PDP-11 arch & OS ownership, was Re: [HECnet] NT 4 on AlphaServer es40

[Dave McGuire]

On 02/11/2013 08:30 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
What happened to Mentec and the PDP-11 support after DEC made the
silly decision to spin the division off? And yes you should. The
PDP-10 was an interesting system and one lived for a long time in the
basement of an MIT building during the middle 90s.

Mentec continued on for about 10 years, and then disappeared in a puff
of smoke. However, during those 10 years (take or give a few), first
DEC, then Compaq then HP continued to support and sell PDP-11
software, even though Mentec was the guys owning and developing.

When Mentec Inc. did disappear, the software bits were bought out by
another company. And that is where it sits today. If we could get HP
to actually release the IP for this software, then maybe something
hobbyist-like could happen, but as it sits right now, HP control bits
and pieces, making it a very complex situation. I'm not sure if you
can still contact HP and get a new license for RSX, but it might be.
But getting anyone to legally release the stuff seems difficult. :-(

It was a UK firm (Calyx).   Peter Dick was going to see if he could find a
contact there to untangle some of the mess.   At least that was in our
last
discussions on the matter (and that was April 15, 2009).   No word since
then.

Uh... No... The Software was bought from what was left of Mentec by a
company named xx2247 ltd. Located in Colorado.

  Ownership passed from Mentec to Calyx before XX2247.

                            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA