10 ms·

Fuzix OS: Unix for the Z80 and 680x

94 points by aww_dang 4y ago

stuaxo 4y ago
This is great. It would be good if there were screenshots, or even links to YouTube videos for the different platforms showing this in action.
- tluyben2 4y ago
  Spinning up an emulator gives you to real first hand experience. It’s very nice; I ran it a long time ago on real msx-2 machines. Impressive work.
euclaise 4y ago
I'd like to see this ported to TI graphing calculators
- cylinder714 4y ago
  There's KnightOS: https://knightos.org/ https://knightos.org/ KnightOS will run on any upgradable Texas Instruments calculator based on the z80 CPU. This includes the TI-73, TI-83+, TI-83+ Silver Edition, TI-84+, TI-84+ Silver Edition, and TI-84+ Color Silver Edition. You can also run it on the French variations of these calculators, or in an emulator.
systems_glitch 4y ago
Wow, there's an 8080/8085 port now! I'll have to see if I can get it going on my 8085 SBC.
pjmlp 4y ago
They even support Sam Coupe!
- zelos 4y ago
  Wow, I didn't think there were enough people who'd even heard of the Sam Coupe.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    During 128K speccy models to Amiga transition timeframe, it was common to see Sam Coupes in computer stores in Portugal.
  - stevekemp 4y ago
    I remember being impressed at the specs of the Coupe, and seeing the manual was a pleasure. But even at the time it was released it seemed obvious it was doomed to failure. I never saw one in the flesh, but I did want to. The 48k spectrum was everywhere, and I have a giant print of the infamous rubber keyboard hanging on the wall behind me, but everything after that was always less special. (I owned a +2A, and I knew a couple of people with the +3, but they were very uncommon and mostly people moved on to 16 bit machines instead of staying in the Sinclair family.)
    - zelos 4y ago
      Yes, I ended up with a Coupe instead of an Amiga as my parents knew nothing about computers and figured it would be a good follow on from my +2. It was a clever machine in some ways, but from the launch it was clearly doomed.
  - lproven 4y ago
    I owned one. Bought new. I sold it to a friend for £30 about 20Y ago. I regret that now. A lovely machine, but you needed MasterDOS and MasterBASIC to get the full potential... and it was doomed by the success of the Spectrum 128, with which it was incompatible. But a lovely computer all the same.
mariuz 4y ago
You can run it on Raspberry Pi Pico : How to get started with FUZIX on Raspberry Pi Pico https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-get-started-with-fuzix-on-raspberry-pi-pico/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-get-started-with-fuz...
- verytrivial 4y ago
  David Given (hjalfi on YouTube) did this port I think. He streamed the porting process for the esp8266[1] too. GREAT STUFF. https://youtu.be/cDHcGY7EzUM https://youtu.be/cDHcGY7EzUM
tyingq 4y ago
>Support for multiple processes in banked memory This is pretty cool. Per-process memory space via old-school physical switching of lines to the ram chips. Using a 74xxx multiplexer as a dumb MMU.
Aissen 4y ago
Fun fact: Fuzix started as legendary Linux kernel hacker Alan Cox's retirement project :-) Edit: it has many contributors now, clarified that it start as Alan Cox's project.
- throwaway81523 4y ago
  I thought FUZIX started out as UZI, Unix Z80 Implementation, by Doug Braun. I remember seeing someone had ported it to the Raspberry Pi Pico but for some reason that is not mentioned on fuzix.org as far as I see. https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/02/23/fuzix-unix-like-operating-system-ported-to-raspberry-pi-pico-and-esp8266/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/02/23/fuzix-unix-like-oper...
  - geijoenr 4y ago
    I think indeed one of the starting points was UZI, it is mentioned somewhere in the readme or license files.
bxparks 4y ago
Are there any readily available dev boards using these classic microprocessors (6800, 6502, 6809, Z80) that have the various peripherals (UART, serial USB, flash and static memory) already installed? A quick search on Amazon or eBay did not reveal much. That's the nice thing about the newer chips (AVR, ESP8266, ESP32, STM32, etc). All those peripherals are already included on the SoC or the dev board. It is very easy to quickly upload the firmware through serial-USB, and start having fun.
- dTal 4y ago
  Not a dev board, but the cheapest used Z80 machine might be a Texas Instruments graphing calculator. Ebay's full of them for pocket change. Even comes with a screen!
  - bxparks 4y ago
    Yeah, I've been looking at those TI calculators for a few years, hoping to dabble in some Z80 assembly programming for nostalgia. I've also been eyeing their TI-92, 92II, 92Plus, and Voyage 200 series of calculators. They use the 68000 processor and have qwerty keyboards. It looks like there is a C compiler for it (http://tigcc.ticalc.org/ http://tigcc.ticalc.org/), so it ought to be possible to do some interesting things, like this Fuzix OS, or a FORTH, LISP or Lua interpreter, or a terminal program over a serial link to a battery-powered ESP8266/ESP32 to the internet over WiFi.
    - dTal 4y ago
      The 68k calculators are indeed delightful machines. You've found TIGCC - you should also be aware of GCC4TI, a fork of TIGCC due to the original maintainer not accepting contributions, and GTC-IDE which is an independent (non-gcc) C compiler that runs on the calculators themselves (although the frequent memory leaks render the development loop tedious - no memory protection means leaked memory is gone for good until you "reboot"). There is a mature independent OS called PedroM, and someone even made some progress porting 4.4BSD (PunixOS).
- cdcarter 4y ago
KingOfCoders 4y ago
Recently learned there was a computer with dual Z80 and 68000 CPUs (my two favorites) from Cromemco.
- jecel 4y ago
  I saw one of those running Cromix. It was being sold in Brazil as if it were a local machine by Brascom called BR-1000[1]. They called the OS "BR1000" as well. Some students were trying some examples from the manual and they weren't working. I suggested they replace all calls to br1000() with cromix() and that did the trick. Another Z80/68K machine was the TRS-80 Model 16[2]. The Sega Genesis[3] (or Mega Drive) was another case of these two processors paired together. [1] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=533 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=533 [2] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=242 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=242 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis
UncleSlacky 4y ago
Spectrum and MTX, but no Amstrad CPC or PCW port? Seems like an oversight.
Avshalom 4y ago
There's also NitrOS9 for 680x, an open source clone of the unix like OS-9 http://www.nitros9.org/battle.html http://www.nitros9.org/battle.html http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9_docs.html http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9_docs.html
- kjs3 4y ago
  NitrOS9 only runs on the 6809/6309, not earlier 680x chips. That said, it's an impressively useful system.
BruceEel 4y ago
Noticed this on the Github page: We need a 'proper' 65C816 C compiler Aren't there any?
- renewedrebecca 4y ago
  There isn't a good open source one, no. The WDC has a compiler, but it's a bit dated, and windows only. There is also the 'Calypsi' C compiler which is free for hobbyist use, but also is not open source: https://www.calypsi.cc https://www.calypsi.cc. There are also ports of tcc and lcc, but from what I remember, there are some bugs in the code generation. cc65 is 6502-only, as is the mos-llvm project. The 65C816 isn't exactly the easiest CPU to write a C compiler for.
  - BruceEel 4y ago
    I wrote a 65C816 assembler back in day, together with a friend who had Super Famicom. I remember looking at some of the hand-written code from the demos and thinking well, hm, this code would be tricky to generate...
    - renewedrebecca 4y ago
      I was trying a couple of months ago to write a pascal compiler for the '816. Just trying to come up with a decent strategy for code generation was a massive pain in the neck.
      - BruceEel 4y ago
        Someone needs to write that "65C816 Register Allocation and Instruction Selection" book. On the flip side, I am working on an ARM64 codegen and I pretty much have only myself to blame for the lack of progress...

94 points by aww_dang 4y ago

This is great. It would be good if there were screenshots, or even links to YouTube videos for the different platforms showing this in action.

tluyben2 4y ago
Spinning up an emulator gives you to real first hand experience. It’s very nice; I ran it a long time ago on real msx-2 machines. Impressive work.

euclaise 4y ago

I'd like to see this ported to TI graphing calculators

cylinder714 4y ago
There's KnightOS: https://knightos.org/ https://knightos.org/ KnightOS will run on any upgradable Texas Instruments calculator based on the z80 CPU. This includes the TI-73, TI-83+, TI-83+ Silver Edition, TI-84+, TI-84+ Silver Edition, and TI-84+ Color Silver Edition. You can also run it on the French variations of these calculators, or in an emulator.

systems_glitch 4y ago

Wow, there's an 8080/8085 port now! I'll have to see if I can get it going on my 8085 SBC.

pjmlp 4y ago

They even support Sam Coupe!

zelos 4y ago
Wow, I didn't think there were enough people who'd even heard of the Sam Coupe.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  During 128K speccy models to Amiga transition timeframe, it was common to see Sam Coupes in computer stores in Portugal.
- stevekemp 4y ago
  I remember being impressed at the specs of the Coupe, and seeing the manual was a pleasure. But even at the time it was released it seemed obvious it was doomed to failure. I never saw one in the flesh, but I did want to. The 48k spectrum was everywhere, and I have a giant print of the infamous rubber keyboard hanging on the wall behind me, but everything after that was always less special. (I owned a +2A, and I knew a couple of people with the +3, but they were very uncommon and mostly people moved on to 16 bit machines instead of staying in the Sinclair family.)
  - zelos 4y ago
    Yes, I ended up with a Coupe instead of an Amiga as my parents knew nothing about computers and figured it would be a good follow on from my +2. It was a clever machine in some ways, but from the launch it was clearly doomed.
- lproven 4y ago
  I owned one. Bought new. I sold it to a friend for £30 about 20Y ago. I regret that now. A lovely machine, but you needed MasterDOS and MasterBASIC to get the full potential... and it was doomed by the success of the Spectrum 128, with which it was incompatible. But a lovely computer all the same.

mariuz 4y ago

You can run it on Raspberry Pi Pico : How to get started with FUZIX on Raspberry Pi Pico https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-get-started-with-fuzix-on-raspberry-pi-pico/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-get-started-with-fuz...

verytrivial 4y ago
David Given (hjalfi on YouTube) did this port I think. He streamed the porting process for the esp8266[1] too. GREAT STUFF. https://youtu.be/cDHcGY7EzUM https://youtu.be/cDHcGY7EzUM

tyingq 4y ago

>Support for multiple processes in banked memory This is pretty cool. Per-process memory space via old-school physical switching of lines to the ram chips. Using a 74xxx multiplexer as a dumb MMU.

Aissen 4y ago

Fun fact: Fuzix started as legendary Linux kernel hacker Alan Cox's retirement project :-) Edit: it has many contributors now, clarified that it start as Alan Cox's project.

throwaway81523 4y ago
I thought FUZIX started out as UZI, Unix Z80 Implementation, by Doug Braun. I remember seeing someone had ported it to the Raspberry Pi Pico but for some reason that is not mentioned on fuzix.org as far as I see. https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/02/23/fuzix-unix-like-operating-system-ported-to-raspberry-pi-pico-and-esp8266/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/02/23/fuzix-unix-like-oper...
- geijoenr 4y ago
  I think indeed one of the starting points was UZI, it is mentioned somewhere in the readme or license files.

bxparks 4y ago

Are there any readily available dev boards using these classic microprocessors (6800, 6502, 6809, Z80) that have the various peripherals (UART, serial USB, flash and static memory) already installed? A quick search on Amazon or eBay did not reveal much. That's the nice thing about the newer chips (AVR, ESP8266, ESP32, STM32, etc). All those peripherals are already included on the SoC or the dev board. It is very easy to quickly upload the firmware through serial-USB, and start having fun.

dTal 4y ago
Not a dev board, but the cheapest used Z80 machine might be a Texas Instruments graphing calculator. Ebay's full of them for pocket change. Even comes with a screen!
- bxparks 4y ago
  Yeah, I've been looking at those TI calculators for a few years, hoping to dabble in some Z80 assembly programming for nostalgia. I've also been eyeing their TI-92, 92II, 92Plus, and Voyage 200 series of calculators. They use the 68000 processor and have qwerty keyboards. It looks like there is a C compiler for it (http://tigcc.ticalc.org/ http://tigcc.ticalc.org/), so it ought to be possible to do some interesting things, like this Fuzix OS, or a FORTH, LISP or Lua interpreter, or a terminal program over a serial link to a battery-powered ESP8266/ESP32 to the internet over WiFi.
  - dTal 4y ago
    The 68k calculators are indeed delightful machines. You've found TIGCC - you should also be aware of GCC4TI, a fork of TIGCC due to the original maintainer not accepting contributions, and GTC-IDE which is an independent (non-gcc) C compiler that runs on the calculators themselves (although the frequent memory leaks render the development loop tedious - no memory protection means leaked memory is gone for good until you "reboot"). There is a mature independent OS called PedroM, and someone even made some progress porting 4.4BSD (PunixOS).
cdcarter 4y ago

KingOfCoders 4y ago

Recently learned there was a computer with dual Z80 and 68000 CPUs (my two favorites) from Cromemco.

jecel 4y ago
I saw one of those running Cromix. It was being sold in Brazil as if it were a local machine by Brascom called BR-1000[1]. They called the OS "BR1000" as well. Some students were trying some examples from the manual and they weren't working. I suggested they replace all calls to br1000() with cromix() and that did the trick. Another Z80/68K machine was the TRS-80 Model 16[2]. The Sega Genesis[3] (or Mega Drive) was another case of these two processors paired together. [1] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=533 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=533 [2] https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=242 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=242 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis

UncleSlacky 4y ago

Spectrum and MTX, but no Amstrad CPC or PCW port? Seems like an oversight.

Avshalom 4y ago

There's also NitrOS9 for 680x, an open source clone of the unix like OS-9 http://www.nitros9.org/battle.html http://www.nitros9.org/battle.html http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9_docs.html http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9_docs.html

kjs3 4y ago
NitrOS9 only runs on the 6809/6309, not earlier 680x chips. That said, it's an impressively useful system.

BruceEel 4y ago

Noticed this on the Github page: We need a 'proper' 65C816 C compiler Aren't there any?

renewedrebecca 4y ago
There isn't a good open source one, no. The WDC has a compiler, but it's a bit dated, and windows only. There is also the 'Calypsi' C compiler which is free for hobbyist use, but also is not open source: https://www.calypsi.cc https://www.calypsi.cc. There are also ports of tcc and lcc, but from what I remember, there are some bugs in the code generation. cc65 is 6502-only, as is the mos-llvm project. The 65C816 isn't exactly the easiest CPU to write a C compiler for.
- BruceEel 4y ago
  I wrote a 65C816 assembler back in day, together with a friend who had Super Famicom. I remember looking at some of the hand-written code from the demos and thinking well, hm, this code would be tricky to generate...
  - renewedrebecca 4y ago
    I was trying a couple of months ago to write a pascal compiler for the '816. Just trying to come up with a decent strategy for code generation was a massive pain in the neck.
    - BruceEel 4y ago
      Someone needs to write that "65C816 Register Allocation and Instruction Selection" book. On the flip side, I am working on an ARM64 codegen and I pretty much have only myself to blame for the lack of progress...