[comp.os.xinu] Status of XINU

hgw@rht32.pcs.com (h.-g. willers) (02/14/91)

Hi out there!

What is the current status of XINU? I am looking for a real
small realtime executive, that can be ported to a RISC
processor (MIPS R3000). What are the processors, XINU has
yet been ported to?

    H.-G.

--
H.-G. Willers       PCS-Mail: hgw       internal phone ( -271 )
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sdo@CS.PURDUE.EDU (Shawn Ostermann) (02/18/91)

hg> What is the current status of XINU? I am looking for a real small
hg> realtime executive, that can be ported to a RISC processor (MIPS
hg> R3000). What are the processors, XINU has yet been ported to?

Current Xinu research is in three areas:

1) Virtual Memory
   The Xinu virtual memory system is up and running on several
   different platforms.  VM Xinu separates the notions of processes
   and address spaces.  Different processes can run in the same
   address space (threads).  Processes can exist inside the kernel
   (kernel threads) or outside (user processes).

2) TCP/IP
   We're in the last stages of testing the new Xinu TCP/IP code.  That
   code was developed in conjunction with Dr. Comer's newest book on
   TCP/IP internals, and should be out soon (I don't know the date)

3) Unix emulation
   We've been developing a limited Unix emulation library which allows
   us to write Unix-like user processes that run under Xinu.  To date,
   we have ported the GNU version of awk (gawk), mg (a small
   emacs-type system) several other Unix utilities, and the MIT X
   server. 

The only version of Xinu that currently supports all three is the port
that we've been doing to the DECstation 3100.  That work has been
funded, in part, by DEC, NSF, and AT&T.  We have a few DECstations
running the X11 server that we've been using to test the TCP code as
well as the virtual memory.  The MIPs R2000 chip in the DECstation is
an excellent platform for Xinu and VM Xinu because of its minimalist
approach to machine architecture.

I'm not presently sure of the exact status of the DECstation software,
in terms of our ability to distribute it in the manner to which we've
become accustomed.  Some of the information for the port necessarily
came from DEC, and we haven't had the chance to discuss its public
distribution with them.  If you're interested in getting a copy of
this software, let me know.  That will allow me to give DEC some sort
of idea of the interest in the software. Please don't infer from this
that DEC is _unwilling_ to allow us to make this software available, I
just need to iron out the details with them.

Shawn
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