griffith@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Michael Griffith) (11/01/90)
Although I have had no experience with OS9 I have heard good things about it. Someone mentioned earlier that one of the new Signetics 68070 machines (the MM/1 I believe?) was something like $800 for the base system and around $1200 for extras. What did these extras include? What are the chances of being able to upgrade to a faster chip on some sort of a CPU card? Did all of the machines mentioned include MMU features? Also, is there a version of Unix available for OS9 or plans to create one? It seems that with an MMU this would be a distinct possibility, making it one of the cheapest personal Unix boxes available. I want to do some work with OS development, and this sounds like an ideal box for someone interested in hacking around at a low level inexpensively. Also, does the system (or systems) come bundled with a C compiler? An assembler? Will full hardware documentation be readily available? Do I need an established record to enter in as a developer? If anyone reading this has the answers to any of the above I would appreciate your comments. | Michael Griffith | If I had an opinion it certainly | | griffith@eecs.ee.pdx.edu | wouldn't be the same one as | | ...!tektronix!psueea!eecs!griffith | Portland State University anyways. |
skeppeljones@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Stephen Keppel-Jones) (11/02/90)
The MMU of the 68070 is unused by OS-9/68000 as it is only a Level-I version. While there was some talk on Delphi about a Level-II version, the idea was shot down. With over 1Meg of RAM, the flat memory space is fine. The MMU would provide better process protectionm however. As far as I know, there is no Unix for this machine. OS-9 is close enough and should allow most Unix software to run with little or no modifications. Of course, someone would have to write additional library routines, but that will probably happen anyway. The MM/1 and TC070 both come with OS-9/68000, C, and Basic09. The MM/1 also includes a graphics editor and a few other "goodies" that haven't been mentioned outright. The MM/1 comes with 1Meg of CPU/VSC RAM (compared to the TC070's 1.5Meg), but any expansion ram becomes dedicated CPU RAM and the original 1Meg becomes dedicated VSC RAM. This configuration increases performance bay around 50% we are told. I do not know how the TC070 handles additional RAM. If I missed one of your questions, please ask it again. -- Brian White (Using a friends account)
knudsen@cbnewsd.att.com (michael.j.knudsen) (11/03/90)
In article <488@pdxgate.UUCP>, griffith@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Michael Griffith) writes: > Someone mentioned earlier that one of the new Signetics 68070 machines (the > MM/1 I believe?) was something like $800 for the base system and around $1200 > for extras. What did these extras include? Prices are $780 and $1125, so you were close :-) The extras include parallel ports, 3 more serial ports (one easily set up for MIDI), DMA stereo sound play and record, realtime clock, and most important, a SCSI Bus controller for hard drives, etc. Also analog joystick port. I may have forgot a few things. And your RAM upgrade SIMMs have to go on this board too. Use standard Mac or PC SIMMs. > What are the chances of being able > to upgrade to a faster chip on some sort of a CPU card? Did all of the machines > mentioned include MMU features? Faster CPU cards and Bus are planned, if enough machines get sold. Currently no MMU used, since this is Level One OS9, but the 68070 does contain its own MMU that could be brought into action by a later release of an OS. No plans that I know of. > Also, is there a version of Unix available for > OS9 or plans to create one? It seems that with an MMU this would be a distinct > possibility, making it one of the cheapest personal Unix boxes available. I You mean Un*x for the MM/1 hardware, not as a task under OS9 :-) If the box sells, someone may decide to do a port, using the MMU. > I want to do some work with OS development, and this sounds like an ideal box for > someone interested in hacking around at a low level inexpensively. Also, does Absolutely right! We OS9ers love to hack with the software, and OS9 is deliberately designed to be twiddled with (all modular, with replaceable device drivers and such). Keep in mind that C applications written for OS9 can be ported to UN*X with almost ZERO extra work. The OS9 C Library is VERY UN*X compatible. > the system (or systems) come bundled with a C compiler? An assembler? Will full > hardware documentation be readily available? Do I need an established record to > enter in as a developer? If anyone reading this has the answers to any of the YES -- the $780 gets you the complete Microware 68000 C compiler, assembler, UEmacs editor, Make, etc. Hardware docs may take a while to get out -- but under OS9 we prefer to do dirty work with system calls whenever possible, and diddle directly with hardware registers only as a last resort (this ain't MS-DOG!). If you call up Paul Ward at IMS with some definite plans to do a particular program, and talk like you have some C experience, you can certainly be a developer. That just means you get your machine a little early, since *everyone* gets the development software above. > | Michael Griffith -- "Round and round the while() loop goes; Whether it stops," Turing says, "no one knows."
blarson@blars (11/03/90)
In article <1990Nov2.233426.9040@cbnewsd.att.com> knudsen@cbnewsd.att.com (michael.j.knudsen) writes: >Keep in mind that C applications written for OS9 can be ported to UN*X >with almost ZERO extra work. As long as they are trivial little things that don't try to do any of the many things os9 and unix do differntly, like setting terminal modes, creating sub-processes, file locking, file naming conventions, file naming restrictions, stating a file, renaming a file, hard links, soft links, unlinks, option processing, file protection, etc. I agree. I've got one such program I have written. Anything that is written in K&R 1 C that doesn't do I/O should have no problem being ported. > The OS9 C Library is VERY UN*X compatible. The os9 C library is a superset of a subset of what unix programs expect. Many of the functions can be written, but don't expect it to be an easy job. (I do plan on relaseing mine real soon now.) Others, such as fork, cannot be impelmented in os9. (Os9 has a combined fork/exec call called os9exec(os9forkc, ...). Getting the i/o paths for the child straitend out is a pain, but usually doable.) -- blarson@usc.edu C news and rn for os9/68k! -- Bob Larson (blars) blarson@usc.edu usc!blarson Hiding differences does not make them go away. Accepting differences makes them unimportant.