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From: dibble@rochester.UUCP (Peter C. Dibble)
Newsgroups: net.micro.6809,net.micro.68k
Subject: Re: OS-9 Topics for Discussion
Message-ID: <12067@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 11:30:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.12067
Posted: Fri Oct  4 11:30:53 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 04:25:36 EDT
References: <11834@rochester.UUCP> <821@lsuc.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
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Xref: watmath net.micro.6809:537 net.micro.68k:1198

> In article <11834@rochester.UUCP> dibble@rochester.UUCP (Peter C. Dibble) writes:
> >Many of the fields in the OS-9/68K module header are not yet used.
> >I am particularly interested in the usage field.  Do you think we
> >are heading for tops-20-like prompting or maybe something move like
> >XDE (Xerox Development Environment), or will it just be the syntax
> >string that 68K programs now print when they don't know what else to do?
> 
>      How about system definition information, such as which processor
> is targetted?  It would be nice if you could have a multi-processor
> system and freely mix modules for 6809, 68000, Z8000 or 32032 families.
> On a VME Bus system this is quite possible.  On a practical level
> it means being able to upgrade in stages without problems.
> 
> ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura

The lang/type byte includes the object-code value.  I think Microware
made a serious error by using the same value (1) for both 6809 and
68k object code.  It's true that the module header formats for 
OS-9 and OS-9/68K differ even in the sync bytes, but it would be nice 
to be able to select a processor based on the module language.  I 
understand that some hardware types are already putting together 
hybrid 6809/68k systems.

Peter Dibble

Maybe it's not too late for Microware to define the following additional
languages:
  7:  6809 object code
  8:  68020-specific object code.

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