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Xref: sserve comp.os.misc:3056 comp.os.lynx:502 comp.os.os2:2996 comp.os.386bsd.questions:10564 comp.os.os2.programmer:13805 comp.os.lynx:503 comp.os.mach:3891 comp.os.minix:23819 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunic!EU.net!uunet!email.tuwien.ac.at!hp From: hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Peter Holzer) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc,comp.os.lynx,comp.os.os2,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer,comp.os.os2.programmer,comp.os.lynx,comp.os.mach,comp.os.minix Subject: Re: Need good OS for intel X86 platform. Date: 30 May 1994 13:06:41 GMT Organization: University of Technology, Vienna, Dept. for Realtime Systems, AUSTRIA Lines: 87 Message-ID: <2scod1$j50@email.tuwien.ac.at> References: <1994May27.141723.13104@eplrx7.es.duPont.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: quasi.vmars.tuwien.ac.at X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #7 (NOV) rogers@eplrx7.es.duPont.com (Wade Rogers) writes: >- > I would like some advice on choosing an operating >system for an 386/486 standard PC-AT box. Any help >would be appreciated. Some data about two OS's nobody mentioned yet: Minix-386vm and VSTa. Minix-386vm is available as a set of patches relative to Minix 1.5, and is very Unix-like for the user, VSTa is available from ftp.cisco.com in /vandys/vsta, and looks more like a cross between Plan 9 and QNX. >core requirements (have to have): >1 - Memory map access to isa / eisa bus, > no device drivers needed. > eg. > int i, *ptr = 0x00C00000; > read would be i = *ptr; > write would be *ptr = i; Minix-386vm allows you to map /dev/vga at some address. Adding this capability for arbitrary subsets of /dev/mem should be trivial. In VSTa this should work without changes to the OS. >2 - Flat memory, ability to malloc available memory > in system without having to do some sort of > translation. Both use a 32-bit address space for processes. I don't know what mean by `malloc without translation'. Virtual addresses are not equal to physical addresses in either one. >3 - TCPIP and Socket support. Minix has TCP/IP but no sockets (Instead you open /dev/tcp and do some ioctls on it). Somebody is working on IP for VSTa, but I don't know what it is going to look like. >end of core requirements. >######################### >Would be nice if: >4 - preemptive multi-tasking. Both of them. >5 - Real-time (not necessarily fast but able to > execute an instruction at a specific time) Minix is definitely not useable for real-time work, since OS processes (usually FS) can hog the system for unbounded times. VSTa may be useable for soft real-time tasks (i.e., where failure to meet a deadline every now and then can be tolerated). >6 - NFS support. No. >7 - ROM'able / Small. Both have a very small kernel, but depending on what you want to do with them can grow considerably. In Minix it is also not trivial to remove a device driver without changing other parts of the system. In VSTa this is easy. >8 - Good documentation / support. This is a weak part in both of them. Tanenbaums book describes an old version of Minix, and there is no documentation of VSTa except what Valencia posted to the mailing list. Support for both of them consists of people who use the system and are willing to help newcomers. >9 - X windows (yea right). X runs on Minix, but not on VSTa. Somebody is working on a windowing system for VSTa, but it is not going to be like X. hp -- _ | hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at | Peter Holzer | TU Vienna | CS/Real-Time Systems |_|_) |------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | It's not what we don't know that gets us into trouble, it's __/ | what we know that ain't so. -- Will Rogers