IBM AIX for IA64 (Itanium) aka Project Monterey runs again!
<p><em>(This is a guest post by Antoni Sawicki aka Tenox)</em></p>
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<p><strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Monterey">Project Monterey</a></strong> was an attempt to unify the fragmented Unix market of the 90s in to a single, cross vendor Unix OS that would run on the upcoming <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium">Intel Itanium</a></strong> (and others) CPU. The main collaborators were: <strong>IBM</strong>, who brought its <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AIX">AIX</a></strong>, <strong>SCO</strong> brought <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnixWare">UnixWare</a></strong>, <strong>HP</strong> was supposed to bring parts of <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-UX">HP-UX</a></strong> and <strong>Sequent</strong> <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DYNIX">DYNIX/ptx</a></strong>. Ironically the project shared fate of the Itanium processor – it totally failed. In the end Linux took spot of the “single Unix OS”. IBM <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/linux/ibm-lvm.pdf">donated</a> pieces of AIX to Linux instead and the main legacy of Project Monterey was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group,_Inc._v._International_Business_Machines_Corp.">the famous SCO vs IBM lawsuit</a>.</p>
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<p>A little known fact, IBM did however produce AIX version for the Itanium architecture! According to Wikipedia, some 30+ licenses were sold in 2001-2002. For years a dedicated group of individuals were trying to locate a copy of the legendary OS. As time passed it seemed that the OS was lost forever.</p>
<p>…until some 21 years later friends of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/NCommander">NCommander</a> checked in with a set of AIX5L IA64 CDROMS! The CDs have now been dumped and you can download them <a href="https://archive.org/details/aix-ia64">here</a>. Unfortunately downloading will not get you any closer to actually running this. As of today no publicly available virtualization or emulation platform can boot this. Yes we tried <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simics">Simics</a>, looked at <a href="https://qemu.mercurysquad.com/">QEMU IA64</a> and XEN/KVM for IA64, etc. The OS will not boot on modern Itanium 2 (McKinley) CPUs, only the early “pre-release” <strong>Itanium 1</strong> aka <strong>Merced</strong>. The only emulator allegedly capable of doing so was the super elusive unobtanium called <a data-id="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/softsdv.pdf" data-type="URL" href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/softsdv.pdf">Intel SoftSDV</a>.</p>
<p>It’s currently speculated that AIX5L IA64 will work on and only on so called <em>Intel Software Development Vehicle (SDV)</em> sometimes referred to as <em>Intel Engineering Sample</em>. You can see the original system overview <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/merced_system_over_final2.pdf">here</a>.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img alt="" class="wp-image-14992" decoding="async" height="828" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv1.jpg" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv1.jpg 640w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv1-232x300.jpg 232w" style="width:269px;height:auto" width="640"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Intel Engineering Sample, image courtesy @RetroHoosk</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-14990" decoding="async" height="443" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-1024x443.jpg" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-1024x443.jpg 1024w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-300x130.jpg 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-768x332.jpg 768w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-1536x665.jpg 1536w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-2048x886.jpg 2048w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sdv2-500x216.jpg 500w" width="1024"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Intel Engineering Sample, image courtesy @RetroHoosk</figcaption></figure>
<p>Later SDV was sold under several OEM branded versions: <a href="https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/overview-ibm-intellistation-z-pro-type-6894">IBM IntelliStation Z Pro 6894</a>, <a href="https://www.openpa.net/systems/hp_i2000.html">HP i2000 Workstation</a>, <a href="https://wiki.irixnet.org/SGI-750">SGI 750</a>, Dell Precision Workstation 730 and Fujitsu-Siemens Celsius 880. They all look alike because all of them were in fact produced by Intel.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-11981" decoding="async" height="241" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ItaniumWorkstations-1.png" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ItaniumWorkstations-1.png 743w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ItaniumWorkstations-1-300x97.png 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ItaniumWorkstations-1-500x162.png 500w" width="743"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Intel Itanium Software Development Vehicle Lineup</figcaption></figure>
<p>The IBM Z pro is probably most suitable for running AIX. Finding one of these is no easy task. Luckily I was able to score a working HP i2000. Surprisingly AIX IA64 booted on a first try. The install went smoothly and I was able to log in!</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-11982" decoding="async" height="768" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8331-1024x768-1.jpeg" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8331-1024x768-1.jpeg 1024w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8331-1024x768-1-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8331-1024x768-1-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8331-1024x768-1-400x300.jpeg 400w" width="1024"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">AIX 5L IA64 on HP i2000 Workstation – boot loader</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-11983" decoding="async" height="768" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8334-1024x768-1.jpeg" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8334-1024x768-1.jpeg 1024w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8334-1024x768-1-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8334-1024x768-1-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_8334-1024x768-1-400x300.jpeg 400w" width="1024"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">AIX 5L IA64 on HP i2000 Workstation – logged in</figcaption></figure>
<p>The OS feels like a standard AIX 5L. Nothing particularly special about it, except that it runs on Itanium. This <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/aix5l_differences.pdf">RedBook</a> outlines differences between the Power and IA64 versions. A few most interesting facts are that: Itanium AIX uses ELF object files. There is a new device driver model called UDI (Uniform Device Interface) with it’s own <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/ddk.tar.lz">DDK</a>. It came from SCO UnixWare. Also according <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/aix_itanium_early_adopters.pdf">early adopters guide</a>, AIX5L IA64 introduces JFS2 file system.</p>
<p>Initially I was not able to get the onboard NIC working. AIX5L IA64 supports only two network cards:</p>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>adapter 23100020 IBM 10/100 Mbps Ethernet PCI Adapter (23100020)
adapter ae120200 10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet PCI Adapter (ae120200)
</code></pre>
<p>The <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64/misc/aix_itanium_early_adopters.pdf">AIX Itanium Early Adopters Release Notes</a> mentions a few other cards but I do not see drivers for these in the OS. The doc mentions <em>Extended Hardware Drivers CD</em> which we don’t have.</p>
<p>Luckily again I was able to find a working NIC on eBay!</p>
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<p>The system comes with X11 and CDE but so far I was not able to get any GPU working beyond basic text mode. I tried many different video cards from that era but there simply doesn’t appear to be any driver in the OS except for basic VGA / <a data-id="https://www.ibm.com/docs/ssw_aix_72/kernelextension/lowfunc_term_subsys.html" data-type="URL" href="https://www.ibm.com/docs/ssw_aix_72/kernelextension/lowfunc_term_subsys.html">LFT</a>. I think the key to getting video working is the previously mentioned extended hardware drivers cd.</p>
<p>Finally, if you want to read more I have found some interesting pieces on <a href="http://www.ibmfiles.com/pages/aixia64.htm">ibmfiles</a> and various mirrors <a href="http://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/itanium/developer/">here</a> and <a href="http://osarchive.org/os/aix/5.1ia64">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Thanks to efforts of <strong>TRN</strong> we now have a working GCC and <a href="https://github.com/johnsonjh/AIX5-IA64">ports of lots of apps</a>!</p>
<p><strong>Update 2</strong>: After going through a pile of video cards I now have local X11 and CDE!</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12017" decoding="async" height="768" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-1024x768.jpg" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-300x225.jpg 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-768x576.jpg 768w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_8777-400x300.jpg 400w" width="1024"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">AIX IA64 local X11 with CDE</figcaption></figure>
<p>This was the lucky winner:</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12018" decoding="async" height="202" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" src="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-10-31-at-4.39.14-PM.png" srcset="https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-10-31-at-4.39.14-PM.png 716w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-10-31-at-4.39.14-PM-300x85.png 300w, https://virtuallyfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-10-31-at-4.39.14-PM-500x141.png 500w" width="716"/></figure>
<p><strong>Update 3</strong>: SimCity is <a href="https://github.com/tenox7/micropolis/releases/download/1.0.0/sim-aix5ia64">now available</a> for AIX IA64! You will also need other stuff mentioned <a data-id="14763" data-type="post" href="https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/08/08/dux-simcity-unix-aka-micropolis-on-irix-6-5-and-aix-4-3/">here</a>.</p>
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