Xref: utzoo comp.os.minix:6320 comp.sys.amiga:36808 comp.sys.amiga.tech:6161 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!shlump.dec.com!frambo.dec.com From: balzer@frambo.dec.com (Christian Balzer) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: Minix for the Amiga ??? Message-ID: <3543@shlump.dec.com> Date: 14 Jul 89 13:48:40 GMT Sender: news@shlump.dec.com Followup-To: comp.os.minix Organization: DEC SWAS Frankfurt/W.Germany Lines: 70 In article <1989Jul13.124053.27543@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, jk0@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Jason Coughlin) writes... >What are the specs on the Amiga? This, Jason, is exactly were you should have stopped. Knowing nothing about the Amiga isn't a major crime, nor should it be. But going on happily with unsubstantiated (sp?) drivel and rumors is at least a minor one. >Like, does it have a real MMU, which 68k chip does it use? ^^^^ I wasn't aware of anything like a "false" MMU, would you care to enlightem me? :-) Base Amigas (A1000, A500, A2000) come with a plain 68000 CPU and no MMU or FPU. There are boards available for a specially designed CPU slot on the A2000 by Commodore and third party developers, which feature anything from a 68020/68881 combo to a 68030/68882 board with 4 MB of onboard 32 bit wide RAM like the CBM A2630. An Amiga 2000 with this board beats a Mac-IIx using the Dhrystone test by about 40% (very conservative figure). >Is Amiga Minix going to have the same process switch kludge that Atari >Minix has to have? I don't know nothing on Minix or the ST implementation, so I keep my mouth shut. It might be however of interest to you and the audience in comp.os.minix, that the Amiga comes with a very powerfull native multitasking OS, whose kernal functions might be helpful in the implementation of Minix. Since the basic Amigas (see above) don't have a MMU, I can foresee certain limitations on the elegance of such an implementation, though. >How much mem can the thing handle? A basic Amiga (see above) allows for up to 9.5 MB of 16 bit memory, systems with the "right" CPU-cards can address whatever the CPU will handle, ie. 4 GB - 16 MB of 32 bit memory plus 9.5 MB of 16 bit memory. >Does Commodore produce a REAL hard-disk yet or do Amiga users still ^^^^---- Not again! :-) >suffer from Commodore peripheral kludges? This really drove me mad. First you claim to know nothing about the Amiga (FYI, it wasn't even developed by CBM), but feel free to make "educated" guesses judging on old CBM hardware. I _assume_ that you had things like the C64 in mind when you wrote that statement above. And yes, Commodore and a large number of third party developers produce _REAL_ HD controllers, but I don't think that anyone of them manufactures hard disks.:-) The best of those controllers with onboard DMA deliver with drives like the CDC Wren, Maxtor XT-3380S or similar SCSI units sustained transfer rates of 1.2 MB/s and higher. Fast enough? For comparison, most of the UNIX systems I used delivered data in the 500-600 KB/s range. >Please email responces. If there is enough interest then I'll post a >summary to these newsgroupS. No need to start an entire discussion :-). I was thinking about being sensible and sending Email, etc. for some time, but if there's one such uneducated being out there, chances are there are more where that came from. But I agree, further discussion should happen in EMail, alt.flame or comp.sys.amiga.tech, depending on it's contents. There's really nothing I want to see less than another stoopid(tm) flamewar. Regards, - -- _ _ / / | \ \ aka Christian Balzer - The Software Brewery - < < |-< > UUCP : decwrl!frambo.dec.com!CB | E-Net: FRAMBO::BALZER \ \_ |_/ / I-Net: CB@frambo.dec.com -OR- CB@frambo.enet.dec.com ------------ PMail: Im Wingertsberg 45, D-6108 Weiterstadt, F.R.G.