Hi Phoebus, >>I'm sure the OS call interface always has to remain 68k assembler. > >Not necessary if you do agree with my opinion (see previously)... >C programs will be able to be recompiled anyways and S*Basic will work with >no problems... For the rest well..... RIP! :-)
The question is what you consider the "heart" of an operating system. >From my point of view, the size and efficiency of QDOS/SMS is its heart. And that's very much related to it's 68K assembler nature. I wouldn't want to sacrifice that, but of course there may be different opinions. >>The >>largest deviation from pure 68k I could imagine to become a little bit near >>feasible, would be Coldfire Version >= 4e. (This would mean, that many >>existing binaries couldn't be executed anymore, but after recompiling they >>could. And it is theoretically possible to write QDOS assembler + C >>programs that run on both 68k and CF, by avoiding the incompatible, >>non-trapable CF instructions. The calling interface to the OS could remain >>exactly the same on Coldfire as it is now.) > >The mechanism yes, the coding no... because the main problem I see is that >after the Dragonball MX-1, Motorola will be moving (slowly or fast I don't >know) away from M*Core architecture. I'm quite sure you see the wrong problem! Firstly, Coldfire has absolutely nothing to do with M*Core. Coldfire sells well, new chips come out, and there is a very nice roadmap. On top of the V4e there are already plans for V5 and beyond. It's not exactly 68k, but it's coming, and it promises vast performance! It is true that there is only few development in 68k. But a lot in Coldfire. (By the way, even traditional 68k is not as dead as you may think. Under NDA, I've already seen the new >= 80 MHz clean 68k Dragonball specs - not bad.) >What's going to happen when the only processors we have left are >essentially ARM-7 series CPUs or PowerPCs? I know that ARM rules the embedded market right now, but that can always change, because most real-time OS are fairly CPU independent. As for PowerPC: I'm told that it is likely that Coldfire quantities sold by Motorola will soon be higher than the Power PC ones. >A C oriented (or other higher level language) QDOS clone will be portable >enough but QDOS...? A highlevel portable OS will be something completely different from QDOS/SMS. If you want that, just take eCos, uClinux or the likes and write an SBASIC interpreter. No need to invent the 17th highlevel portable OS. All the best Peter
