If you’ve ever combed boxes of old tech detritus in search of a nugget of pure gold, we know you’ll appreciate the excitement of discovering, in a dusty University of Utah storeroom, a tape labelled “UNIX Original from Bell Labs V4 (See manual for format)”. If the tape contains what’s promised on the label, this is a missing piece of computer history, because no complete copies of this version are known to exist.
The tape will be delivered by hand to the Computer History Museum, where we hope its contents will be safely retrieved for archive and analysis. The reporter of the find, research professor [Rob Ricci], identifies the handwriting as that of Jay Lepreau, someone whose word on which UNIX version it contained could, we hope, be trusted.
So if you happen to have a handy PDP-11 in your basement, you may soon be able to explore this 1973 version of the OS. We look forward to hearing from the Computer History Museum as they analyse the tape. Meanwhile, if this whole UNIX thing is new to you, we have a Bell Labs introduction to help you. Or check out the illustrious panel below, looking back at 50 years of UNIX.
I’m disappointed it didn’t say “RTFM for format”.
Looks fishy to me with the “Original Unix” label. I bet it’s a plant by SCO and that they will find a Copyright file with their name in it!
Oh gooood NOOOOO – how many more decades of frivolous lawsuits would that entail?!
;-)
Depends on how long Microsoft would be willing to fund it.
I think Original in this case just means it’s the tape that was received from Bell Labs and not a locally-made copy.
It’s probably just an old episode of Doctor Who that got mis-labeled.
All kidding aside, this could be a very important find if it’s recoverable.
Depending on which Who story it was, that might, might be more significant than Unix. Just saying =))
Or, the missing moon landing tape. :)
Right, the missing blooper reel of the landing recordings in the back lot of the studio.
Everybody knows that Stanley Kubrick directed the filming of the moon landings. However, because of his demands of authenticity, he filmed it all on location.
Too miss-quote a famous 2001 line: “My god it’s full of bugs!”
Can we boot it in Qemu?
Likely, yes. I appear to be missing the necessary PDP-11, so emulation’s my only hope.
Try the Open SIMH project instead. It is aimed at this very thing.
Sadly guys I have to report that according to the TUHS it is believed to be complete. According to the SIMH list it certainly is and the guy behind Bit Savers is working get it available.
Surprised that they weren’t talking about the arguments over ed vs ex and start brawling over vi vs emacs.
And Space Travel never came up but maybe they’ll find the source and it will be ported to Linux.
the “v4” text is in a different colored pen. not a good sign
Okay, but can it run on a CH32V003?
Yes, and in your browser