Unix System V for the IBM PC-AT and compatibles
 
   Microport Systems of Aptos, CA., is selling a full AT&T System V
Release 2 for the AT and compatibles.  This implementation apparently
grows out of the Digital Research work to port Unix to the 80286 for
Intel; Microport claims to be made up from the people on that project,
and in fact they sell a version of the system for the Intel development
box.
   Release 2 includes lots of things left out of the earlier releases
of System V, such as job control, a faster shell, multi-process profiling,
user lint libraries, vi 3.9, curses, and so forth.  Microport will be
offering, later this year, a set of Berkeley enhancements including the
cshell.
   The Microport implementation takes advantage of the 80286 protected
mode, only the second OS I know of to do that.  So, AT extended memory
may be used (up to 16 megabytes, I guess).  Many different hard disks
are supported, including non-standard configurations, as long as they
conform to the ST-506 "standard".
   The most amazing thing about this offering is the price.  You get
System V, the development system with C, Fortran 77, make, sccs, sdb,
and all that stuff, and the text processing system with nroff, troff,
and spell, all for $389.95, including shipping and handling.  The
run-time system alone is $159.95.  Now how much would you pay?  Don't
answer yet!  The Berkeley enhancements package is going to cost $99.95
when it becomes available.  Also coming is the ability to run Xenix
binaries.
   I've ordered one, and should be getting it later this month or
early next.  I'll report on my experiences.  In the meantime, the
company is:
 
   Microport Systems
   10096 Soquel Drive
   Aptos, CA 95003
   (408) 688-0286 (cute)
 
  -- Dan Frank, Madison, WI, where it never rains, it snows.