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From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Minix for the Amiga ???
Message-ID: <2882@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 15 Jul 89 09:58:43 GMT
References: <1610@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <1989Jul13.124053.27543@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Reply-To: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 24

In article <1989Jul13.124053.27543@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> jk0@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Jason Coughlin) writes:
>What are the specs on the Amiga?  Like, does it have a real MMU, 
Nope.

>which 68k chip does it use?  Is Amiga Minix going to have the same process
>switch kludge that Atari Minix has to have?  
Yes.  Without an MMU there isn't much choice.  It really isn't so bad though.

>How much mem can the thing handle?  
As much as you have.

>Does Commodore produce a REAL hard-disk yet or do Amiga
>users still suffer from Commodore peripheral kludges?
We don't have hard disk support.  Nobody here has a hard disk.

You forgot to ask the real question:  "How do you write an operating system
for a computer that doesn't have a disk controller, but watches the bits
come off the drive one at a time, in software?"
Answer: You watch the bits come off the drive one at a time, in software.
Three guesses whether the CRC is done in hardware or software.  This doesn't
make it go real fast.  On the other hand, it is no worse than the normal
Amiga OS, and the Amiga has other features that compensate to some degree.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)