🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <298@pdxgate.UUCP> griffith@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Michael Griffith) writes:
>As for running AmigaOS and Unix at the same time, I can't personally think
>of a reason why you would want to. The difficulties would be tremendous to
>say the least, and if I was running Unix I doubt I would ever use AmigaOS.
>(Note: this isn't a flame on AmigaOS, but let's face it, Unix has had more
>time to develop and has become more refined, although it's also too d*mn
>big) You would either have to make a virtual Amiga running under Unix (can
>you say slow?) or completely remap memory back and forth while swapping
>between to operating systems (slow as well, plus remember that the AmigaOS
>doesn't support virtual memory yet which would probably be a definite
>neccesity).

Actually, I said that AmigaOS and UNIX would *not* be running at the
same time, but never mind.  My point was the development of an AmigaOS
handler to read the inactive UNIX partition on the disk.  Anyway, let's
deal with the question of running AmigaOS and UNIX simultaneously.

As I see it, you would have to partition memory.  AmigaOS would have to
be given it's own section (including CHIP ram that is *never* swapped
out for obvious performance reasons), and the exec.library would have to
be rewritten so as to only grab the memory it is meant to get.  Virtual
memory would not be necessary on the Amiga side (though it would be nice).
I can see several other problems though, for instance screen handling.
It would be an interesting project to consider, and I have no doubt that
several people at CBM have been considering it for some time.  An
amusing though (though not a terribly serious one), when we get device
independent graphics maybe an AmigaOS graphics driver could write to an
X-windows window as a screen, with Intuition windows inside it.

I cannot see why swapping the OS's should introduce very severe
penalties.

This is similar to the AVM that runs on the Facom.  We have both MSP and
UTS (Unix 5.2 !!!) running on our 380S here.  Each partition shares the
hardware and resources to an extent, and the OS's are given a
maximum amount of CPU time it can get under a fully loaded system (if
the machine is not fully loaded, they grab what they can get).

As for the comments about who would want to run AmigaOS when UNIX is
available, the answer is a great many people.  You are only looking at
the OS (and I would say the AmigaOS has several advantages over Amiga
UNIX/X, GUI speed for one).  You are neglecting the applications that cam
be run on each, and it is going to be an awful long time before things
like Deluxe Paint and AmigaVision will appear on UNIX!

--
Ian Farquhar                      Phone : 61 2 805-9403
Office of Computing Services      Fax   : 61 2 805-7433
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