Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncrpcd!ncroem!udcps3!udcps1!brian From: brian@udcps1.UUCP (Brian R. Haug) Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k Subject: NS32000 Processor Message-ID: <266@udcps1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Jun-87 22:46:48 EDT Article-I.D.: udcps1.266 Posted: Thu Jun 4 22:46:48 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jun-87 01:03:27 EDT Sender: usenet@udcps1.UUCP Organization: University of Dayton Computer Science Department - Dayton, OH 45469 Lines: 216 Keywords: NS32000 Processor ---------------------------------------------------------------- 32K NEWS April 1987 News about the NS32000 processor - Hardware and Software Not affiliated with National Semiconductor Corporation ---------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings! This is the first edition of what we hope will become a forum for the exchange of NSC320xx news, hardware ideas and software. We'll print code fragments in their entirety, duplicate schematics, and distribute code on diskette. All we ask is that no restrictions be placed on the use of information you share. The, 32032 is the best 32-bit processor available. The 68000 series is its closest competition, but suffers from n architecture that was not designed to support demand-paged, virtual memory. Motorola has also been slow in comingnout with the other members of its chip set. The result should have been a smashing success for the NS32032. What happened? As usual, marketing mistakes have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. (There have been rumors of a 32-bit processor from Intel, but after carefully examining product announcements as well as real products, it is apparent that their new processor is simply an 8- bit processor with a 32-bit bus.) We all have a stake in the future of the 320xx. Howh Because we're the programmers that'll have to write code for inferior processors if it fails. We're the engineer that'll have to sweat over incomplete chip sets if it fails. We're the users who will ultimately suffer from incomplete bug-ridden computers if it fails. And we're also the people whose lives will be made so much more unconstrained and productive WHEN it succeeds! So send in your news, your schematics, your code. We'll share it all. And we'll be sending dtems to other publications as we go. We'll do it for free, for as long as we can afford to do so. 32K's In the News ----------------- The Nov. 13, 1986 issue of EDN had a story about Owl Computers, 640 Crest Drive, Encinitas CA. Its president, Gene Bartsch, produces VME- and Multibus-based 32032 computer boards. BYTE, Jan. 1987, reports that several laser printer manufacturers are designing in the 320xx instead of the 68000. They credit the full 32-bit ALU and powerful bit operations, among other factors. Hardware Items -------------- Symmetric Computer Systems has a portable computer called the 375 which includes a Series 32000 processor with 2MB of RAM, floppy and 50MB winchester, running 4.2BSD Unix, for $4,995. It comes with C, Fortran, Pascal, Basic, APL, assembler, Lisp and Prolog, plus Emacs, Ingres, Tex and Spice. A terminal is all you need to add. Symmetrics Computer Systems, 1620 Oakland Road, Suite D200, San Jose CA 95131. Zaiaz Corporation, Huntsville AL, manufactures a PC coprocessor board which can support up to 16MB of RAM. With 2MB and Unix, the board costs $2,695. They also have a Clipper coprocessor for a cool $6,000. Zaiaz Corp., 2225 Drake Avenue, Huntsville AL 358s5. (What is a PC coprocessor? It is a board which you insert into a standard PC, and uses the PC to perform its video and disk I/O. Unencumbered from those duties, the CPU can run at full speed, although the PC can be a limiting factor in I/O-bound tasks.) Definicon Systems has available a parts kit for the PD32 board described in issue 32 of Micro Cornucopia. This kit includes a board, all parts including 32016 and 1MB of RAM, and Unix on 30 floppies for $850. Assembled and tested, the system is considerably higher. This is a PC coprocessor also. There is some discussion in the Micro C. article about using a different kind of computer for the host; however, PC-clones are about the cheapest kind of computer available today. There is a user's group for the PD32. For information, contact Dan Efron, 8910 Westmoreland Lane, Minneapolis MN 55426. Definicon Systems also has a 32032 coprocessor board with up to 8nB and Unix starting around $1,500. Definicon Systems Inc., 31324 Via Colinas, Suite 108, Westlake Village CA 91362. Compupro produced an S-100 board known as the CPU-32016, using a 32016 processor. It has been stated that these boards can go 10MHz. Jameco advertises the National Semiconductor Designer's Kits, $59.95 for 32016 set and $74.95 for a 32032 set. These sets include the CPU, MMU, FPU, TCU and ICU, plus monitor ROMs and a schematic for how to wire them up.2 The monitor (known as the Tiny Development System) includes a debugger and simple assembler. Jameco, 1355 Shoreway Road, Belmont CA 94002. No printed circuit board is available for the Designer's Kits. The 32032 requires a 68 pin LCC socket - anyone know where to get one? (The same socket is used for an obscure Intel processor known as the 80186.) Are wire-wrap models available? To order back issues of Micro Cornucopia (#32 has a circuit diagram for the P.32, especially recommended), write Micro Cornucopia, P.O. Box 223, Bend OR 97709-0223. Include $3 U.S. per back issue. Software Items -------------- Not a lot of immediately useful software for the 32000 seems to be available. The only operating system that everyone agrees to be available is Unix, and not cheap, and no source or configurability. But it comes with everything in the world. Multi Solutions, Inc. claims that a version of their S1 operating system ( Unix is a dinosaur, CP/M and MS-DOS are toys") will be available for the 32000, for $950 ("OEM Configurable" plus "media charge"), plus $400 to $600 for each language compiler. Despite the grandiosity of their ads, it appears that they may actually have a real product out there. Is anyone using it? Let us know. Multi Solutions, Inc., Suite 207, 123 Frankyin Corner Road, Lawrenceville NJ 08648. Library volumes available ------------------------- The following volumes are available in 8" CP/M, 5-1/4" PC or 3- 1/2" Atari ST formats, for $8 apiece, or free if you submit a disk. Z32 - Cross assembler running on Z-80 CP/M, including Z-80 assembler, Lunar Lander-type game, 32K disassembler and sample file , written by Neil Koozer. A32000 - Cross assembler written in C, written by Richard Rodman, described in Dec. 1986 Dr. Dob,'s Journal. Please Write! ------------- Is there something you need? Send out the call! People that have written me have expressed an interest in the following: - Schematic for 32032 Designer's Kit - Printed circuit board for Designer's Kit - 32032 sockets - Single-user operating system - Multi-user operating system like VMS I personally don't know much about VMS. I have used Unix, and there are some things it does quite well. At this stage of the lame, we need to open up the doors that divide us into little communities of specific products, because the 32000 users (and would-be-users) are too few to be splintered. Send specs, send source, send stuff we can all use and enjoy. Let us all know about your successes - and failures (if any) - in working with the Series 32000. Write to Richard Rodman, 1923 Anderson Road, Falls Church VA 22043. And enjoy computing in the 32-bit dimension! LET'S WRITE AN OPERATING SYSTEM! It seems to me that one of the principal lacks in the "hacker" or computer hobbyist world today is a portable, simple, easily configurable operating system. Naturally, the dream of every programmer is to create his own operating system, but operating systems don't sell well in the marketplace... so let's give it away for free! Commercial operating systems are too bloated with features. This is actually true of all commercial software. Why? Because features sell. ("What? Your word processor doesn't have automatic hyphenation? Ours does - and it also has Cyro-Phoenician punctuation support!" "Oh yeah? Well ours has automatic currency justification AND in-line computation of hyoerbolic tangents!") So I have been collecting ideas. Most of them center around the scheduler and the user interface. (Obviously, any true operating system is multitasking.) The virtual-memory feature of the 32000 should be a core mechanism of the kernel, rather than an oh-by- the-way simplification to an overburdened swapping mechanism. Simplicity in software means writing code to avoid writing code - the generality and quality of an operating system should be measured by all of the utilities it DOESN'T have - because it doesn't need them. The kernel should be simple enough that people using the 32000 in firmware (ROM) systems, such as laser printer controllers or telecommunications equipment, could make use of it. But its simplicity should not impose limitations upon it. Initial stages: Scheduler (multitasking kernel) Memory manager Debugger Second stages: File manager Command line interface Compiler(s) Text editor Simple utilties Third stages: Graphical user interface Networking Should the operating system should be written in a high-level language? It could be hand-compiled, if necessary, into 32000 assembly language. OK! So this is a project that might require man-years of work and we might not finish everything! At least we'll all learn something from it. Besides, since we'll be sharing all of the source, everyone, even the people who already have Unix, should be able to get something useful out of it! Do you have any ideas? Let's work together on this.