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From: wb6rqn@yojna1.UUCP (Brian Lloyd)
Newsgroups: net.micro.6809,net.ham-radio.packet
Subject: Re: Would os-9 and packet be a winning combination?
Message-ID: <114@yojna1.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Nov-85 21:38:33 EST
Article-I.D.: yojna1.114
Posted: Sun Nov  3 21:38:33 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 03:58:04 EST
References: <835@lsuc.UUCP>  <223@ius2.cs.cmu.edu>
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Organization: Yojna1 Amateur Radio Packet Unix System; Germantown, Md.
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> I've read on the net that some people in Hamburg are working on a 'eurocard'
> TNC, and that another company in the US makes a 'eurocard' 6809 system that
> can run OS-9.  I've also heard that the TAPR TNC-1 is 6809 based, and
> that a amateur radio operator in the Pittsburgh area is doing packet on
> his Color Computer (another 6809 based machine) by hooking up FSK chips
> to I/O channels.

You have the cart before the horse.  The development environment and available
tools should help you decided which processor to use.  OS-9 runs on the 6809
and the 68000 (68010, 68020).  The tools seem to be reasonable and the OS is
real-time and multitasking, certainly points in its favor.

> Why would the 6809 be better than, say a z-80?  Would the fact that good
> implementations of multasking OSes (like OS-9) are available for it?  
> (This would seem to make software which supports multiple connections
> easier to write.)  Or is the Z-80 the preferred processor for packet,
> simply because of cost?

The 6809 is not intrinsicly better than the Z-80, nor is the Z-80 better
than the 6809.  The choice to switch to the Z-80 was driven by the fact that 
many people already have systems that allow development of software for the
Z-80.

All future development will probably occur in 'C' allowing transportability
of software.  Since this is happening, all you will need is a 'C' compiler
on the target machine and you will then have the ability to run the desired
software.

Since we need to operate in a multitasking environment for the implementation
of networks and servers, it would be nice if we could settle on an operating
system.  It should be multitask, it should be cheap, it should be generally
available, and it should run on a variety of hardware.  OS-9 is certainly a
candidate since it has been ported to the 68000 family.

73 de Brian, WB6RQN