[Coco] RiBBS, 68K OS-9 in emulation

[Joel Ewy]

Ron Bihler wrote:
>
> I may have missed a word or two (Grin).  Even more to the problem is I
> have been out of this soo long that much of the terminology is greek
> to me :) (ARANYM) (Debian-m68K) etc
Yeah, and those references really aren't directly CoCo-related anyway. 
ARANYM is an Atari emulator.  Atari Running on ANY Machine.  Debian-m68K
is a port of the Debian operating system (an OS built around the Linux
kernel) to the Motorola 68K (68000) series processors.  The MM/1, the
MM/1b, and the Frank Hogg Labs TC-70 all sported processors based on the
Motorola 68000, as did the Atari ST series of computers, the Amiga line
and the Macintoshes of the time.  And nearly everybody else that wasn't
a PC clone.  Linux for the 68000-series processors will only run on a
68020 with PMMU and FPU, a 68030 with FPU, or a full 68040 or 68060
processor.

So the ARANYM emulator emulates an Atari-like computer with
68020+MMU+FPU, can boot Linux, and in fact is used to build Debian packages.

The CoCo has a 6809 processor, or a retrofit 6309 and runs the 6809
version of OS-9.  The MM/1 has a processor based on the 68000 (not
capable of running Linux (except potentially uCLinux)) and runs the
68000 version of OS-9, AKA OS-9/68K.

The only reason I brought up ARANYM and Debian is that ARANYM seems like
something that's already tantalyzingly close to being capable of running
OS-9/68K.  Maybe it even can with a little tweaking!
> I had left before Nitros9 was out (Very nice I must say) and some of
> the other hardware bling bling.  I haven't figured out how to boot
> directly to Nitros9 HD yet thought in VCC.  More reading in order!!!
>
> Anyway after a weekend of digging into Coco History and some of the
> other machine - history - Plus a bunch of good emails I am starting to
> get back up to speed. I see I have more work ahead of me.
>
I never get tired of the CoCo.  Have fun!

JCE
> Thanks
> It's been fun, when is the next Coco fest?  - I don't see that in your
> Email - Big :)
> Ron
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 8:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] RiBBS, 68K OS-9 in emulation
>
>
>> Ron Bihler wrote:
>>> Thanks,
>>> So the bread crumbs continue.
>>>
>>> Anyone know Charles West in Oklahoma?  I passed the code to him.
>>>
>>> Was KRiBBS shareware as well?  Is there a MM/1 Emulator since I will
>>> never see one of them.
>>>
>>> Ron
>>> ...
>>
>> Now Ron, if you had read every single word I wrote in one of my previous
>> posts, you wouldn't have to ask this question!  :)  I know, I'm way too
>> verbose...
>>
>> "
>>
>>>> How well does OS9 or Nitro9 what I gather the new update work under
>>>> emulation?
>>>>
>>
>>> 6809 (Nitr)OS-9 works great on a CoCo emulator.
>>>
>>> To the best of my knowledge, there is no emulator that will run
>>> OS-9/68K.  I tried to boot Personal OS-9 for the Atari ST on several
>>> different Atari emulators, but no joy.  Even ARANYM, which runs
>>> Debian-m68K won't boot it.  Bob Devries (I think) says that Atari OS-9
>>> actually makes use of the Atari ROM code, which one would think would
>>> insulate it further from the underlying hardware and make it even less
>>> machine-dependent.  Maybe I'm just not using the proper ROM images.
>>>
>>> Somebody has made a CD-i emulator for MS-Windows, but it only runs some
>>> of the games (last time I tried it) and is cripple-ware.
>>
>> "
>>
>> So there you have it, FWIW.
>>
>> Seriously, I would love to see some kind of emulator that can run
>> OS-9/68K.  It really wouldn't have to faithfully emulate the hardware
>> of any particular 68K computer exactly in order to run most OS-9
>> programs. Somebody might need to develop a few OS-9 driver modules
>> for the emulated hardware.  I think that an Atari emulator like
>> ARANYM would be a very good start.  As I mentioned above, it runs
>> Linux for crying out loud, it shouldn't be too difficult to get OS-9
>> running on it.  And the Atari version of OS-9 is actually not made of
>> pure unobtanium.  The video modes supported by ARANYM are better than
>> what the MM/1 could do, and I'm sure there are modes that correspond
>> to most of the MM/1 modes commonly used in KWindows.  After OS-9 is
>> running on the emulator in some fashion, bits of the emulation code
>> could be replaced one piece at a time by emulated hardware that looks
>> and works more like the MM/1 (or the MM/1b / AT306) if you wanted an
>> emulation more faithful to the hardwar
>> e.  And once you've done that, it wouldn't be hard at all to turn it
>> into a CD-i emulator.  And there would be considerably more interest
>> in that than the MM/1.
>>
>> I would think that BBS software would be a great candidate for
>> running on an Atari OS-9 emulator, though it sounds from some of the
>> other posts like at least one version of your software was modified
>> to use KWindows, so that might have to wait until somebody ported
>> that to ARANYM or made the ARANYM video code compatible with the
>> 66470 VSC.
>>
>> I really think that something like ARANYM or MESS would be a good
>> starting point.
>>
>> JCE
>>
>>
>>
>>
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