At 03:44 PM 3/18/2004, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

>"Toru Nishimura" <locore32@gaea.ocn.ne.jp> writes:
> > The introduction of "supervisor mode" was a mystery.   Someone will 
> disclose
> > the (real) story behind it.
>
>It was introduced to try to get DEC to adopt it for its new machines,
>I thought, since VMS needed it.

Nope.  ULTRIX was always kernel/user and didn't use the supervisor or
executive modes of the VAX.  Therefore there was no reason to have them
in MIPS.  VMS was never ever going to run on MIPS so it wasn't added for
that reason.


-- 
Matt Thomas                     email: matt@3am-software.com
3am Software Foundry              www: http://3am-software.com/bio/matt/
Cupertino, CA              disclaimer: I avow all knowledge of this message.