Other PDP11 simulators

From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon_at_gjcp.net>
Date: Tue Oct 5 17:14:59 2004

Scott Stevens wrote:

> Why would the userspace daemons be needed?
>
> Monolythic kernel. No modules.
> Filesystem support built in emulator.
> etc. etc.
>
> This is somebody who wants bare access to the hardware, the thinnest
> possible layer of emulation. Probably they'd be better off launching
> it from a DOS session, actually, since Linux isn't really a compact
> 'program loader' and that's about all DOS really is. Using Linux that
> way would be a waste.
>

Well, if you want to re-invent the wheel, go right ahead. Using the
Linux kernel (or indeed any other Unix kernel, I would choose NetBSD
myself) would give you some hardware support, networking if you wanted
it, process separation if you think it's a good idea, and a lot more
besides.

If you're happy to write a filesystem from scratch, and stick with only
using BIOS calls (firmware BIOS at that, so no file handling for you!)
then yes, you could just write it to load as an "operating system" in
its own right. You could make it a standalone DOS application that
would use normal DOS calls too.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to use a normal application running on a
normal operating system?

Gordon.
Received on Tue Oct 05 2004 - 17:14:59 BST