Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!thad
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A3000UX Seems Fated
Message-ID: <37027@cup.portal.com>
Date: 18 Dec 90 05:34:37 GMT
References: <1990Dec14.045924.20212@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
  <16532@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 50

It appears everything in and out of PORTAL between Dec.14 and Dec.17 has been
lost in the Great Bit Bucket.  I've checked several other Bay Area sites and
did not find this, so I'm reposting.  Sigh.  If the original did, somehow,
get out during that period, send your nastygrams to CS@cup.portal.com ("CS" is
PORTAL's "Customer Service").
==============================================================================
bj@cbmvax.commodore.com (Brian Jackson) in <16532@cbmvax.commodore.com>
mentioned, in passing:

	[...]
	What other operating systems do you have running concurrently with Unix
	now?
	[...]

That's NOT a fleeting question!  Three items may be of interest:

1) several years ago, in BYTE, was an article describing a 68020/68881/4MB RAM
card that simply plugged into an IBM-PC and ran UNIX, concurrently, with what
ever normally runs on an IBM-PC (MS-DOS, presumably).  The card was a real
product and sold for $990 (special deal until the end of that year the article
appeared).  A true, concurrent co-processor under DOS.

2) also several years ago, an "IBM 370" plug-in card for IBM PC systems was
available, and would run (I believe) OS/370.  The card(s) utilized a pair of
customized 68000 chips (new masks) to completely hardware-emulate ALL the
instructions of an IBM 370 mainframe and permit the "mainframe" OS to run
concurrently with MS-DOS in an IBM-PC.  The card set was sold by IBM.

3) more recently, you recall my discussing SVR3 curses vs. BSD curses and my
mentioning I "found" Aspen Scientific who provides a SVR3.2-compliant curses
(either binary or source) which functions under VMS, MS-DOS, etc.  The demo
disk they first sent required me to run it under MS-DOS.  Ugh; my favorite
joke for years has been "MS-DOS vadanya!" :-)  But, I did need to run the demo
disk.  Solution?  I borrowed a "DOS-73" card (8 MHz 8086/8087, a full,
complete IBM/PC on a card, with IBM/Microsoft MS-DOS 3.10), plugged it into an
expansion slot on one of my 3B1/UNIXPC/PC7300 systems, created a 30MB "DOS" HD
partition (done SMARTLY as a single, 30MB UNIX file, no need to actually muck
with my UNIX HD partitions), loaded the demo disk, and ran the demos.  A true,
concurrent co-processor under UNIX.  Actually I kept the DOS-73 card since now
I can run ephemeris v4.21 in a window under UNIX to track astronomical events
of interest to me without bogging down the 68010.

The approach taken by AT&T/Convergent/Alloy for that DOS-73 card, circa 1985,
is similar in principle but quite different in approach to the BridgeBoard for
the Amiga.  Point being: there ARE coprocessor cards out there running
different OS's concurrently with a host system.  And I actually heard a rumor
that someone DID plug an OS/370 card into an A2000 along with a BridgeCard and
had all of AmigaDOS, MS-DOS and OS/370 running concurrently in the same "box".

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]