Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!purdue!bu-cs!polygen!jerry From: jerry@polygen.uucp (Jerry Shekhel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Multitasking on the ST (Minix) Message-ID: <527@polygen.UUCP> Date: 14 Aug 89 15:10:30 GMT References: <89081310545051@masnet.uucp> <1043@rex.cs.tulane.edu> Reply-To: jerry@polygen.UUCP (Jerry Shekhel) Organization: Polygen Corporation, Waltham, MA Lines: 39 In article (Dzung Hoang) writes: >In article (DAVID MEGGINSON) writes: >> >>From what I've heard, Minix is very restrictive with memory. Each >>program is allowed a maximum of 64k, and there is not VM paging. A cute >>toy, but useless for anything but learning. >> > Minix for the IBM-PC's are restricted to 64K due to the PC's >architecture. The 68000 in the ST does not have any such restriction so it >can run programs larger than 64K. It is not "useless for anything but >learning." Post a message in comp.os.minix and you'll see what I mean. > > I used to have an ST but now own an AT compatible. I wish I still have >the ST (and a big hard drive) to run minix. > I've also had both the ST and the PC versions of Minix. The PC version's limitation is not 64K. A program may have 64K of code AND 64K of stack/data, for a total program size of 128K. This limitation is used for two reasons: it is reasonable for a teaching OS and most Minix utilities (MOST -- no 16-bit compress!), and it makes forking EXTREMELY fast and simple. Sure, you can run monstrous GNU stuff on ST Minix -- that is its strength -- unlimited program size. But try to run anything that forks a lot, like extracting programs from a shell archive, and you'll see the ST slow down to an unbelievable crawl, while my 8MHz AT zips along on the same job. And worse, try to run a program which forks and does not immediately exec(), and you'll be begging for an MMU! But just like the above poster, I sure wish I had a big hard drive for my ST Minix! --- +--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+ | | Polygen Corporation | UUCP: | | Jerry J. Shekhel | Waltham, MA 02254 | {princeton, mit-eddie, | | | (617) 890-2888 | buita, sunne}!polygen!jerry | +--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+