Historic Unix Releases (running on the SIMH emulator)

Some historic unix releases

I am glad I can run them on the SIMH PDP-11/VAX emulator.

2009-12-27 (see recent changes)

1st edition kernel with 2nd edition userland (V1/V2) (1972) on PDP-11/20

32K, RF-11 + RK03 disks, KE11A module [extended arithmetic element for multiply/divide], DC-11 8 TTYs, TC-11 DECTape

Yes, you're reading right: people organized on TUHS (start reading here) managed to get such an early system running again.
This software dates from 1972 (printout from 06/72, one example in the code is "Date 3/17/72").
The kernel was modified to recognize the 0407 executables from V2, because the V1 userland seems still to be lost.

The project page for the result of all the work.
Dennis Ritchie provides the 1st edition manual on his pages (also available via TUHS and mirrors).
The 2nd edition manual [pdf] is archived at TUHS (mirrors).
Warren Toomey from TUHS presented the work at the '09 Usenix and made the presentation material available (video, paper).

In the directory listing, "s" and "l" mean small and large files (less or more than 4096 bytes, respectively).

6th Edition Unix (V6) (1975) on PDP-11/45

A software kit is available on the SIMH pages. Wolfgang Helbig ist hosting the 6th Edition Manuals.

7th Edition Unix (V7) (1979) on PDP-11/45

A software kit is available on the SIMH pages. The Plan9 Project is hosting the 7th Edition Manuals.
The Bourne shell was introduced with this release. Some consider this Unix release as the "last true Unix".

System III Unix (1982) on PDP-11/70,

It was originally reconstructed from tapes on a 7th edition system by José R. Valverde.
I could compile Bourne shells from SVR1, SVR2 and 8th edition (aka V8) on this system.
This was the first commercial Unix from AT&T.

Ultrix-11 v2.16 (~1984-85?) on PDP-11/24

A minimal installation without manuals. The RetroComputinGeek pages show how to set it up with a tape from Bitsavers.org.

Ultrix development by DEC started on the PDP-11 and resulted in "V7m", a modified V7.
Later, the development moved to the VAX architecture, was rather based on 4.2BSD and became "Ultrix-32", while V7m was renamed to "Ultrix-11".

Ultrix-11 v3.1 (1986) on PDP-11/73 3M

An installation with manuals.

Ultrix-32 v4.0 (~1987?) on MicroVAX 3900

A later, yet early Ultrix, now on VAX.
Jason Steven's pages show how to set it up.

Other resources

See also Jason Steven's pages (Ultrix32v4.0 above, 4.2/4.3BSD, V6),
and RetroComputinGeek (e.g. Ultrix11 v2.16 above, 4.3BSDQuasijuarus, NetBSD 3.0, OpenBSD 3.8),
and Nao's pages (32V, 3BSD, 4.0BSD at the time of this writing).

PS: Contact me, if you're interested in my images.

<http://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/ancient/>