davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) (03/10/90)
In article <5763@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM> Wayne C Knapp writes:
Memory protection is worth a lot when it comes to reliablity. If I were
starting out today I would never use a multi-tasking computer that didn't
have hardware memory protection.
I don't fault you for this position. The thing is, though, that the Amiga
developers didn't start out today. At the time, the tradeoffs that led to the
Amiga were probably very reasonable.
The main complaint against the Amiga in this thread seems to be lack of memory
protection. The question now, therefore, becomes, given the current state of
the system, what is the logical STEP-BY-STEP approach to getting memory
protection into the system without breaking 95% of everything that has gone on
before?
As a silly first shot, what about software memory protection in the form of a
task running as a resource manager (a la AREXX)? Those processes following
the "standard" for software memory protection will not crash the machine due
to a protection violation. Other processes that aren't written according to
this standard will still work, but may cause problems. "Peer pressure" can
then be used to get them to conform. Ultimately, this software memory
protection might be movable to hardware in the form of an add-on board to
achieve better performance and, yet, early Amigas could still reap the
benefits.
--
===================================================================
David Masterson Consilium, Inc.
uunet!cimshop!davidm Mt. View, CA 94043
===================================================================
"If someone thinks they know what I said, then I didn't say it!"