Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!uwvax!vanvleck!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!CORY.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga UNIX
Message-ID: <8806212030.AA00481@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 21 Jun 88 20:30:25 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 21

:time consuming.  One of the principal foundations of UNIX is cheap processes,
:and this is not possible with a plain 68000.  One of the work arounds for this
:problem is the "forkexec" command.  I believe the Amiga has this.   But this
:is not a true fork command and thus not compatable with UNIX.

	Er, since when is the principal foundation of UNIX a cheap process?
Whatever they are, they aint cheap!

:	Intel got lucky with their convoluded segment registers in the 80x86
:family.  Since there is a Data base register, they can make a copy of the
:data segment and therefore have a true fork.  For a 68k system, one must
:have an MMU or a 68020 (68030) which has a built in MMU.
:
:			-Erik Johannes

	Usually, when you get to that point, you want an MMU anyway.

	But, in essence, I would agree that a limited UNIX could be run
on the 80x86 without an MMU.

					-Matt