Re: [TUHS] Zilog Z80 Unix

Yes, Cromemco was the company, Cromix their unix like OS. IIRC, in 1981-83 timeframe someone I worked with had mentioned he used to work at Cromemco and that they had a unix like OS called Cromix. Cromemco were in Mountain View so likely they were at the WCCF. Even though z80 could only address 64k, their system had a bank select under s/w control & upto 512K of RAM could be added. Z80 didn't have a supervisor mode but still, the bank select must have afforded enouh protection from bad pointers crashing random processes. On Wed, 19 Apr 2017 23:40:30 EDT Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hello! > That was also a board vendor. FYI: The first GASP [GetAway Special > Program] a Space Shuttle payload made use of such a board. > ----- > Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8(a)gmail.com > "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again." > > > On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:09 PM, Bakul Shah <bakul(a)bitblocks.com> wrote: > > On Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:42:42 PDT "Erik E. Fair" <fair-tuhs(a)netbsd.org> wrote: > >> I have a memory of having seen a Zilog Z-80 (not Z8002 like the Onyx) based > >> Unix, possibly v6, at a vendor show or conference - perhaps the West Coast > >> Computer Faire (WCCF) in the late 1970s or early 1980s. > >> > >> I recall asking the people in the booth how they managed without an MMU, and > >> don't recall their answer. I do remember thinking that since Unix had "grown > >> up" with MMUs to stomp on obvious pointer mistakes, the software ought to be > >> relatively well-behaved ... you know: not trying to play "core war" with > >> itself? > >> > >> I searched the TUHS archives cursorily with Google to see if this has been > >> previously mentioned, but pretty much all Z80 CPU references have for its use > >> in "smart" I/O devices back in the day. > >> > >> Does anyone else remember this Z80 Unix and who did it? Or maybe that it was > >> a clone of some kind ... ? > >> > >> looking for a little history, > >> > >> Erik Fair > > > > You may be thinking of Cromemco.