Planet m68k
News around Motorola 68000 CPU computer systems

• Cameron Kaiser has released a gopher client for AMOS OS on Alpha Micro by hacking its TCP client suite: https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2020/09/hacking-gopher-client-into-alpha-micro.html
• The Alpha Micro machines were based on various 68K CPUs but notable that they were multiuser business "mini minis" and actually run the 68K in little-endian mode for compatibility with their previous architecture's data files. General information: http://ampm.floodgap.com/ (hosted on an Alpha Micro Eagle 300, a 1994 system with a 68EC030)

• DOS GEM Sources (with a horrible git history of piled up zip files with sources inside ) https://github.com/shanecoughlan/OpenGEM
• Atari TOS operating system calls documentation https://freemint.github.io/tos.hyp/
• llvm/m68k backend bounty source (please support this project if possible): https://www.bountysource.com/issues/90829856-llvm-complete-the-m68000-backend-so-it-can-be-merged-upstream
• Charlie wrote: you can link together 68k ELF objects to Atari PRG with vlink . It's the linker that goes with vbcc & vasm (not FLOSS but you get the source). It works in practice too, I use that combination in Free Pascal for TOS support. Using ELF objects have several advantages over a.out objects, like named sections, which allows section garbage collection linking time. http://sun.hasenbraten.de/vlink/
• Firefee uses ColdFire to have fast (partially) Atari compatible computer: http://firebee.org/fb-bin/index
• Coldfire Programmers Reference Manual (CFPRM): https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/reference-manual/CFPRM.pdf
• Sinclair QL Hardware: https://qlwiki.qlforum.co.uk/doku.php?id=qlwiki:hardware
• Sinclair QL discussion forum: https://www.qlforum.co.uk/
• Sinclair QL versus JAGUAR http://www.sinclairql.net/QLvsJAGUAR.html
• QL vs Jaguar Youttube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQDnFVcprb6Ks_BuZWZTVFg
• py68k a M68K emulator based on Musashi, with a Python device model https://github.com/John-Titor/py68k
• Video: Sophie Wilson (ARM CPU Architect) - Future of CPU architectures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHXBUvpc9Zk&t=3s
• Video: Bell Mensch (6502 CPU Architect) - Genesis of 6502 http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-west-event-schedule/ https://youtu.be/7YoolSAHR5w
• Interview with Gunnar von Boehn of the Apollo Team (Vampire 68080 CPU): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ5XoVmL-d4
• Charlie: How http://m68k.info looks on an actual system (my A2000 + IBrowse):
• MC 68008 Card for the Apple ][
  • Video https://invidious.13ad.de/watch?v=NCH6AcMvkdk&autoplay=0
  • German Article PDF: http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/rojas/pub/68008_Karte.pdf
  • English translation: https://manualzz.com/doc/6934178/68008-cpu-card-for-the-apple

• PDF Slides
• Support the LLVM/m68k backend through BountySource

• PDF slides of the talk
• EmuTOS Project Website
• EmuTOS Project Facebook page
• EmuTOS Source Code on Github
• Vincent Riviere's m68k-atari-mint cross-tools
• EmuTOS Mailing List

after almost 20 years of development the EmuTOS project reached the version number 1.0. EmuTOS is a Free operating system for computers based on Motorola 680x0 or ColdFire microprocessors. It features functionality similar to TOS, which powered the Atari ST and its successors between 1985 and 1994.

• Major changes:
  • BIOS: Add keyboard mapping for Spanish keyboard
  • BIOS: Change Spanish character set to Atari ASCII, like Atari TOS
  • BIOS: Improve joystick compatibility with Atari TOS
  • EmuDesk: Implement "Search""Cycle windows""Select all items" in File menu
  • EmuDesk: Implement "Size to Fit" in View menu
  • EmuDesk: Implement "Cache" in Options menu
  • EmuDesk: Add user-modifiable shortcuts for desktop menu items
  • VDI: Add support for Atari GDOS
  • VDI: Fix spacing and positioning of outlined text
  • VDI: Improve text output quality for special effects
  • VDI: Underline text within character cell if possible, like Atari TOS
  • General: Add Polish language support
  • General: Generate language-specific ROMs for PAK 68/3 hardware
• Website and Download: https://emutos.sourceforge.io

Recording from the m68k.info chat on 21st August 2020:

neozeed had success in running the C-Compiler of AT&T Unix on the FreeBee Emulator (emulating a AT&T 3B1 machine, patched version of the emulator https://github.com/shadyjesse/freebee). Now it is possible to compile new software for these interesting old Unix systems: https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2020/08/29/thanks-to-shadyjesse-philpems-freebee-can-now-run-the-c-compiler/

The ZZ9000 graphics card from MNT (revision R-1 and R-2) has a design error that shorts the 1V8 and 3V3 supply voltage rails of the ZYNQ module, causing the ZYNQ module to overhead.

In his blog article "The first cut is the deepest!", Stefan Reinauer explains how he found and fixed the issue.

MNT has published a document on about the fix.

In addition, the MNT ZZ9000 Firmware 1.7.0 Beta 2 is now available along with a new version of ZZTop (AmigaOS tool for ZZ9000 diagnostics).

Francois Revol has re-started work on his port of the HaikuOS to the Motorola 68000 architecture. Recent progress https://m.g3l.org/@mmu_man/104558619892698374. Older status reports on https://www.haiku-os.org/tags/m68k/

Not new, but rediscovered in August: Rob Braun has some interesting notes on booting NetBSD/m68k on a Mac Centris 650. His Webpage also has some interesting system tools for classic MacOS.

• NetBSD/mac68k Work Entry #1
• NetBSD/mac68k Work Entry #2

Yoshinori Sato adds support for the Japanese Sharp X68000 console to the Linux kernel: https://osdn.net/projects/uclinux-h8/scm/git/linux/commits?branch=x68k

A demonstration video on Twitter is showing Debian boot on the X68000: https://twitter.com/ysat0/status/1245005871844741127

Lawrence Manning is porting EmuTOS to his FPGA based m68k board. He is documenting the bring-up in his blog at http://www.aslak.net

• qemacs - a lean Emacs flavored editor https://bellard.org/qemacs/
• the Gryphon 68030 1.0 board https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boards:sbc:gryphon_68030:start
• the ECB KISS-68030 board https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boards:ecb:kiss-68030:start
• Linux on the (ARM) Palm Pilot https://palmdb.net/palm-linux/
• Mac PowerBook 550c (68040) https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook/specs/mac_powerbook550c.html
• PAPERCRAFT MODELS http://rockybergen.com/papercraft
• Keyboard Babel, open source keyboard protocol translator project - various keyboard interfaces http://kbdbabel.org/

Vincent Riviere created a video (over 1 hour) showing ARAnyM + EmuTOS + FreeMiNT + fVDI + XaAES + Tera Desktop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOkDuLmgWFo

The video is in french language with english subtitles.

Rob Mitchelmore is trying to get GEM working (again) on the Apple Lisa. He got release GEMDOS 1.1 running, based on the GEMPORT kit's Lisa BIOS and the GEMDOS 1.1 sources, and it is self-hosting: EmuTOS Mailing List Thread

John Paul Adrian Glaubitz reports that the m68k backend for LLVM has been finished. It has not been merged upstream yet (that will take some time), but it should be usable now. Adrian is currently test-building it on Debian/m68k and it is asking for help finding issues: https://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/2020/06/msg00029.html

Stefan Reinauer has created an Xorg driver for Linux m68k: https://source.mntmn.com/stepan/zz9000-linux-m68k