When Did VMS First Come Out?
Mark E. Levy
Christopher J. Wood wrote:
>
> When was VMS first released?
1978
--
Mark Levy, Computer Consultant
OpenVMS, MS-Windows, MAC/OS, Networks
System Management Associates, Inc.
LEV...@ACM.ORG
Annette Hearn
This October marks the 20th anniversary of the VAX and OpenVMS
family of systems.
OpenVMS, the powerful, scalable and highly available operating
system --- along with the VAX, the first 32-bit mini-computer,
are turning 20!!
Check out the following:
http://www.openvms.digital.com/openvms/20th/index.html
annette
Christopher J. Wood
When was VMS first released?
Arne Vajhøj
Christopher J. Wood wrote:
> When was VMS first released?
According to an invitation to a VMS 20 birthday celebration
from DECUS Denmark, then VMS 1.0 was released august 1978 !
Arne
Dan Oreilly
...and hence, the name "11/780"...
^^
--
Dan O'Reilly
MCI Telcommunications
Systems Engineering/BT NIP
MS 1183/117
2424 Garden of the Gods Rd
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
719-535-1418
Dan Oreilly
At 01:15 AM 9/13/97 GMT, sho...@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa) wrote:
>In article <3.0.3.32.1997091...@pop3.mail.mci.com>,
>Dan Oreilly <Dan.O...@MCI.Com> wrote:
>>At 02:58 PM 9/12/97 +0000, "Arne Vajh=F8j" <a...@cri.dk> wrote:
>>>Christopher J. Wood wrote:
>>>> When was VMS first released?
>>>
>>>According to an invitation to a VMS 20 birthday celebration
>>>from DECUS Denmark, then VMS 1.0 was released august 1978 !
>>
>>...and hence, the name "11/780"...
>> ^^
>
>"11/750" and "11/730" :-)
>
>Trying to assign a rational reason to a manufacturer's numbering
>scheme can land anyone in trouble, but I always figured that at least
>the "11/7" substring was borrowed from the previously succesful
>11/70 processor.
Actually, we're both right. The 11/780 was originally to be
called the "PDP 11/700", but was renamed the "VAX 11/780" to show
it was a new product line; the "78" part actually came from the
release year. The 11/780 and the 11/70 shared a fair number of
architectural commonalities (such as the cache and Massbus designs).
In fact, in the original versions of VMS, some of the utilites
weren't native-mode VAX; they were RSX utilities adapted for use
in the VMS environment, and they were 16-bit and ran in compatibility
mode.
Tim Shoppa
In article <3.0.3.32.1997091...@pop3.mail.mci.com>,
Dan Oreilly <Dan.O...@MCI.Com> wrote:
>At 02:58 PM 9/12/97 +0000, "Arne Vajh=F8j" <a...@cri.dk> wrote:
>>Christopher J. Wood wrote:
>>> When was VMS first released?
>>
>>According to an invitation to a VMS 20 birthday celebration
>>from DECUS Denmark, then VMS 1.0 was released august 1978 !
>
>...and hence, the name "11/780"...
> ^^
Of course, that also explains why its succesors were called the
"11/750" and "11/730" :-)
Trying to assign a rational reason to a manufacturer's numbering
scheme can land anyone in trouble, but I always figured that at least
the "11/7" substring was borrowed from the previously succesful
11/70 processor.
Tim. (sho...@triumf.ca)
Don Stokes
In article <34194A79...@cri.dk>, Arne Vajhøj <a...@cri.dk> wrote:
>Christopher J. Wood wrote:
>> When was VMS first released?
>According to an invitation to a VMS 20 birthday celebration
>from DECUS Denmark, then VMS 1.0 was released august 1978 !
Everything I've seen on the VAX said the 11/780 came out in October 1977.
If VMS didn't show up 'til August '78, what did a VAX run in '77?
-- don
Mark E. Levy
Beta versions.
Matthew D. Smith
Mark E. Levy wrote:
>
> Don Stokes wrote:
> >
> > In article <34194A79...@cri.dk>, Arne Vajhøj <a...@cri.dk> wrote:
> > >Christopher J. Wood wrote:
> > >> When was VMS first released?
> > >According to an invitation to a VMS 20 birthday celebration
> > >from DECUS Denmark, then VMS 1.0 was released august 1978 !
> >
> > Everything I've seen on the VAX said the 11/780 came out in October 1977.
> > If VMS didn't show up 'til August '78, what did a VAX run in '77?
> >
> > -- don
>
> Beta versions.
Yes, I think the first VAX platforms ran VMS 0.5. I remember coming
across a documentation set several years ago amongst some real old junk
of the VMS 0.5 OS.
I think that was the reason the company I used to work for bought PDP-11
35's in 1977. It was only in about 1987/1988 we migrated to VAX
platforms.
my .02
Matthew D. Smith
--
----------------------------------------
Matthew D. Smith
IT Engineer
Schlumberger GeoQuest
Port Harcourt Nigeria
----------------------------------------
Wayne Scott
Before Ellen Degenres did! ;-)
Mark E. Levy wrote:
>
> Christopher J. Wood wrote:
> >
> > When was VMS first released?
>
> 1978
John Macallister
I can confirm that the first public release of VMS was in late 1978.
I worked on one of the early machines, delivered in December 1978,
in the US and running VMS 1.0. At that time the MAIL command hadn't
even been released!
There may have been field test versions around, outside DEC, in 1977
but 1978 is the year VMS became publicly available.
John
John Macallister
>Everything I've seen on the VAX said the 11/780 came out in October 1977.
>If VMS didn't show up 'til August '78, what did a VAX run in '77?
They may have been running field test versions of VMS. However, I know that
some were running UNIX in 1977/1978. Some of our users on a VMS 1.0 system
in those early days had come from UNIX VAX systems and the first thing they
wanted to do was to redefine commands e.g. dir -> ls , set def -> cd , etc.
I remember, at the time, being surprised that (a) UNIX was running on a VAX
and (b) that it appeared to have been in use for some time before our machine
had been delivered - and that machine was one of the first public VMS systems!
John
Jim Mehlhop
I installed one of the first non-field test Vax's at Goddard ( thought
it was very late 77 or very early 78) it was running VMS.5b (or 0.5b)
which was refered to as base level 5 prior to 1.0. In other words VMS
was pre-release (but running) at that time.
--
Jim Mehlhop
jmeh...@cisco.nospam.com You can figure
the return address that has been modified
to block some of the D_____ SPAM
Andy Goldstein
John Macallister wrote:
>
> >Everything I've seen on the VAX said the 11/780 came out in October 1977.
> >If VMS didn't show up 'til August '78, what did a VAX run in '77?
>
> They may have been running field test versions of VMS. However, I know that
> some were running UNIX in 1977/1978. Some of our users on a VMS 1.0 system
> in those early days had come from UNIX VAX systems and the first thing they
> wanted to do was to redefine commands e.g. dir -> ls , set def -> cd , etc.
> I remember, at the time, being surprised that (a) UNIX was running on a VAX
> and (b) that it appeared to have been in use for some time before our machine
> had been delivered - and that machine was one of the first public VMS systems!
>
The VAX and VMS were announced at the October 1977 stockholder's
meeting. Field test systems shipped in November 1977.
We shipped a pre-release (called Base Level 5) to a small number of
paying customers in April 1978. V1.0, containing what had been promised
in the project plan, shipped in August 1978.
Having UNIX run early on is not surprising. We gave the folks at Bell
Labs a very early look at the VAX, and as far as I know communication
continued during its development. Although Bell Labs was not one of the
original field test sites, I would imagine that they were among the
earliest VAX customers.
Mark Forsyth
Jim Mehlhop wrote:
[deletia]
>
> I installed one of the first non-field test Vax's at Goddard ( thought
> it was very late 77 or very early 78) it was running VMS.5b (or 0.5b)
> which was refered to as base level 5 prior to 1.0. In other words VMS
> was pre-release (but running) at that time.
Hmmmm. I've heard certain unsavoury things about .5b. Thank goodness
that here in .au land we started with V1.2. It was still clunky but a
heap better than .5b or so I'me led to believe. I started mucking about
with VMS at 1.2 in '81 or early '82 so VMS as we know it was around
before then.
Mark F...
christopher f. chiesa
Apropos of nothing... The other night I happened to find myself in a Web
page that tells you "what your telephone number SPELLS," i.e. if you use
the letters (printed along with the numbers on each keycap, in the USA)
corresponding to the digits... I was pleasantly surprised to find out
that my home phone number contains "VMS"! :-)
I also saw "VMS-1" or something similar, spray-painted on a sidewalk in
Boston, in the manner of a utility worker marking the location of a
gas/water pipe etc. Sorry, I don't know Boston well enough to tell any
Bostonites exactly WHERE to look... It was "sort of near the waterfront,"
just the "other side, from there," of the elevated roadway beneath which
is a big mess of tunnel-construction debris, plywood 'walls,' etc...
In a weird mood,
Chris
christopher f. chiesa
In article <5vugoc$l...@cyber3.servtech.com>, I, christopher f. chiesa
I must've been on "stupid pills" when I wrote that. My phone number con-
tains, not "VMS," but rather, "VAX." A small, but important, distinction.
I'm still pretty happy about it. :-)
Chris