anderson@midway.ece.scarolina.EDU (Stuart Anderson) (04/18/88)
[] In article <49671@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: >In article <348@midway.ece.scarolina.EDU> (Stuart Anderson) writes: >->In article <455@sas.UUCP> walker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker) writes: >->>I assume you want something below the level of trackdisk.device? If not, > >[ Actually I wrote that ...] Got my replies crossed. Sorry. >->interupt service routines). Can anyone say XINU?? > >I can say XINU, but expelling the ROM (where trackdisk.device lives) would >mean that you couldn't run Amiga programs even if you wanted to. And I >assume you will be burning the XINU kernel into ROM to replace it ? XINU is generally an educational tool. Because of this, I am not bothered by not being able to run Amiga programs while I am working with XINU. I don't intend on burning XINU into ROMs. I want to be able to load it like any other program, except that the initialization function takes over the machine. >My guess is that if you rewrite the software, including replacing all >of Kickstart you have a 10 manyear project on your hands (if you do it I don't want to replace all of Kickstart. XINU seems well partioned, so that it can be implented in stages allowing me to do as much or as little as I care to do. >in under two years I can guaruntee you a job a Sun :-)). Thanks for the offer! :-) >I think you can say "maybe not worth it" ? I can. I am still just investigating the possiblilty of such a project. If many of the pieces can be found, then the amount of work is reduced. If anybody else is interested, then the project can be divided up and the work for any one person reduced even further. >Still, the answer is get the hardware manual >from CATS and the developers conference notes. Everything you need is >in there. I have the RKM & Hardware Manual set. It is not always clear (or even correct). I was looking for sample code from someone that has already figured it out. I don't want to do this all by myself. Can somebody summarize whats in the developers conference notes (maybe an index or table of contents?). Can somebody send me info on ordering the developers conference notes? >->But will it run on an NCR Tower? Let me clarify my idea some. >-> >Several points. Amiga.lib just calls routines in the ROM, if you blow it >away (the ROM) none of the libraries for the Amiga will be of any use. That MISUNDERSTANDING! (Possibly my fault). The cross developement system idea is mutually exclusive of the XINU idea. They were just part of the same posting. The 'ROM' will still be there ( unless XINU is running :-)). >Second point ARP IS NOT PD! >It is freely distributable but it is COPYRIGHTED. You could use it but you >can't sell it. I stand corrected. >As I have said before, the Amiga makes an excellent O/S >development platform, primarily because you don't have to blow away the >existing O/S to develop a new one. Replace it a piece at a time until it >is all working. Back to XINU: I am all for re-use. I would like to use as much as possible. I would like to implement XINU as close to it's original intentions instead of being layered on top of something else for performance reasons. >I don't want to discourage you, doing is the best way to learn, but my >feeling is that you haven't grasped how much you can do without driving >around with a bull dozer. It sounds like trying to design a new car by >machining new parts out of a block of steel. Perhaps I am just not conveying my ideas clearly. I am open for suggestions, after all, this is still just a feasibility study at this point. PS: If this seems like it should be in .tech, then let's migrate to there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stuart Anderson, University of South Carolina ECE Dept. anderson@ece.scarolina.edu { decwrl!decvax, duke, ecsvax, rti, uvaarpa }!mcnc!ece-csc ......\ { bbn, bloom-beacon, mcnc, purdue, rutgers, ukma }!gatech!hubcap ..\ { charsh, hplabs!hp-sdd }!ncr-sd ................................./ | | /............................................................../ | \..!ncrcae!usceast!midway!anderson