Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew
From: andrew@tekecs.UUCP (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Morrow Designs Micronix Z80 UNIX?
Message-ID: <1906@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Aug-83 12:29:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1906
Posted: Wed Aug 24 12:29:41 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 06:14:44 EDT
References: houxm.519
Lines: 27

I once worked at a company that did business with Morrow Designs, and
we looked at the Decision 1.  Herewith some impressions, dating from
the initial product introduction (1981).

The hardware is wild.  George Morrow has been heard to say that 16-bit
computers are a fad and that the Z80 is here to stay.  With this
commitment to the processor, he designed additional hardware to give it
memory management, including instruction restart on fault.  Apparently
he had to duplicate half the functionality of the Z80 to get this
add-on circuit.

The software is a true Unix v6 port, initially using the Whitesmiths C
compiler.  Thus, you get the commands and the system calls.  However,
CP/M is supported by an emulator, so some programs won't work.  CP/M
programs tend to run much faster under the emulator than on a bare Z80
running CP/M because Unix handles overlap of I/O and computation.
Don't expect CP/M programs to be able to get at the I/O ports.  You can
make MODEM work by teaching it how to call upon Unix I/O services.

One of the important aspects of this system is that each process is
limited to 64k memory, by virtue of the fact that there's a Z80 down
there somewhere.  68000-based systems usually have no such limitation.
But, if you don't need big processes, this is a box to check out, if
only for the novelty value (imagine the bar bets you can win)

  -=- Andrew Klossner  (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)  [UUCP]
                       (andrew.tektronix@rand-relay)     [ARPA]