helge (12/13/82)
I've received some more info on the MIMIX system from TouchStone Software,
and a summary of their `brochure' ("MIMIX Product Brief") follows:
As they said in the flyer that has been mentioned on the net previously,
MIMIX is an 8080/Z80 simulator running under UNIX (and XENIX they claim)
that enables CP/M to be run as a subsystem (I recall I saw an article on a
similar system running under VMS or RSX in Electronic Design some time back).
They offer two versions: Version 1 simulates the Z80 instruction set in
software (performance:"Typically somewhat less than that of low-end 8-bit
systems"). Version 2 "adds support for a `parallel processor' hardware option"
(!!). This hardware option is apparently for multibus and unibus systems
only, and contains a Z80B micro w/64K RAM. The board may be expanded to
include up to 4 Z80s w/64K each.
In addition to being able to run standard cpm and cpm utilities (requiring
less than 52K ram(!)), MIMIX provides an extensive set of commands to transfer
files to and from the host system, mount and unmount disks, print files,
label disks etc..
They claim that no extra restrictions other than those set by cpm itself are
imposed, but only files (`disks') with sssd 8" format are supported, and they
do not provide the source for their bios, so it will probably not be easy
to change. However, up to 8 `disks' may be `mounted' concurrently (why not
16?? Probably because the bios is too large already), and the limited `disk'-
size should therefore be a minor problem. "MIMIX will allow two `real' floppy
drives to be mounted". Why this restriction? Does MIMIX see the difference
between /dev/floppy and other unix files? I have no idea!
Their pricing seems reasonable to me: $450 for the software, $450 for the
multibus board w/ 1 cpu, $650 for unibus.
But: the system is not available yet (except for 8086 (?!) ). Their release
schedule follows:
8086 - 12/82, vax - 1/83, pdp11 - 2/83, z8000 - 3/83, 68k - 4/83
In my point of view, an interesting product.
-helge