Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari!basser!steve
From: steve@basser.oz (Stephen Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix for the NEC APC ?
Message-ID: <1716@basser.oz>
Date: 19 Jan 89 12:11:29 GMT
References: <458@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <1941@runx.ips.oz>
Organization: Dept of Comp Sci, Uni of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 24

In article <1941@runx.ips.oz> petem@runx.OZ (Peter Mason) writes:

>?? In that case, I noticed 1.1 was able to
>boot on such a machine. Don't know about post-1.1.

Minix (any version) doesn't run on an APC-III - the device drivers
expect a hardware compatible machine. It is possible to load Minix, if
the APC has an SLE card, but it dies as soon as control switches from
MS-DOS to Minix.

Porting Minix to an APC-III is not impossible, but will require some
patience, and either a working Minix on another PC, or a suitable C
compiler (say Turbo C's tcc, or tc with an SLE) and some editing on the
APC itself. The major changes needed are to the console drivers, because
the APC doesn't use a 6845 CRT controller, and the different keyboard
scan codes. There are many minor changes needed, mainly to the chip
addresses. Fortunately, the APC's chipset is similar enough (8086,
825[139], etc.) to a PC that most of the device control code remains
unchanged, except for addressing. All of these changes are to the
kernel code; MM and FS should be ok.

The APC-III is a nice machine. Its graphics are good (640x480), with
fast hardware assist from the 7220's. Pity that NEC decided to make
_all_ the chip addresses and interrupt vectors different from a PC.