Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!vsi1!daver!lynx!vik
From: vik@lynx.uucp (Vikram Sohal)
Newsgroups: comp.realtime
Subject: Re: Realtime and UNIX (Re: An opportunity for Commodore)
Keywords: real-time UNIX, LynxOS, Amiga, porting
Message-ID: <6549@lynx.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 89 20:31:40 GMT
References: <22175@gryphon.COM> <4537@sugar.hackercorp.com> <788@jc3b21.UUCP> <4679@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> <4532@sugar.hackercorp.com> <104@amix.commodore.com>
Reply-To: vik@lynx.UUCP (Vikram Sohal)
Organization: Lynx Real-Time Systems Inc, Campbell CA
Lines: 32

In article <104@amix.commodore.com> ford@amix.commodore.com (Mike "Ford" Ditto) writes:
>In article <4532@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>>UNIX is not real time. Many of the things we now take for granted would just
>>not be possible under UNIX, or would be unbearably slow. It would kill the
>>Amiga as a platform for MIDI (and music in general), animation, games, and
>>other real-time applications. Window and screen updates would slow down by a
>>factor of 10 (a 25 MHz 80386 under X is less responsive than a 7 MHz 68000
>>under Intuition, and it's about a 5 MIPS machine instead of a .7 MIPS one).

Actually, we are working with someone right now on porting LynxOS 
to the Amiga. LynxOS is a real-time UNIX-compatible OS that was written 
by us completely from scratch for reasons of speed and independence from 
AT&T. It maintains complete compatibility with the most recent SVID, 4.3BSD, 
and POSIX 1003.1 and 1003.4 (when it is approved). The version for the Amiga 
will probably be to a "souped-up" Amiga 2000 with a '030 installed 
(LynxOS requires the MMU on-board the 68030). I hope somebody from Commodore 
is out there listening...A real real-time UNIX on the Amiga might just be 
what Commodore needs to get into a lot of interesting markets that were 
previously unattainable because of AmigaDOS being incompatible with standard
UNIX versions. 

As far as real-time response goes, we have clocked LynxOS with 450 microsecond
worst case task response times on a 20 MHZ 2-wait state 80386 AT (300 and 250
microsecond times are attainable if a a faster CPU with 0-wait state RAM is 
used). The worst case task response time is similar for 68030-based platforms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vic Sohal                                           "Jim his brain is gone!!!"
Mgr. Tech Marketing
Lynx Real-Time Systems
(408) 370-2233
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