jdonsbac@santa.prime.com (Jeff Donsbach) (11/11/88)
I was just wondering- When using Minix on the ST, would it still be
possible to access the ROM functions in the ST for GEM, etc. ? If so,
I wouldn't think it would be too hard to write some sort of window
system like SunView(tm) so that you could have multiple shells in
multiple windows.
I don't even have an ST yet (I still have my 7 year old 800). But when
I do get one, I was thinking that this would be a fun first project
to work on (if it's possible).
-Jeff
==========================
Jeff Donsbach, Computervision Division, PRIME Computer, Inc. , Bedford, MA
UUCP: {decvax|linus|sun}!cvbnet!jdonsbac | Internet: jdonsbac@cvbnet.prime.com
"They are not 'the hell' your whales." - Spock, STIV: TVHjack@csmunix.larc.nasa.gov (Jack Dunn) (11/15/88)
This would be nice, but the task is a big one. First you would need a good referenc as to what the rom code does. I don't know of any. Then you would need to adjust the ST Minix kernal to start at around 0x800 because the ST roms use page 0 for its data storage. Then you would need to figure how to just bring the GEM interface without using all the other things that are in the roms. I have thought about the first step, but when I look at the size of the task (192K of rom) it has me belive that my work would be better off else where. Also keep in mind that the new roms are in assembly rathe that the 60% c 40% assembly. Jack
daryl@ihlpe.ATT.COM (Monge) (11/16/88)
In article <357@cvbnet2.UUCP> jdonsbac@santa.prime.com writes: >I was just wondering- When using Minix on the ST, would it still be >possible to access the ROM functions in the ST for GEM, etc. ? If so, >I wouldn't think it would be too hard to write some sort of window >system like SunView(tm) so that you could have multiple shells in >multiple windows. > >I don't even have an ST yet (I still have my 7 year old 800). But when >I do get one, I was thinking that this would be a fun first project >to work on (if it's possible). Boy, do I agree. I had basically put off getting an ST (I have a 130XE) but with Minix/ST announced, I have renewed interest. But it would be far more useful with a SunView/X/News/Whatever type of environment. (I assume Minix/ST does not have one yet. Yes/No?) Sounds like a fun project to me also. Daryl Monge UUCP: ...!att!ihcae!daryl AT&T CIS: 72717,65 Bell Labs, Naperville, Ill AT&T 312-979-3603
bae@unisoft.UUCP (Hwa Jin Bae) (11/17/88)
>Boy, do I agree. I had basically put off getting an ST (I have a 130XE) >but with Minix/ST announced, I have renewed interest. But it would >be far more useful with a SunView/X/News/Whatever type of environment. >(I assume Minix/ST does not have one yet. Yes/No?) >Sounds like a fun project to me also. I agree. Porting X to MINIX could be an interesting project. Since MINIX now has amoeba RPC, we could write an IPC interface to X server IPC routines (and client IPC library calls) to handle communication between client and server. I haven't looked at amoeba stuff yet but according to AST it's one of the fastest RPC's around, so it should be interesting to find out the performance of the server- client communication (compared to Sun using TCP/IP). Some extra work is needed in finding an ethernet board for ATARI-ST (is there such a thing?) and writing a device driver for it. Also, the version 11 X server has a very portable porting layer for either mono or color frame buffer displays, so ATARI-ST running MINIX may be a perfect X server station. I don't have an ATARI-ST, but the same can be done on a PC (perhaps easily using already provide Western Digital driver) using EGA/CGA/HGA display. One concern: the size of X server is fairly big, which doesn't go along well with MINIX philosophy (or the compiler and kernel itself). I heard that someone has ported GNU CC to MINIX-ST. How is it working? Can you compile and run a significantly large program (say, about 600K size excutables?) on MINIX-ST (with added memory)? /hjb -- Hwa Jin Bae bae@tis.llnl.gov (Internet) UniSoft bae@unisoft.UniSoft (smail uucp) Emeryville, CA ...!uunet!unisoft!bae (plain uucp) Don't follow leaders; watch the parking meters.
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (11/17/88)
In article <3795@ihlpe.ATT.COM> daryl@ihlpe.UUCP (Daryl Monge) writes: >In article <357@cvbnet2.UUCP> jdonsbac@santa.prime.com writes: >it [MINIX-ST] would >be far more useful with a SunView/X/News/Whatever type of environment. >(I assume Minix/ST does not have one yet. Yes/No?) A window system is currently a user option. If the user wants one, he writes one. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl) --- --- --- --- ---
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (11/17/88)
In article <1416@unisoft.UUCP> bae@unisoft.UUCP (Hwa Jin Bae) writes: > I haven't looked at amoeba >stuff yet but according to AST it's one of the fastest RPC's around, We published a paper giving the performance of Amoeba vs SUN's RPC. The reference is: Tanenbaum, A.S., Renesse, R. van, and Staveren, H. van: "Performance of the World's Fastest Distributed Operating System," ACM Operatng System Review, vol 4, pp. 25-34, Oct. 1988. In short, for small RPCs, Amoeba is 9 times faster than the SUN and for large ones, it has triple the bandwidth. Furthermore, the MINIX implementation of Amoeba is in some ways better than the SUN implementation of Amoeba. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)