OSDev.org

Hello.

I think the first version of Andy Tanenbaum's OS Design and Implementation contains 16BIT MINIX! Am I right?

(He talks about one MB of memory and calls BIOS funtions to shut-down MINIX and there's no IDT or GDT)

Do newer versions contain MINIX in 32 bits?

no, reprints of the book dont have the 386 version.

df wrote: no, reprints of the book dont have the 386 version.

which is because the 386-version wasn't Tanenbaums to start with. The license prevented people from distributing any modified sources so they had to spread patches instead, and that annoyed this one guy Linus so much....

The rest is history.

There are actually two editions of Tanenbaums book.
The first (released in the eighties) has a red cover and is definintely 16 bit. The second edition is in a white cover and is indeed 32 bit from the ground up. It was written in collaboration with Albert S Woodhull and comes with a CD that has both versions of Minix (1 and 2). (These are US printed versions).
Version 2 supports TCP/IP networking, Ethernet and other drivers.
The OS is still very 'sparse' but I think that is because it is still an 'educational OS' meant to be extended and tinkered with.
The ISBN is 0-13-638677-6.
Executables for both can be found at http://minix1.hampshire.edu/pub/minix.2.0/2.0.2/
but to get the source code you're going to have to buy the book.

http://minix1.hampshire.edu/index.html shows the front cover of the edition I'm talking about and there is a link to a minix source tree browser.

i have the white cover version of the book with minix2 and I really dont remember any 386 discussion in the book, but it has been a long time...

Do you think I could borrow the latest reprint of the book from an university library?
(They had got the first version there)

But if I take a coach to the university and back about five times, I could have bougt the book for the price.

In the white cover version (2nd edition) the text does not change all that much. However the code for minix (V2) is definitely 32 bit.
It switches to 386 protected mode. Programs share a single 4Gbyte address space. Drivers can be loaded above 1Mbyte.
Minix 2 (unlike most OS's) is still heavily segmented due to backwards compatibility with the original version. Which processor you aim for is set in defines.
#DEFINE CHIP == INTEL/M68000 etc... if I recall correctly.
Minix is one of the few OS's that can take full advantage of 286 protected mode as it also has that code built in too.
I guess the problem is that programs must be recompiled for each mode. A 16bit minix program can't run on the 32 bit version.