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From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.m68k,comp.sys.misc
Subject: Looking for alternative support tools or replacement for HP64000's
Keywords: cross-compilers, transfer utilities, emulation
Message-ID: <2937@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 6 Mar 89 20:04:52 GMT
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 37

Hello.  Our company has a 68000-based product that was developed using
the HP64000 system for emulation, compiling and assembling code, etc.
The tools as provided by HP run on the 64000 as well as VAX/VMS on a
750.  We did most of the development work under VMS with Eunice so
we'd have make, SCCS, etc.  There is an HP-proprietary transfer
program that moves files back and forth between the VAX and the HP6400
system.

My management wants to get rid of the VAX, and frankly, so do I.  The
problem, though, is continuing to support the code.  There are several
possibilities:

1.  Junk the HP64000 (it's really ancient stuff) and go to a new type of
development system.  Problem: our product code is about 2/3 C and 1/3
assembler.  If the assembler doesn't use the same syntax (there are
quite a few different 68000 assembler syntaxes in use) or the calling
convention for C calls isn't the same, there's a lot of conversion work.
I could buy HP's whizzy new latest-generation emulator systems, at a cost
of $40K per workstation or so (I haven't investigated this option in detail).
But we are a small, cheap company.

2.  Do our builds on the HP64000 itself, rather than on the VMS system.
Problem: no decent editors, no SCCS, no make.  One possibility is to do
editing and SCCS on a Unix system, and transfer source files over to the
64000 for building.  Problem: the HP transfer program is proprietary.

3.  Get some kind of PC-based emulation system.  We have PCs on an Ethernet
with PC-NFS already in place.  We have the problem of converting the code.

It occurs to me that lots of people once used HP64000 systems, and also
that such systems are pretty much obsolete.  I'm looking for ideas and
experiences other people have had.  How did you handle this?

Please respond by mail (unless you think a lot of people would benefit
by a posting), and I'll summarize what I learn.  Thanks in advance.
-- 
-- Joe Buck	jbuck@epimass.epi.com, uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck