Subj : Re: How to bind a POSIX thread to a specific CPU?
To   : comp.unix.tru64,comp.programming.threads
From : David Butenhof
Date : Mon Jun 20 2005 02:40 pm

loic-dev@gmx.net wrote:
> Salut Dragan,
> 
> 
>>>Anyone who really needs binding on Tru64 UNIX (especially in a NUMA
>>>environment) ought to be running V4.1B anyway, not V5.1; for a lot of
>>>reasons.
>>>
>>>If you really can't or won't upgrade,
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>>David, is the above a typo (V4.1B instead of V5.1B), or does True64 have
>>backward numbering schema? :-)
> 
> speaking of typo, Tru64 is surely a "true UNIX", but doesn't have an
> _e_.
> Dave might perhaps tell us the history behind this name ;-) 

Sure. We had DEC OSF/1, and life wasn't so bad, but nobody really cared 
about "OSF/1" anymore, and the Digital Marketers didn't like anyone 
using the "DEC" abbreviation, so it was changed to "Digital UNIX". And 
that was pretty good.

But that's a problem for marketing people. A name that MAKES SENSE? I 
mean, ANYONE, ANYONE at ALL, can look at that name and figure out that 
it refers to a UNIX operating system produced by Digital. What's the 
point of a name that MEANS something? Besides, we were on the forefront 
of 64-bit computing. Not just complicated 64-bit extensions to a 32-bit 
OS, but a real, ah, true, 64-bit computing environment. But then, "True 
64 [bit] UNIX" would have the same problems as "Digital UNIX". Someone 
might look at it and actually understand what you're talking about 
without an interpreter... and that would be bad, right? "Security 
through obscurity" may not actually WORK, but it sure is simple... and 
if we just misspell the thing a lot of people won't figure out what it 
means. And heck, even if you don't know what it means, "Tru64" sounds 
kinda cool, right?

Of course, that's a slight misrepresentation of their actual thought 
processes. (No, no; we shan't delve into the issue of whether the 
misrepresentation is in their favor or not.) Anyway, a name that's not 
an actual word (or phrase) really does make a safer and more useful 
trademark. (As opposed to common and ordinary everyday words like "VAX", 
which turned out to conflict with the trademark of a British vacuum 
cleaner company. Although they were able to resolve that dispute with an 
agreement that VAX computers remain high quality, reliable, and classy, 
so that nobody would be tempted to infringe the vacuum cleaner 
producers' registered slogan "VAX sucks".)

-- 
Dave Butenhof, David.Butenhof@hp.com
HP Utility Pricing software, POSIX thread consultant
Manageability Solutions Lab (MSL), Hewlett-Packard Company
110 Spit Brook Road, ZK2/3-Q18, Nashua, NH 03062

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