kind of thing.) Edit: Oh, kept reading the wikipedia article and found the mention of an 8086 expansion card. That's cool:)
- nopakos 3y ago
  We had PC emulators on the 68000 based Atari ST in the 80s. No extra hardware needed, but very slow! And I'm sure that emulators was a thing from the very first computers.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    Amigas as well, that is how some of my friends would do their assignments on high school.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    Yeah and one of the reasons was that every byte had to be reversed due to the endianness. So it was never going to be anything but slow. There were pc addon boards for this reason for both Amiga and Atari but they were expensive as they were basically a whole pc on a board.
    - rob74 3y ago
      I had one of these in my Amiga 500: https://www.edsa.uk/blog/the-kcs-power-pc-board https://www.edsa.uk/blog/the-kcs-power-pc-board (this was before the PowerPC CPUs appeared on the market, so the name wasn't as confusing as it sounds today). In addition to being a PC board, it also doubled as a memory expansion and RTC when you were using the host Amiga system.
    - bobmcnamara 3y ago
      Mine had an 8086 too!
  - alxlaz 3y ago
    Some systems also had expansion cards with an x86 processor on them. A more recent example would be Sun's SunPC and SunPCI cards -- you plugged these in a SBus or PCI slot, and ran x86 code on a real x86 processor. IIRC that's actually what the AT&T Unix PC did, too, but I'm not sure (I never owned one).
    - sanxiyn 3y ago
      See "DOS-73 Technical Reference" on the linked page for details. Yes, DOS-73 expansion cards had 8086 CPUs.
    - mschaef 3y ago
      Sun also briefly made a 386 based workstation. It didn't do well, but it could run DOS via V86 in a window on an otherwise Sun desktop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i
  - jasomill 3y ago
    The ST was at least a cost-effective way to emulate a PC very slowly. Not so much for SoftPC for VMS, which cost as much as an entry-level ST for the software alone: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/catalog/Digital_US_Software_Price_List_19950403.pdf#page=161 http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/catalog/Digital_U... But hey, MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 would have at least both fit comfortably on a single TK50 cartridge or 9-track open-reel tape, so at least you weren't stuck in front of the console swapping floppies waiting for the products to install.
philpem 3y ago
Ah, you had a DOS-73 expansion card?
- bobmcnamara 3y ago
  That must've been it! My friend and I bought them used at a yard sale at the end of the airport from a couple who had worked at TWA - they were former TWQ machines. I don't think we ever opened them.
  - philpem 3y ago
    Nice setup! I have a 7300 and a 3B1 (7300 is single half-height hard drives, 3B1 is two HH or one full-height). One has a Combo Card (RAM and serial) and a Floppy Tape card, I can't remember what the other has, but cards have been pretty thin on the ground. A DOS-73 or network card would be extremely nice to have. The emulator actually started life because I couldn't find a machine for sale at a price I could afford, but the manuals were on Bitsavers. Someone later sold me the 7300 and 3B1.

nxobject 3y ago

It's a perfectly good personal computer, though!

rob74 3y ago
Yeah, back in the 80s, "PC" wasn't synonymous with "IBM PC/clone" yet. That only happened by the mid/end 90s, when all "personal computer" competitors (except for the Mac) had been forced out of the market...

vram22 3y ago

You could connect a phone to it. I think I saw an old magazine article (maybe BYTE) about it once, which said that, and had a photo of it, with the phone. The Wikipedia article article says it had 3 phone jacks.

rob74 3y ago

I originally thought this was an emulator to run (original) AT&T Unix applications on a PC. Then I googled it and found the article you linked. The photo in the article doesn't really give you a good idea of how the system looked like when in use, here's a better one: https://oldcomputers.net/pics/att-unix-pc-left.jpg https://oldcomputers.net/pics/att-unix-pc-left.jpg . If the keyboard is attached to the main case, the design makes it look so flush that you can overlook the fact that it's detachable.

philpem 3y ago
> thought this was an emulator to run (original) AT&T Unix applications on a PC Technically it is, if you mean System V for MC68k :)