If You could design a OS...

Smokey · February 23, 2009, 08:45:43 AM

And here i am still messing around with the binary boot sequence of the Altair...

Dr. Mario · February 23, 2009, 09:08:45 AM

Huh, that gotta be real small boot sector (128 Bytes, providing the CPU is 8-bit, for 16-bit x86 one, it's 512 bytes, sitting on HEAD=0 and TRACK=0 of floppy disk, for example.)

However, if you want, you can use EFI boot produce, although I doubt you will, since I know you work with old computers. Still, it would be neat (I wrote EFI preloader for to boot GreenOmega kernel.)

Smokey · February 23, 2009, 02:02:49 PM

Altairs boot with 8 switches on the front panel to code a byte and one switch to load the byte you just coded...

Dr. Mario · February 23, 2009, 07:58:25 PM

Interesting. It's based on ancient Macintosh CPU (68k), right?

Smokey · February 24, 2009, 09:05:21 AM

Nope it was based on the Intel 8080 CPU and there was a variant based on the Zilog Z80 processor...
And since it is from 1975 i doubt it is based on any mac ^_^

Dr. Mario · February 24, 2009, 10:14:44 AM

Interesting, a pre-x86 CPU. However, I tried sticking a x86 CPU (i8088) in Apples II when I was 12 years old - Booted like a charm. So I think you might be able to put one in Altair system and it will boot. (this early x86 CPU understands 8-bit data, since it's based on 8080 core.)

Smokey · February 24, 2009, 11:21:34 AM

I think you'd need an Intel based Altair though, not a Zilog clone...

Dr. Mario · February 25, 2009, 01:50:51 AM

Well, they're both the same. The only difference is the instruction used in the boot firmware (Same GPRs, though.)

Smokey · February 25, 2009, 03:12:46 AM

Ah, wel, i "knew" they both had to be 8-bit microprocessors, but those days you could never be too certain about compatibility... ^_^

Added after 1 minutes:

Heck you couldn't be certain about compatibility up till the late PIII's...

Dr. Mario · February 25, 2009, 09:22:38 AM

True. You can try the same thing as I did - grab Apples IIe then pull out original CPU and swap in a x86 CPU (perferrably Intel 8088, but generic ones, like AMD am8088 will work.)

I didn't have OS for Apple IIe to mess around with x86 CPU I put in, but keyboard input worked.

Smokey · February 25, 2009, 12:14:06 PM

Well AMD literally cloned Intels CPUs back then, because IBM wanted a competitor for Intel...

Dr. Mario · February 25, 2009, 10:18:11 PM

Since Intel was the only one, IBM wanted dirt cheap x86 processor, so yeah, IBM forced Intel to license their sh*t to AMD so they would just sit in their favorite sofa and watch the firework (you know what I mean?)

I gotta tell you IBM did the right thing. See how sophisicated the AMD Phenom II is?

Smokey · February 26, 2009, 09:01:16 AM

Yeah, i loove IBM for what they made and did... only thing i didn't like is that they didn't call Kildall back and went straight to Gates...

Dr. Mario · February 26, 2009, 09:41:35 AM

;020 Oh well, Windows did shaped the x86 processors' future.

IBM now favor Linux, since it simply turn PowerPC CPU a speed demon. It also allow JIT x86 emulation, making booting Windows NT (up to Windows 7) possible.

They also opened CELL BE up to open source, which will open up Phenom II Cell project - which is in the work. It will finish Nehalem off in retrospect to benchmarking. (more like IBM's revenge to Intel, hmm...) ;025

Smokey · February 26, 2009, 10:43:34 AM

Good, the world (and especially the gaming industry) needs to know that Linux is better...