Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV!Marcos_de_la_Puerta_Borja%EUSKOM.SPRITEL.ES
From: Marcos_de_la_Puerta_Borja%EUSKOM.SPRITEL.ES@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Multitasking in Forth
Message-ID: <9104050443.AA02967@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 4 Apr 91 20:06:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Marcos_de_la_Puerta_Borja%EUSKOM.SPRITEL.ES@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41


 > Hi,  I am just learning FORTH and have come across a single board computer
 > with FORTH in ROM.  The FORTH system is multi-tasking which has been
 > implemented using the words: TASK taskname programname
 >                              IN 20 TM taskname EVERY 1 TS taskname
 > Twenty minutes after entering these lines the program, programname, will exec
ut
 > %>e
 > and continue executing every one second thereafter.  Ten tasks may be schedul
ed
 > to run simultaneously.  This is very convenient for the mobile robot I'm
 > building.
 >
 > MY QUESTION:  Are there other SBCs (ie New Micros Inc) that are multi-tasking

 > -----------   Is the word TASK part of fig-FORTH standards (I suspect not)
 >

    No.

    TASK is a dummy word in fig-Forth. TASK is usually compiled at the
beginning of a module, making easier to remove a complete module simply
by FORGETting TASK.

    Vesta's SBCs (better ask to Jax) come with a Forth system in ROM with
multitasking and some other interesting features. I am working now with a
TDS9090 card, with a 6303, It has a very complete Forth system in ROM, and
I buiult a multitasking kernel for it. I will describe it in an article
for FD soon along with an introduction to concurrent programming.

 > FYI:  This is all running on a Z80A cpu at 4MHz with 16Mb RAM

    16 MB? Or 16KB?

************************************************************************
Borja Marcos              * Internet: m_d_l_p_b@euskom.spritel.es
Alangoeta, 11, 1o izq.    * UUCP: uunet!euskom.spritel.es!m_d_l_p_b
48990 - Algorta (Vizcaya) * FidoNet: Borja Marcos at 2:344/3.420
SPAIN                     *
Tel: +34 4 469-66-53      *
************************************************************************