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From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Minix for the Amiga ???
Message-ID: <7336@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 17 Jul 89 19:39:16 GMT
References: <1610@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <1989Jul13.124053.27543@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <2882@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 43

In article <2882@ast.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>In article <1989Jul13.124053.27543@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> jk0@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Jason Coughlin) writes:
>>How much mem can the thing handle?  
>As much as you have.

	Good, then it supports the expansion auto-config?  (Assigning addresses
to baords according to their requirements).

>We don't have hard disk support.  Nobody here has a hard disk.

	With lots of A590's being shipped to Europe, hopefully that should
change.  Maybe you should get in touch with one of the European Commdore
Sales companies.  They might give you a loaner, or some such (Minix being
a Good Thing :-).  Disclaimer: I don't know much about how the European
parts of commodore work.

>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.

	True, but only if you want to use IBM/ST format.  Amiga format is
supported directly by the hardware, and unburdens the processor from most of 
the encoding/decoding work.  It also stores about 20% more per disk.

	Then again, the IBM/ST format means Amiga/Minix can exchange disks
with ST/Minix and IBM/Minix.

	From what Dr. Tanenbaum's students told me, their disk routines
(from a cat /bin/* >/dev/null) are almost as fast as the ST (floppies spin
SO slowly).

>Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)

	I hope you find a publisher.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"