arthur@warwick.UUCP (06/09/87)
From: brian@udcps1.UUCP (Brian R. Haug) > >The only operating system that everyone agrees to be available is >Unix, and not cheap, and no source or configurability. But it >comes with everything in the world. > ... > LET'S WRITE AN OPERATING SYSTEM! > >It seems to me that one of the principal lacks in the "hacker" or >computer hobbyist world today is a portable, simple, easily >configurable operating system. Naturally, the dream of every >programmer is to create his own operating system, but operating >systems don't sell well in the marketplace... so let's give it >away for free! Have you heard about MINIX ??. This is a cheap <$100 UNIX V7 look alike for the IBM PC. It comes with the source for the kernel and about 60 utilities many of which are genuine public domain. There is a book called "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" available from Prentice Hall, written by Andy Tanenbaum who also wrote the kernel and many of the utilities. Although it is system call compatible with V7 UNIX it is totally different inside, being small <50K and very modular The kernel is actually many processes which communicate by message passing. It will never be a really high performance system but it is easy to understand and modify, and also portable. This is of course really the issue here. Myself and some friends have just finished porting this system to the ns32016. It works very nicely and I'm sure could be made even better. At the moment it inherits a rather simplistic memory management scheme from the PC, but this could easily (?) be extended to support VM given the hardware support the 32000 CPU&MMU provide. Its not too bad as is, at least processes are protected from each other so system crashes are very rare. It seems to fit most of your criteria, it is multi tasking and the source is available very cheaply. It could easily provide the kind of common software base that you mention. Given the commonality of the 32000 family across different hardware implementations I would think it would be very easy to port it to other 32000 based machines. The one thing we lack at present is a PD or at least very cheap C compiler We are investigating the GNU compiler, and have had several offers of 32000 back ends for it. Stay tuned for more further developments. > >Do you have any ideas? Let's work together on this. > Fine ! John Vaudin arthur@uk.ac.warwick.ubu
elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) (06/16/87)
in article <546@ubu.warwick.UUCP>, arthur@warwick.UUCP (John Vaudin) says: Re: Minix for 320xx: > It seems to fit most of your criteria, it is multi tasking and the source > is available very cheaply. It could easily provide the kind of common > software base that you mention. Given the commonality of the 32000 family > across different hardware implementations I would think it would be > very easy to port it to other 32000 based machines. > > The one thing we lack at present is a PD or at least very cheap C compiler > We are investigating the GNU compiler, and have had several offers of > 32000 back ends for it. Stay tuned for more further developments. A group of us here in Lafayette were thinking about writing an OS for the 320xx. The plan was to toss the Minix kernal, but use the Minix utilities. The EE contingent of the group had already designed a pretty neat multi-processor bus and the basic CPU and I/O stuff. It all came grinding to a halt when we realized that we'd have to find a "C" compiler. A "C" compiler isn't exactly trivial (at least, if you want it to generate decent code), and while several members of the group have the necessary skill, we all work or go to school, so time was too short..... I think that's probably the main thing you'll find happening, the small stuff, can be done pretty quickly, but talk about big stuff like a "C" compiler, and none of us on the net have time to do it (just ask the Free Software Foundation). So if you find a decent PD 320xx compiler, let us know! I looked at the GNU "C"f compiler, and concluded that a) it won't run on a micro, which is what we were doing all the development stuff on, and b) it's likely to need quite a bit of work to work with a V7 clone... -- Eric Green elg%usl.CSNET CS student, University of SW Louisiana {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg Apprentice Haquer, Bayou Telecommunications Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 BBS phone #: 318-984-3854 300/1200 baud Lafayette, LA 70509 I disclaim my existence, and yours, too.