[TUHS] Re: Porting Unix v6 to i386
P.A.Osborne
P.A.Osborne at ukc.ac.uk
Thu Feb 7 20:23:13 AEST 2002
On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 10:36:42AM -0600, Jeffrey S. Sharp wrote:
> > Instead we should aim at getting a "1970s version of Unix" running on a
> > PC. So initially the teletype becomes the screen and the keyboard and
> > the disk unit becomes say the floppy drive.
> >
> > Later things can be expanded to talk IDE/SCSI whatever - but at that
> > point you are evolving the "1970s version of Unix" on a stage further -
>
> Screen => console tty is obvious. But why do you insist on the floppy
> drive as the storage medium?
I don't insist on it. It was just my reckoning to get things going, that
a floppy as an RK would be enough.
> The floppy drive subsystem has drives and a controller with a certain
> programatic interface. The IDE/SCSI subsystem has drives and a controller
> with a certain programatic interface. They're the same kind of thing.
> Why is one more guilty of evolving the 1970s version of UNXI?
Re-reading that last mail of mine, I see that my mind kind of meandered.
So to be honest - I think you could well be right.
> I think that a floppy might make a good RK03/05 (capacity differences
> aside), but why not implement some RP drives with hard drives of even zip
> drives?
I don't see any particular reason not to do so. I was attempting to
openly straighten my own thoughts out (perhaps thinking out loud is not
the best plan) and suggest that initially an RK - floppy would be a start,
and that RP - hard disk could be done later.
Paul
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