Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!ufcsv!codas!ge-dab!steinmetz!uunet!mcvax!botter!ast
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: porting minix to the mac
Message-ID: <1825@botter.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 13 Jan 88 16:34:55 GMT
References: <1436@lll-lcc.aRpA>
Reply-To: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 20

In article <1436@lll-lcc.aRpA> booloo@lll-lcc.llnl.gov.UUCP (Mark Boolootian) writes:
>-----
>
>I am interested in porting Minix to the Macintosh and would like to know if
>this has already been done.  I'd further like to know from you bright Minix
>gurus if have any suggestions or precautions of which I should take heed.

The only 68000 port is the Atari.  Release maybe (!= promised) some time in
the Spring (March 21 - June 21).  There is no doubt that any port to a 68000
based machine should start with the Atari version.  All the problems caused
by the lack of an MMU are solved, as are the assembly code parts.  The major
differences between the Atari and Mac and Amiga relate to I/O drivers.  You
will need disk, clock, printer and tty drivers that talk the same protocol
to FS as the IBM version, but get the work done somehow.  You may be able to
use the "BIOS", certainly for output, but maybe for other things too.  If you
want to get started immediately, I would suggest (1) study MINIX carefully so
you know how it works, and (2) start working on the above drivers.  Once they
are ready, replacing the Atari drivers by them should not be hard.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)