) (03/14/90)
On the idea of multi-tasking stuff for unix and such.. I just realised
that I have a Apple II+ and an Apple IIe.. I was thinking that perhaps one of
these could be used as a supervisor, and the other as a worker (bare with me
here for a sec)..
instead of the processor interupting itself, exiting the current "user" level
process, and entering the supervisor mode, then making a context switch etc etc
(the way a 68000 based system does it), why not cannibalise the two Apple II's
so that one machine "controls" the other processor (lets it run for X amount of
time, then halts it, changes all of it's 'process' information, and restarts
the processor).
I know that the 68000 has a halt pin..but I don't know how the 6502 handles this..
and I also wonder if it might just be better to snag a 8502. It would take some
doing, but I think I could preserve some of the Apple II disk handling and such so
that the new machine would still be able to run Apple II applications without having
too much problem.
Someone is bound to say "why not just buy a sun 3/60, they're going for $1500 dollars
right now"..but that's not the point..yes, I know this would probaby take more effort
than it's worth...
but the point of this discussion isn't the easiest way to handle "getting a unix like
box", it's "how can I do it with a Apple II+ and an Apple IIe".
oh..the stuff that I really want out of a "unix-like environment" is about 3 things:
1: I/O redirection
2: multi-tasking and piping
3: the dicotomy of OS and programming environment (ie. the AppleDos prompt is the
prompt for both the OS and the Applesoft-BASIC programming environment)
I guess scripts might be nice too.. and unix commands would be good (but I can do
that by using a beagle brothers utility to rename the dos commands)..
it's just annoying to me that I can't write a program that reads the output of another
program as it's input...or that text files aren't handled the same as a BASIC program
file..
John
--
ccastjr@prism.gatech.edu
John Rudd (ex- kzin@ucscb)
The opinions expressed here-in are mine, and not those of my boss
(he has no opinions). Send all comments, flames, and complaints to /dev/null.robert-s@aucsv.aukuni.ac.nz (Robert Sheehan ) (03/16/90)
Rather than provide true multi-tasking which could be very slow I would like to see someone write a Switcher type program for the IIe/IIc with VBL interrupts. I know that Beagle Bros had a program which allowed two 64K programs to be held in memory simultaneously and switched between. With my aux memory card and 1 Meg I would like to hold several 128K programs in memory and switch between them retaining all position info, rather than keeping them in a Ramdisk and reloading them when I wanted to run. I realise there are problems: It would require moving large amounts of memory around, but the different aux mem banks can be switched between quite easily, the text and graphics pages would have to be specially taken care of.
greyelf@wpi.wpi.edu (Michael J Pender) (03/18/90)
In article <27@aucsv.aukuni.ac.nz> robert-s@aucsv.aukuni.ac.nz (Robert Sheehan ) writes: > >Rather than provide true multi-tasking which could be very slow I would like >to see someone write a Switcher type program for the IIe/IIc with VBL >interrupts. ...stuff nuked... >I realise there are problems: It would require moving large amounts of memory >around, but the different aux mem banks can be switched between quite easily, >the text and graphics pages would have to be specially taken care of. If the Apple STANDARD memory card could be bank switched like this I'd make Daemon do it overnight... But that is not a NORMAL card. It might be the AE standard, but unless I am REALLY mistaken (I'd love to be wrong on this one) Apple slot five ram cards allow fast sequential access by autoincrementing, or full random access to the different banks. --- Michael J Pender Jr Box 1942 c/o W.P.I. W.O.S. is not dead. greyelf@wpi.bitnet 100 Institute Rd. ...its time to get started, greyelf@wpi.wpi.edu Worcester, Ma 01609 there is much to be done. If my next computer isn't a IIgs, it won't be an apple... Me.
huang@husc4.HARVARD.EDU (Howard Huang) (03/18/90)
>However, I believe that SoftSwitch may be only in Apple IIgs form...I'll check >on it. Yup, SoftSwitch only exists on the IIgs. It allows you to run I think up to 9 128K applications and switch between them. > | Steve Hood | Internet: shood@pro-tcc.cts.com | WD65c816 Rules! | | ^^^^^^^^ What about when the ASIC 20-MHz 65816 appears? 8^) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Howard C. Huang Internet: huang@husc4.harvard.edu Sophomore Computer Science Major Bitnet: huang@husc4.BITNET Mather House 426, Harvard College UUCP: huang@husc4.UUCP (I think) Cambridge, MA 02138 Apple II: ftp husc6.harvard.edu
nicholaA@batman.moravian.EDU (Andy Nicholas) (03/19/90)
In article <2267@husc6.harvard.edu>, huang@husc4.HARVARD.EDU (Howard Huang) writes: > What about when the ASIC 20-MHz 65816 appears? 8^) I believe that ASIC Enterprises' chip is known as the AE65C816 or some close variant of that... andy -- Yeah!