Re: TI-H: Zunix?
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Re: TI-H: Zunix?
The 92 would be a much better candidate for a port of linux/unix... It
has a drastically better input scheme (qwerty keyboard), much more memory
(espexially the plus), and linux has already been ported to other systems
with the same processor...
- noah zoschke (nzoschke@juno.com)
On Sun, 09 Aug 1998 00:24:55 -0400 Christopher Kalos
<raptorone@geocities.com> writes:
>
>Okay, I can see a few things to kill off right now... multiuser should
>die
>ASAP... no need for it. Next, no emulation. Ever heard of loadlin?
>use a
>similar concept as an ASM prog... head to the expander, load up some
>code,
>and run it. no way to exit other than a shutdown command. Main
>issue...
>INPUT!!!
>Btw, we have networking as it is... but I see no reason to have
>someone
>login to a system that is this small. Not even ELKS was meant to fit
>into
>this space
>
>Argue later, I'm just adding fuel to this upcoming flame fest :)
>
>CK
>
>
>
>Matt Cooper wrote:
>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I'm not a programmer or a hardware builder, but I am very interested
>in
>> hardware for the TI-8x. My question is thus:
>>
>> Can UNIX or some variant be ported to the z80? More specifically,
>the
>> TI-85? This is probably wrong, but I had an idea for how it might
>work:
>>
>> - It would require a memory expander of some sort. You first
>download a
>> regular shell, perhaps ZShell or Usgard. A normal ZShell or Usgard
>> program is placed on the calculator, and basically it just takes
>over
>> and never returns control to ZShell or to the system OS. Basically
>a
>> permanent UNIX emulator, I suppose. It would of course overwrite
>the
>> old stuff.
>>
>> It could perhaps use the 28k user memory (and system memory???) as
>RAM,
>> and treat the expander as the /dev/hda.
>>
>> Then one of two things could happen, either A) the calculator is
>"UNIX"
>> until you do a reset and is worthless as a "calculator", or B)
>someone
>> writes a "protected-mode" interface to the TI-OS.
>>
>> Linking may not be necessary, because perhaps drivers could be
>written
>> on the PC which send files to the expander through a graphlink or
>> homemade link.
>>
>> The next thing you are going to ask is, Why? Why do you need a
>> multi-user operating system on a single-user device like that? And
>why
>> UNIX?
>>
>> My answer: UNIX has been ported to so many different architectures
>that
>> it would be easy to obtain support in the net community, and it
>might
>> pave the way to calculator networking as an inexpensive reality.
>Think
>> about being able to use one calculator as the server and run the
>program
>> from there, and just use the other, ZShell or Usgard calculators as
>> clients or even dumb terminals.
>>
>> WARNING: I am extremely amateur, having little to no experience with
>the
>> z80, assembly programming in general, building hardware, networking,
>and
>> porting archaic operating systems.
>>
>> At least I didn't come on here asking ya'll to port DOS to the
>TI-85.
>>
>> --Matt Cooper / mnemonicdevice@hotmail.com
>>
>> ______________________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
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