Skip to content

Releases: ChristineTham/ipnx

Release list

ipnx Edition 8 Release 1.0

ipnx Edition 8 Release 1.0 Latest
Latest

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@ChristineTham ChristineTham released this 16 Aug 02:50
v1.0
58284e5

Research Unix Eighth Edition, on an emulated VAX-11/780, for macOS.

The first release. Free, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple, so
it opens without a Gatekeeper detour.

What it is

A native Mac app running two emulated computers and a wire between them: a
VAX-11/780 booting an unmodified Research Unix kernel, and a DMD 5620 — the
Blit — with its own processor, which is where mux and jim actually run.
That is the 1985 topology exactly.

What is in this release

  • Boots to login: in about thirty seconds; resumes from a snapshot in a couple.
  • Creates an account named after your macOS user on first launch, and logs you in
    as that account rather than as root.
  • A folder on your Mac mounted inside Eighth Edition, read/write, at
    /n/macos and /n/home, over Peter Weinberger's network file system — whose
    client has been compiled into every V8 kernel since 1985 and has had nothing to
    talk to since Datakit was switched off.
  • Real networking: Research Unix's own TCP/IP over an emulated Interlan NI1010,
    reaching the actual Internet. dnsq resolves names; telnet opens streams.
  • The DMD 5620 at two screen sizes (800×1024/88 columns, 1152×1024/127), with
    choice of phosphor and integer scaling to kill the stipple moiré.
  • The disk is built from this repository's own source — a staged world build
    that Research Unix never had, ending with the result rebuilding itself under
    chroot.

Requirements

macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon. About 700 MB of disk once provisioned.

Verifying

codesign -dv --verbose=2 /Applications/ipnx.app
spctl --assess --type execute --verbose /Applications/ipnx.app

The authority is Developer ID Application: Hello Tham Pty. Ltd. (RPL5R637DS).
The certificate names a company because Apple requires an enrolled team to hold
one; the project itself is personal and non-commercial, which is what the 2017
Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent statement on Editions 8–10 permits. That statement is also
why ipnx is free and always will be.

Not on the App Store yet

That waits for Tenth Edition — source-only, never booted by anyone — so that what
arrives there is the restoration rather than the rehearsal.

Documentation: https://christham.net/ipnx/

Assets 3
Loading