IBM PS/2 P70

As far as running on a 386 is concerned: That was perfectly doable in the early to mid 90s, using either Linux, or BSD386 (the Jolitz port, may he rest in peace) or BSDi. I ran Linux 0.99.x for several years on a 386-40, including X windows. Sure, it was a bit slow, but from a price/performance viewpoint, still one of the best things you could get back then.

As far as the PS/2 MCA architecture is concerned: I don't know whether Linux or any of the BSD ports were able to run on that. But the hardware certainly supported running a 32-bit Unix, as AIX was available for it.
 
ralphbsz said:
As far as running on a 386 is concerned: That was perfectly doable in the early to mid 90s, using either Linux, or BSD386 (the Jolitz port, may he rest in peace) or BSDi. I ran Linux 0.99.x for several years on a 386-40, including X windows. Sure, it was a bit slow, but from a price/performance viewpoint, still one of the best things you could get back then.

As far as the PS/2 MCA architecture is concerned: I don't know whether Linux or any of the BSD ports were able to run on that. But the hardware certainly supported running a 32-bit Unix, as AIX was available for it.
Click to expand...
I actually managed to install AIX on a PS/2 Model 80, at one point. I still have the machine, two in fact, but don't think they will boot up now.
Must give them a try. It's amazing to think that it came with a 'massive 100 MB, of disk storage which was regarded as enormous at the time :)...
 
I have a friend who used a P70 at work, I asked him what o/s it used to run, he says it was one of the older versions of os/2, earlier than warp, most likely os/2 2.0. He says it used comms manager for networking, so it had a tcp/ip stack. Perhaps it's worth tracking down a copy of that, I think there are various os/2 user groups on the web. At least the hardware should be fully supported by the ibm o/s, after all it was their hardware. You might get further with that than with an old version of freebsd or linux.

I also found a couple of links that might help:-

www.ardent-tool.com

The P70 Project

www.ardent-tool.com www.ardent-tool.com

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com

Perhaps to get the thing running it might be worth trying ms-dos or freedos, just to prove you can boot it for example, before trying any other o/s's.

Yeah, I'd forgotton coherent had no tcp/ip... that would severely limit it's usefulness even if you could get it to run. Probably not worth the effort.
 
blackbird9 said:
He says it used comms manager for networking, so it had a tcp/ip stack.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it doesn't support IPv6 at all, but IPv4 and NetBEUI (NetBIOS and NetBIOS over TCP/IP).
IBM didn't implemented IPv6 for OS/2 at all, and finished commercial maintainance service, which at least anything individual consumers can contract with.
ArcaOS, the successor of OS/2 by licensed third party, states lowest CPU as PentiumPro or K6, so maybe MCA support would be dropped and wouldn't work on 80386DX/SX CPUs.
Another successor (actually already dead?), eComStation, requires Pentium 133 at minimum.
 
blackbird9 said:
I have a friend who used a P70 at work, I asked him what o/s it used to run, he says it was one of the older versions of os/2, earlier than warp, most likely os/2 2.0. He says it used comms manager for networking, so it had a tcp/ip stack. Perhaps it's worth tracking down a copy of that, I think there are various os/2 user groups on the web. At least the hardware should be fully supported by the ibm o/s, after all it was their hardware. You might get further with that than with an old version of freebsd or linux.

I also found a couple of links that might help:-

www.ardent-tool.com

The P70 Project

www.ardent-tool.com www.ardent-tool.com

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com

Perhaps to get the thing running it might be worth trying ms-dos or freedos, just to prove you can boot it for example, before trying any other o/s's.

Yeah, I'd forgotton coherent had no tcp/ip... that would severely limit it's usefulness even if you could get it to run. Probably not worth the effort.
Click to expand...

Actually, I was running OS/2 v1.1 on it in 1988, and AFAICR is has Warp 4 installed on it.
 
I loved OS/2 and actually paid for it once; here's my long-ago bookshelf.

rrhouse-041.jpg
 
robroy said:
I loved OS/2 and actually paid for it once; here's my long-ago bookshelf.

View attachment 17287
Click to expand...
Looks quite a lot like my bookshelf! (interesting seeing Solaris... I have that too.)

I spent tons on getting myself up to speed with OS/2, after all, Bill Gates said

"I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time."

in November 1987.

And I believed him...
 
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