rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu (Richard Champeaux) (09/11/89)
I'm posting this here because the comp.os.os9 newsgroup seems to have degenerated into a Tandy Color Computer newsgroup. My Master's thesis involves designing and building a 68020 based single board computer that will be used by a class here at Clemson University. My advisor want's to port OS-9 68k to it. We'll be getting some information from Microware (I think that's the name), but in the mean time, I have a few questions. Does OS-9 68k require an MMU? What does it need in the way of timers and interrupts. Are there any other hardware dependencies? Thanks for any help. Rich Champeaux (rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu)
dtubbs@esunix.UUCP (Dave tubbs) (09/12/89)
I used to work for a company that had Microware port their OS9/68K
operating system to a Cyclone single-board computer (SBC). The SBC
had the following hardware:
68020 Microprocessor @ 20Mhz.
68881 Floating Point Unit.
Socket for 68851 Memory Management Unit (not used).
4 - 16 Mbytes of Dynamic Ram.
256 Kbytes PROM/Static RAM.
Floppy Drive Controller.
4 Serial Ports.
1 Parallel Port.
Real-time Clock.
2 Kbytes CMOS battery-backed RAM.
VME Bus interface.
The OS9/68K system came with an Emacs editor, a 'C' compiler, a
68000/68020 Assembler and linker, along with the usual assortment of
utilities and application packages found in a multi-tasking system.
The OS supported all of the hardware in the system, with the exception
of the parallel port, which was intended to be used as a Centronics-
compatible printer port. All I/O was fully integrated into the interupt
structure of the OS, and allowed either polled or interupt-driven I/O.
The software development tools were only average. The 'C' compiler
conformed to the original K&R specification, with just a few of the
ANSI enhancements (voids, enumerations). There were also bugs in the
compiler, and eventually one would just learn ways to code around them.
Rather than get into some serious OS9 bashing, let me just say this:
The project I worked on was large. Over 200,000 lines of 'C' source, and
over 5,000 lines of assembly. There were 4 software engineers (average)
on the project and it took the group a little more than 2 years to finish
the project. At the end of the project, not one of us would recommend OS9
to anyone contemplating a project greater than 5,000 lines of source code,
due to our in-ability to easily write, debug, and test the code.
Regards,
Dave Tubbs
"An Elephant is a Mouse with an Operating System"
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