Brian Chase <vaxzilla@jarai.org> writes:
> > But the PDP-10 GCC port will be usable RSN, so maybe a NetBSD port
> > should be possible?
> 
> What better way to exercise the portability of NetBSD?  We've got 32-bit
> and 64-bit archictures sorted.  Certainly there would be some challenges
> left with 36-bit support, no?  Given the availability of several PDP-10
> emulators and the work on GCC, I don't see why it couldn't be done.
> 
> NetBSD/pdp10 anyone?

The machine only had 18 bit pointers. It is a little light in terms of
real memory space -- only about a megabyte in a full Moby.

Extended PDP-10 architectures have been built -- the failed DEC
Jupiter project and of course the TOAD-1.

Of course running a real PDP-10 (say a DECSystem-20) would be very
very hard for any normal person. They filled a bunch of cabinets with
the finest ECL circuitry -- you need more electricity than you can
possibly get in any sort of ordinary home or even city block to run. A
TOAD would probably be a lot less juice-hungry but I don't know if
more than a couple of those were even ever built.

I was rather fond of the processor series -- byte pointers were NEAT,
and if you really want to purge C, the fact that not all pointers are
the same length on a PDP-6 or PDP-10 is a big frightening change for C
programmers. However, honestly I think this is pretty damn unlikely.

--
Perry E. Metzger		perry@wasabisystems.com
--
NetBSD: The right OS for your embedded design. http://www.wasabisystems.com/