16 Aug
1998
16 Aug
'98
7:29 p.m.
On Sun, 16 Aug 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
> > (the WCS - Writeable Control Store I
mentioned), so you can redefine the
>
> <snip>
>
> > Unlike just about every other machine of that time, there is no text
> > mode. However, the designers wanted it to be as fast at displaying text
> > as machines with said hardware text mode, so they designed a 'raster op
> > machine' - what we'd now call a blitter - to handle screen updates.
>
> Sounds like an Amiga 1000. ;) ;) ;)
^^ ^^ ^^
I thought that three winking smileys would be enough, but apparently not.
The Amiga never had user-writeable microcode AFAIK.
All of them were
68000-based. On the PERQ you can redefine the CPU instruction set if you
want to.
Yup, I know. Note that I cut everything about the user-writable
microcode, leaving only "Writable Control Store". The Amiga 1000 also has
something called "Writable Control Store" (WCS), but for a different
purpose.
I also selectively left in the bits about the PERQ not having a text mode,
and about it having a blitter.
I have a feeling my little attempt at humour got me mistaken for a rabid
"Amiga-against-the-world" religious fanatic. I like my Amigas, but my
participation on this list almost guarantees I'm not one of the
nut-brigade.
<other impressive PERQ stats snipped>
-tony
Is there anywhere where I can see what the PERQ's OS looks like, Tony?
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/