A long-lost magnetic tape from 1973, discovered in a University of Utah storage room, has provided the only known complete copy of Unix V4 source code—the first version with its kernel rewritten in C. Researchers recovered roughly 40 MB of data, including source code and binaries, now available for download and emulation on SimH software simulating the PDP-11 minicomputer. This milestone preserves a pivotal step in OS history, tracing modern Unix-like systems back to their roots. Released in November 1973 as the Fourth Research Edition, Unix V4 shifted the kernel and core utilities from PDP-11 assembly to early C, enabling portability. Previously, only partial remnants like an older kernel and man pages survived; this dump includes the full Programmer’s Manual. Emulators now run it successfully, revealing code lineage for tools like grep in modern BSD.
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