3 ms·

There was a project at IBM that used the 68K. If memory serves, IBM thought it would be "too powerful" so they chose the 16-bit 8086. Writing boot ROM code for

by kabdib 12y ago

There was a project at IBM that used the 68K. If memory serves, IBM thought it would be "too powerful" so they chose the 16-bit 8086. Writing boot ROM code for the 68K [at Atari, not IBM...] was a lot of fun. For instance, the first thing we needed to do, before we could use any RAM, was to size the available RAM; this code ran a little memory test using just the 16 registers (and no stack, of course). Didn't take long to write, but it was a neat little puzzle. Writing embedded software is neat. I still get a rush when a new design wakes up and prints out "Hello world!" on a serial port, and on the ST it was way cool when the floppy drive did its first seek. "Hey guys, watch this!" Grknnnnkknknkg Little things. :-) Don't know if you could do CPLD initialization with the same constraints, but it doesn't seem that hard . . . :-) Motorola seemed to run out of 68K gas in the late 1980s. Maybe they were distracted? They developed the 88000 RISC, and at Apple we actually had some NuBus boards that we were urged to write software for, but that effort wasn't terribly well organized and ultimately fizzled (one fine day we were told to immediately rip out all our 88K dev boards and return them. Something contractual probably fell apart, and we guessed that some lawyers had gone non-linear...)

marktangotango 12y ago
Attempting to control the consumer market by choosing a lesser chip does sound like something IBM would do. They were all about protecting their turf (as400 and mainframes).
- jacquesm 12y ago
  I ran into an AS400 a week ago on a job, box the size of your average PC, second hand (refurbished) cost: $125000... That's a good markup, and it doesn't seem to do anything that a regular rack mounted intel box couldn't do. It probably has some reserve in terms of IO and reliability but for the spot where it's sitting it is total overkill (ancient ERP system only running on that hardware).
  - peapicker 12y ago
    The extra cost is in the extra 2 to 4 nines of uptime guarantee.
  - rogerbinns 12y ago
    The AS/400 is completely different hardware and software. I don't mean that it just a reimplementation of what you are used to, but rather alien to what you are used to. It is designed to be a business system, and an evolution of the System 32/36/38. I recommend Frank Soltis' books about it, although they are very expensive. For example an earlier edition is http://www.amazon.com/Inside-As-400-Frank-Soltis/dp/1882419138 http://www.amazon.com/Inside-As-400-Frank-Soltis/dp/18824191... As an example there is extreme backwards compatibility, pervasive database, single address space (a different meaning of virtual memory than you are used to), sharing, tagged and protected pointers, clustering etc.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      Thank you! I've worked with some pretty weird hardware in the past so I think I'll be just fine but pointers are very much appreciated.
lbruder 12y ago
That's why I loved the CBM64 floppy drive. The 1541 didn't have a light barrier to find its base position, so the stepper motor had to move against a physical barrier long enough to ensure it was at a known position. Brrrrrrrrttttt...pkTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRmkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKrtttttt... Loading... Ready. God I miss that sound.
unoti 12y ago
You worked on the ST firmware! That's so cool!
ido 12y ago
I never understood why the ST wasn't more successful - in the 80s these were more or less the same as macs for less than 1/2 (1/3?) the price. Why get a mac plus with 1mb ram for $2500 when an ST with the same amount of ram and higher res (monochrome - like the plus) monitor was $1000? Considerably cheaper than comparable and even slower PC clones too.
foobarge 12y ago
Your blog is answering so many young adult-hood questions I had about many things Atari, it's unbelievable.
wglb 12y ago
Writing boot ROM code for the 68K So this was for the Atari ST? I was at MWC when that came out and it was a hacker's delight.

by kabdib 12y ago

marktangotango 12y ago

Attempting to control the consumer market by choosing a lesser chip does sound like something IBM would do. They were all about protecting their turf (as400 and mainframes).

jacquesm 12y ago
I ran into an AS400 a week ago on a job, box the size of your average PC, second hand (refurbished) cost: $125000... That's a good markup, and it doesn't seem to do anything that a regular rack mounted intel box couldn't do. It probably has some reserve in terms of IO and reliability but for the spot where it's sitting it is total overkill (ancient ERP system only running on that hardware).
- peapicker 12y ago
  The extra cost is in the extra 2 to 4 nines of uptime guarantee.
- rogerbinns 12y ago
  The AS/400 is completely different hardware and software. I don't mean that it just a reimplementation of what you are used to, but rather alien to what you are used to. It is designed to be a business system, and an evolution of the System 32/36/38. I recommend Frank Soltis' books about it, although they are very expensive. For example an earlier edition is http://www.amazon.com/Inside-As-400-Frank-Soltis/dp/1882419138 http://www.amazon.com/Inside-As-400-Frank-Soltis/dp/18824191... As an example there is extreme backwards compatibility, pervasive database, single address space (a different meaning of virtual memory than you are used to), sharing, tagged and protected pointers, clustering etc.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Thank you! I've worked with some pretty weird hardware in the past so I think I'll be just fine but pointers are very much appreciated.

lbruder 12y ago

That's why I loved the CBM64 floppy drive. The 1541 didn't have a light barrier to find its base position, so the stepper motor had to move against a physical barrier long enough to ensure it was at a known position. Brrrrrrrrttttt...pkTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRmkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKrtttttt... Loading... Ready. God I miss that sound.

unoti 12y ago

You worked on the ST firmware! That's so cool!

ido 12y ago

I never understood why the ST wasn't more successful - in the 80s these were more or less the same as macs for less than 1/2 (1/3?) the price. Why get a mac plus with 1mb ram for $2500 when an ST with the same amount of ram and higher res (monochrome - like the plus) monitor was $1000? Considerably cheaper than comparable and even slower PC clones too.

foobarge 12y ago

Your blog is answering so many young adult-hood questions I had about many things Atari, it's unbelievable.

wglb 12y ago

Writing boot ROM code for the 68K So this was for the Atari ST? I was at MWC when that came out and it was a hacker's delight.