Some funny MS Propaganda

[David Thornton]

googled "qnx cisco"

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/1998/may98/16.html

so what did cisco do prior to QNX?

http://pdp10.nocrew.org/docs/cisco.html

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lennart Sorensen" <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
To: <tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: [TLUG]: Some funny MS Propaganda


> On Thu, Oct 02, 2003 at 12:41:28AM -0400, Michael wrote:
> > Okay, first of all "running The Internet" is a vague term, generally
> > my own experience suggests that the servers not the routers run the
> > Internet - I know it sounds odd but that seems to be the convention.
> > (I may be wrong on that point.)
> > 
> > Now as for IOS... okay yes Cisco boxes run IOS, which is a big bad
> > ugly name (bad and ugly because it does not really describe what IOS
> > is) for what is nothing more than a shell that runs on top of QNX.
> > Basically IOS is what the router administrator uses to modify the
> > router configuration, for example set up VLANs (it runs on Cisco
> > switches too) set up routes, change Routing Protocols (not to be
> > confused with routed protocols), and so on.
> > 
> > The point is IOS is a lot of I (as in Interface) and not really an
> > OS. So what runs a Cisco router? QNX. QNX is designed to feel like
> > Unix, but it is NOT Unix. Not by a million miles is QNX even close to
> > Unix.
> 
> I can't find ANYTHING that indicates IOS runs on QNX, and I actually
> find it hard to believe, since I don't think QNX generally runs on non
> x86 hardware, and I don't think Cisco uses x86 hardware.  I have only so
> far found a reference mentioning Cisco was considering putting a real
> time OS into IOS, but that they hadn't done so yet (as of 2002 it would
> appear).  I suppose QNX would have added more types of hardware by now
> though.
> 
> > You can read tons on QNX at a number of places:
> > 
> > http://www.qnx.com
> > http://student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~cs452
> > http://mjc88.0catch.com
> > 
> > Now a little history lesson. In the late 1970s two U of Waterloo
> > computer science students (a grad student who had a B Sc in Physics -
> > from UW) and a 4'th year undergrad took a course, CS 452 (Real Time
> > Programming) anyone here, who took CS at U(W) can tell you about the
> > infamous "trains course". - You need to build a real time OS that
> > runs on bare hardware (currently on an i486, back in the 70's it was
> > something else obviously) then you need to build an application that
> > talks to a toy train set and makes the trains to amazing things. You
> > have three months and you can work in teams of one or two, good luck!
> > - Anyway back in the 70s our heroes took the above course and were so
> > inspired, delighted, shocked into total insanity, that they decided
> > to open up a little company in their home town (Ottawa) to sell there
> > little project which they called QNX.
> > 
> > (I also took CS 452 and that's why a. I know all about this and b.
> > why I still cower at the sight of toy train sets.)
> > 
> > Now the reason you read my little tale, QNX is based on a CS 452 OS
> > project, CS 452 was the brain child of a PhD student who had this
> > nifty idea: "why not strip everything you don't totally need out of
> > the OS kernel and use IPC to do everything the kernel traditionally
> > does." In other-words, why not make a Micro kernel, and use special
> > mechanism for IPC, the special mechanisms are called kernel
> > primitives, and there are three:
> > 
> > int send(void * pid, void * msg, int length);
> > int receive(void * msg, void * senderPID);
> > reply(void * msg, int length);
> > 
> > (Its been a while, I may have the syntax wrong, sorry.)
> 
> It isn't nice to remind people of these things... :)
> 
> > Now you build these synchronous kernel primitives and then you build
> > yourself serial servers, keyboard servers, video servers and you have
> > yourself an OS which you can sell to Cisco systems and make your
> > millions.
> > 
> > Now why would Cisco want a micro kernel instead of a monolithic? Well
> > for one thing Micro Kernels service interrupts really really fast,
> > for another thing, it is much easier to assert that QNX will really
> > be hard real time than say RT Linux.
> 
> Which may be why what I found indicates that Cisco is considering doing
> it, but it sure looked like they hadn't done so yet.  There does seem to
> be some talk of a QNX based IOS sometime this year, but it would be a
> new things then.
> 
> > Where can I take a course as interesting and exciting as CS 452? (If
> > you really want to know the answer to that question you probably
> > ought to turn yourself in to the Queen Street mental health unit,
> > otherwise if you really want to know the answer go take CS 452 at
> > U(W).)
> 
> Well at least it was still there last time I stopped by.
> 
> Lennart Sorensen
> --
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