[N8VEM: 18919] FUZIX - very interesting Z80 OS development

[oscarv]

Hi,

I saw a post over at the vintage computer forum - well worth reading if you
have Unix ambitions on the Z80:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlanCoxLinux/posts/a2jAP7Pz1gj

Regards,

Oscar.

[G. Beat]

I saw that. Does mention N8VEM project (Z80) as potential target.

[J. Alexander Jacocks]

Yeah, looks to be a very exciting project, especially with Alan Cox at the
helm.

- Alex

Post by G. Beat
I saw that. Does mention N8VEM project (Z80) as potential target.
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[William R Sowerbutts]

I believe this project uses some (most?) of my code from UZI-socz80.

I recently started porting UZI-socz80 to the N8VEM Mark IV. However now that
Fuzix is available I will likely abandon that port and instead concentrate on
making a Mark IV platform for Fuzix.

I think the best we can do with the Mark IV memory mapping is to split the
address space up into one 60KB bank to hold userspace/kernel and a 4KB common
bank. The Common0 region is unusable as it can only point into ROM or memory
on the ECB bus. Haven't really had a chance to read the source for Fuzix and
figure out how the banking scheme works.

Will

Post by oscarv
Hi,
I saw a post over at the vintage computer forum - well worth reading if you
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlanCoxLinux/posts/a2jAP7Pz1gj
Regards,
Oscar.
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_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts ***@sowerbutts.com
"Carpe post meridiem" http://sowerbutts.com
main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=",c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

[oscarv]

Will,

Post by William R Sowerbutts
I believe this project uses some (most?) of my code from UZI-socz80.

Clearly - I saw quite a few references on his site and in the code zip file.

Post by William R Sowerbutts
Haven't really had a chance to read the source for Fuzix and
figure out how the banking scheme works.

It seems quite (surprisingly) flexible. Would suit the venerable N8VEM SBC
mk 2 beautifully too :)

Regards,

Oscar.

[Alan Cox]

No ifs or buts about it - thats why it says Copyright 2013 Will
Sowerbutts during the boot 8)

It's had somewhat of a refurb however

Post by oscarv
Will,

Post by William R Sowerbutts
I believe this project uses some (most?) of my code from UZI-socz80.

Clearly - I saw quite a few references on his site and in the code zip file.

Post by William R Sowerbutts
Haven't really had a chance to read the source for Fuzix and
figure out how the banking scheme works.

It seems quite (surprisingly) flexible. Would suit the venerable N8VEM SBC
mk 2 beautifully too :)
Regards,
Oscar.
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[oscarv]

I'm going to try out the Amstrad NC100 version this weekend.
Thank you for using that humble but very nice machine as a testing ground!
A N8VEM version would add even more joy to the world of course :)

Regards,

Oscar.

[Joel Heikkila]

Hi all,

Very exciting. CP/M has its retrocomputing charm, but a UNIX-like OS with
C language development will no doubt attract a new crowd of builders to the
N8VEM. What do you all think about how FUZIX would boot on the SBC v2?
Will it be a CP/M application, or a more traditional bootloader loaded by
ROM, bypassing CP/M?

A while back I looked into the format used by RomWBW (the most popular ROM
on SBC v2s, as I understand it). It can load arbitrary binaries into the
upper common memory, and the ROM offers drivers for the major disk
peripherals.

See: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/n8vem/7_i_wpP7hi8 (I never
did end up writing that code, unfortunately).

The bootloader could either use the FUZIX device drivers or HBIOS. The
loader's size is limited to in the 32/32 KB jumper setting to approximately
28 KB (0x9000 - 0xFF00), and presumably to about 12 KB in the 48/16 KB
setting. (Does RomWBW support the 48/16 KB mapping? If not, which ROMs
do?)

Just some thoughts,

Joel

Post by oscarv
I'm going to try out the Amstrad NC100 version this weekend.
Thank you for using that humble but very nice machine as a testing ground!
A N8VEM version would add even more joy to the world of course :)
Regards,
Oscar.
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[G. Beat]

Alan -

Very interested in your progress on this effort.

In 1983, I worked with one of the first university labs (engineering/business) using
the Altos 586 (8086, 10 MHz w/hard drive) and "then new" 3Com Thin-Net (10-Base-2) network
connecting IBM PC and XT computers in the lab.
That shared disk server ran Microsoft XENIX (later SCO) released only 10 months earlier.