UNIX Operating System Porting Experiences

Overview

One of the reasons for the dramatic growth in popularity of the UNIX operating system is the portability of both the operating system and its associated user-level programs. This paper highlights the portability of the UNIX operating system, presents some general porting considerations, and shows how some of the ideas were used in actual UNIX operating system porting efforts. Discussions of the efforts associated with porting the UNIX operating system to an Intel 8086-based system, two UNIVAC 1100 Series processors, and the AT&T 3B20S and 3B5 minicomputers are presented.