[TUHS] Zilog Z80 Unix

[Wesley Parish]

FWIW, it appears to be here:
http://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ftp/cromemco/
"cromix1127.tgz	Cromix 11.27
cromix_work.tgz	Cromix 11.27 with C compiler installed, Cromemco ed replaced
		with ANSI version, WordMaster installed. Ready to use work"

Wesley Parish

Quoting Bakul Shah <bakul at bitblocks.com>:

> Yes, Cromemco was the company, Cromix their unix like OS.
> 
> IIRC, in 1981-83 timeframe someone I worked with had mentioned
> he used to work at Cromemco and that they had a unix like OS
> called Cromix. Cromemco were in Mountain View so likely they
> were at the WCCF.
> 
> Even though z80 could only address 64k, their system had a
> bank select under s/w control & upto 512K of RAM could be
> added. Z80 didn't have a supervisor mode but still, the bank
> select must have afforded enouh protection from bad pointers
> crashing random processes.
> 
> On Wed, 19 Apr 2017 23:40:30 EDT Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hello!
> > That was also a board vendor. FYI: The first GASP [GetAway Special
> > Program] a Space Shuttle payload made use of such a board.
> > -----
> > Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
> > "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."
> > 
> > 
> > On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:09 PM, Bakul Shah <bakul at bitblocks.com>
> wrote:
> > > On Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:42:42 PDT "Erik E. Fair"
> <fair-tuhs at netbsd.org> wrote:
> > >> I have a memory of having seen a Zilog Z-80 (not Z8002 like the
> Onyx) based 
> > >> Unix, possibly v6, at a vendor show or conference - perhaps the
> West Coast
> > >> Computer Faire (WCCF) in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
> > >>
> > >> I recall asking the people in the booth how they managed without an
> MMU, and
> > >> don't recall their answer. I do remember thinking that since Unix
> had "grown
> > >> up" with MMUs to stomp on obvious pointer mistakes, the software
> ought to be
> > >> relatively well-behaved ... you know: not trying to play "core war"
> with 
> > >> itself?
> > >>
> > >> I searched the TUHS archives cursorily with Google to see if this
> has been
> > >> previously mentioned, but pretty much all Z80 CPU references have
> for its use
> > >> in "smart" I/O devices back in the day.
> > >>
> > >> Does anyone else remember this Z80 Unix and who did it? Or maybe
> that it was
> > >> a clone of some kind ... ?
> > >>
> > >> looking for a little history,
> > >>
> > >> Erik Fair
> > >
> > > You may be thinking of Cromemco.
>  



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