out-of-mainstream minis

[Jules Richardson]

On 07/03/2015 06:59 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> I find it hard to believe it was a plain 68K in there. That CPU have some
> serious issues that makes it close to impossible to implement virtual
> memory or proper usermode protection.
> (Yes, it can be done, but the amount of hardware required means most did
> not. I think SUN did it with their own MMU, and an extra CPU in there.
> Trying to remember who else - I seem to remember one other company who
> actually used a plain 68K, and it was not Unisys.)
>
> Essentially, the 68010 is pretty much the minimum of processor needed to
> make a sane system to run Unix on.

I've got a few Torch boards which use a plain ol' m68k (either 8 or 10MHz 
depending on the variant) and they were capable of running Uniplus+.

There's very little other logic on the boards, although they do have a 
local Z80 (they were designed to run Torch's CP/M variant too), so I 
suppose it's possible that could be employed somehow to provide the 
necessary support for the m68k.

Jules