OSDev.org

Hello,

I am newish, never posted on the site, but have been reading it for a while. None the less, I am impressed with everyone's work, which will make my project a little "simple" compared to what I see. But I plan on developing a small DOS like OS for both the Atmel AVR (needs to work with the ATmega644/1284 series and the ATxmega series) and the WDC 65C816. I have hardware designs for what direction I will go with but thought I'd mention it.

A File System, Command Prompt and the ability to load programs is what I am after for both systems. Perhaps in the future add a C, Python or Forth compiler to the mix to make it a true "computer" system.

When I finally complete the projects, I'll post source code, but being back in college has been eating up my free time. Who knew that working full time was less work then school.

Dimitri

Good luck with your work!

Dimitri wrote:Hello,

I am newish, never posted on the site, but have been reading it for a while. None the less, I am impressed with everyone's work, which will make my project a little "simple" compared to what I see. But I plan on developing a small DOS like OS for both the Atmel AVR (needs to work with the ATmega644/1284 series and the ATxmega series) and the WDC 65C816. I have hardware designs for what direction I will go with but thought I'd mention it.

A File System, Command Prompt and the ability to load programs is what I am after for both systems. Perhaps in the future add a C, Python or Forth compiler to the mix to make it a true "computer" system.

When I finally complete the projects, I'll post source code, but being back in college has been eating up my free time. Who knew that working full time was less work then school.

Dimitri

I don't think it's a good idea. These devices do not have lot of memory (far less than a compiler requires). I suggest to think of it as a device, and write a device driver that connects it to a PC. The PC sends instructions and the Atmel receives and executes them (bonus point if it's a Turing machine complete) and send results back (if any).

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it really lot of work. Here are some working examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_%288- ... _system%29 (for Commodore64)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiki (for Commodore64, this one has a full TCP/IP stack, and it also runs on Atmel AVR!)

Well I am only 23, but back when I started highschool I was given by a family friend a IBM PCjr, and a bunch of floppies for it, the cool thing is that it all still worked, and with its mere 64kbytes of RAM I was able to do a lot.

At the same time, I had just finished building a "top of the line" Athlon XP 2800 with the nForce2, both new to the market at the time, so it was sort of a blast from the past. Since then I got into microcontrollers and the like, and can't see why the same thing can not be done again.

I probably wouldn't be able to get a version of C into the controller, but there are onboard Forth (64Kbytes of Flash and 4kbytes of RAM) and Python (Pymite needs 8KB Flash, 50bytes EEPROM and 150 bytes RAM), and I've seen C as small as 100Kbytes or so for older PCs.

Dimitri

Dimitri wrote:Hello,

(needs to work with the ATmega644/1284 series and the ATxmega series)

Dimitri

Why not the cortexm3?
is 32 bits but is powerful and cheaper(versions with 128KB flash).And more appropiate for a home made computer.

Eventually I am planning to use the 65C816 which is of the Apple IIGS fame.

However to learn and understand the basics, I might as well stay with a tried and true platform that I know. Which is the AVR due to the fact I started using it 7 years ago.

Dimitri

Python is running on C64.