[TUHS] Zilog Z80 Unix

[Steve Nickolas]

On Thu, 20 Apr 2017, Larry McVoy wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 07:32:50AM +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote:
>> On Wed, 19 Apr 2017, Erik E. Fair 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'd kill to have Unix running on a Z-80; it combines two of my passions...
>
> I get the sentiment, I too have a fond spot for the Z-80, it's perhaps the
> chip where I've done the most assembly (did assembler versions of ls, cp,
> rm, etc for CP/M).
>
> That said, would I _want_ a stripped down Unix on a floppy disk based Z-80
> machine?  Hmm, well once I thought I wanted that old porsche coupe like
> the one Richard Pryor & Gene Wilder drove in one of their movies.  I found
> one, $13,000 in the late 1990's and drove it.  Curied me of ever wanting
> a car that old.  Uncomfortable seats, everything rattled, the windows didn't
> want to roll up, etc, etc.
>
> I suspect that living on a Z-80 with floppies after the stuff we are used
> to would not be pleasant.  At least not for me.  Fun but frustrating, where
> is the network?  Where's my SSD?  64K?  Really?  Retro is cool but not that
> retro :)
>

I'm a 6502 person myself.  Though I'm not sure I'd want to run a *x on my 
actual 6502 machine (a "Platinum" Apple //e), I wonder if something a bit 
unixier than GNO (Gno's Not Orca, runs on top of GS/OS) could be pulled 
off on my pet 6502-class machine, the 65816-based Apple IIgs, with 512K 
base in the common version and 1 MB base in the final...

-uso.