Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!ian From: ian@utcsstat.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: S100 UNIX Message-ID: <648@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Wed, 8-Jun-83 01:18:11 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.648 Posted: Wed Jun 8 01:18:11 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 08:28:00 EDT Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 42 A recent article (sri-arpa.1748) requested that vendors (DUAL, Godbout, ERG,...) make an `add UNIX to your S100' kit. Because UNIX is a real operating system, with many things happening simultaneously, it's a little harder to get right than CP/M. UNIX drivers tend to do rather more than CP/M BIOS. They're invariably written in C rather than in assembler. So, the problem is less simple with UNIX than with CP/M. You pretty well have to have a working system to bootstrap from, and most CP/M users don't already have UNIX. It could be done, but it's not seen as being economically worthwhile by the vendors. DUAL has the lead; they will sell you either a complete drop-in kit (CPU, memory, both disk controllers, IO card, software, manuals), or just the pieces you need, to get UNIX up & running. Because of support, however, they insist that you have a working system (of their manufacture) before they'll sell you either the software kit or the drop-in kit. This policy might sound like a rip-off, but it's not. They don't want to sell you something that you'll never get working, and they can't give out infinite free advice to those who byte off more than they can chew. Whitesmiths has an IDRIS for the 68000, apparently available for the ERG CPU. (IDRIS is a very-UNIX-like system). You might be able do get something similar, either from Whitesmiths or ERG. Best advice: contact DUAL, make friends with a local system owner, buy the DUAL drop-in kit, and go with it. Next-best advice: Get a job at a University computer centre, and spend a year hacking UNIX while you work for them. Learn all you can about writing device drivers. Then find somebody with a DUAL system, get a DUAL CPU and software. Their UNIX contract (with UniSoft) makes them charge extra for the `reconfiguration kit' (roughly equal to the BIOS sources only in that it allows you to reconfigure). Get the friend to compile a new system for your configuration. Try it out. Repeat until you get the drivers all correct. Be warned that this is not a trivial undertaking. I wish it were easier. It isn't. Good luck with whatever approach you take. Ian Darwin, Toronto, Canada.