Planet m68k
News around Motorola 68000 CPU computer systems
An TLS secured version of this page can be found at https://secure.m68k.info
Chat rooms (bridged):
- IRC: irc.oftc.net #m68k
- Matrix: #m68k:nil.im
- Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/U13T90dkZhxJrnTgnd58jQ
- Discord: https://discord.gg/TGudCx26Xp
Next evening chat:
- Date: Friday 22nd January 2021, 19:00 H CET (18:00H / 06:00 PM UTC)
- Location: https://public.senfcall.de/m68k (will be available before the event starts)
- Feature 1: Cameron Kaiser on Alpha Micro Machines - lesser known m68k machines
- Feature 2: Urs König on Sinclair QL (History, Ecosystem and history and modern extensions, QL operaing system and Basic, modern open source operating systems)
If you have news of interest to the m68k development community, please send a note to news@m68k.info
News January 2021
ImHex - A hex editor for reverse engineers
ImHex is a sophisticated Hex editor that among other things, supports dissassembly of m68k and m680x binary files.
News December 2020
Video Recording: Vampire 4 "Stand-Alone" - First impression
The Vampire 4 SA is a Amiga compatible computer with an 68080 CPU in an FPGA from Apollo Accelerators running ApolloOS (a distribution of AROS - The AROS Research Operating System). The Vampire 4 SA can also boot into EmuTOS and Atari MiNT (Atari ST compatible).
Video Recording: A chat with Nick Desaulniers on compiling the Linux Kernel for m68k with LLVM
In this chat we've discussed the "ClangBuildLinux" (https://clangbuiltlinux.github.io) Project. This project builds the Linux-Kernel with the LLVM compiler infrastructure. Now that Min-Yih Hsu has created the m68k backend for LLVM, it might be possible to compile the Linux-Kernel for m68k targets with the modern LLVM compiler infrastructure.
Nick Desaulniers explains the "ClangBuildLinux" Project, the reasons for building the Linux Kernel with LLVM, issues found in the Linux-Kernel through the LLVM code checker. Min-Yih Hsu joined in the chat to give information on the LLVM m68k backend.
Links from the December 2020 Chat
- LLVM for m68k repository: https://github.com/M680x0/M680x0-mono-repo
- This Atari TT has 1 GiB of RAM ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwiaoQws8E0
- Parts of the Linux Kernel might be coded in Rust in the future: https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux
- Also: https://github.com/fishinabarrel/linux-kernel-module-rust
- Debian mailing list: Porting the Rust compiler to m68k https://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/2019/02/msg00003.html
- Last month was QLvember: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTvAnU1jefAJpqlW9QDl7Xmc0yhKKD8vR
- Documentation on early Linux Kernel startup: https://people.kernel.org/linusw/how-the-arm32-kernel-starts
- How Linux-Kernel decompression works: https://people.kernel.org/linusw/how-the-arm32-linux-kernel-decompresses
- Fuzix - A Unix-ish operating system for small machines (Z80, 8080/8085, 6809, 6502, m68k …) by former Linux developer Alan Cox: http://fuzix.org/
- Fuzix Source: https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
- ELKS (another Unix-ish OS for small i8086 systems) https://github.com/jbruchon/elks
- Vampire 4 SA compatible keyboards and mice: https://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/vampire:compatible_usb_input
- QEmacs - a small Emacs clone: https://bellard.org/qemacs/
- Cross-Compilation Toolchain for the Netsurf browser http://git.netsurf-browser.org/toolchains.git/
- Example how to create a tiny FreePascal 'Hello-World' binary: https://github.com/chainq/amiga-tiny-hello-p
- A replacement for PC Window and some of the PC Tools for Commodore PC Bridgeboards for RTG and CPU expanded Amiga computers (written in FreePascal): http://viaduct.amigaspirit.hu
- Grime 68000 (Game) ported to the Sinclair QL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XukgHKBrPIQ
- The whole DOScember playlist (incl. Jan Beta Amiga Bridgeboard video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkwZR0OKwUw&list=PLh38SbsQfKYflf45ZX7IZ3D3rWT37rSRT
- FreePascal and Lazarus on AmigaOS/Aros/MorphOS: http://blog.alb42.de
- Gemini - a protocol between Gopher and HTTP: https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/specification.html
- Fosdem 2021 Retro Computing room https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM21
- The Fosdem 2021 CfP will be linked from https://fosdem.org/2021/news/2020-12-06-accepted-developer-rooms/
- NetSurf Browser with Gopher support: https://m.g3l.org/@mmu_man/101015531745869267
News November 2020
Links from the November 2020 Chat
Multi-Core M68K Machine
- CPU : 2 x 68000 @ 12.288 MHz: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=525
- Bull DPX/2 300 supposedly can have up to 4 68040: http://www.histoireinform.com/Histoire/+infos2/chr5infk.htm
QEMU
- Use of QEMU in Debian m68k: https://db.debian.org/machines.cgi?host=mitchy
- Regression in glibc with QEMU-User: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23960
- QEMU issue tracker for Ubuntu https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/
Atari ST
- 32MHz STE BOOSTER V1: https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/V1STE/index.htm
- Atari ST wakestate nudger: https://blog.troed.se/projects/atari-st-wakestate-nudger/
Alpha Micro
- Alpha Micro Eagle 100 Series http://ampm.floodgap.com/www/e100.htm
Sinclair QL
- #QLvember on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23QLvember
Mac
- About booting on macs:
- Retro68 Development Kit: https://github.com/autc04/Retro68
- Inside Macintosh Series https://vintageapple.org/inside_o/
- EMILE Linux Bootloader for Mac: https://github.com/vivier/EMILE
- PEF Structure https://web.archive.org/web/20020208214155/http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/runtimehtml/RTArch-89.html
Video Recording: Chroot into m68k - a seamless m68k dev environment on Linux with Qemu
This video explains and demonstrates the QEMU user mode and how to setup an Linux m68k development environment that can seamlessly be used from an amd64 host.
With this environment, it is possible to write scripts that execute a mix of native (amd64) and emulated (m68k) commands. It is also possible to start the m68k environment inside a Linux container using systemd-nspawn.
QEMU user mode is a great addition to every cross development toolbox.
Video Recording: Qemu M680x0 support - by Laurent Vivier
Laurent Vivier talks about the existing QEMU Quadra 800 emulation and the linux-user mode. He does explain what are their limitations are, and then what a pure virtual machine can improve. He gives a demo that shows what the machine can do and how to use it. The demo shows live migration between Qemu instances, 9P file sharing between host and Qemu and running Linux m68k in Qemu with a XFCE GUI.
m68k Compiler explorer
- George Nakos (http://beyondbrown.d-bug.me)
run http://brownbot.mooo.com, which is an independent instance of
Matt Godbolt's compiler explorer (https://godbolt.org) that
features quite a few 680x0 cross compilers, and a few native
ones. It is mostly Atari 16/32 focused. People can also share
code snippets using the share button, for example
https://tinyurl.com/y55g53qc. So far, it supports:
- gcc 4.6.4, 4.9.4, 5.4.0, 6.2.0, 7.1.0, 7.2.0, 7.3.0,, 8.1.0, 8.2.0, 8.3.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0, 9.3.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, as well as a special version of 4.6.4 that has fastcall support.
- g++ (same versions as above)
- Clang 11
- vbcc 0.9f
- DICE 3.15
- cc68 5.1
- sozobon 2
- Pure C (Atari 16/32 compiler, provided via an emulation layer which runs the actual 68000 compiler)
- Turbo C (same as above)
- GNU Fortran
- fpc 3.3.1
- vasm 1.8c
- rmac 1.13.1
News October 2020
Joshua Stein started a video series on development on and for MacOS system 6:
I've been writing an IMAP client for and on my Mac 512Ke over the past many weeks. Taking inspiration from Andreas Kling's excellent YouTube videos documenting his development of the Serenity operating system, I thought I'd start screencasting some of my work.
This video is the first of hopefully many and presents a quick introduction to System 6, HFS resource forks, THINK C 5.0, and a look at some of the progress of my IMAP client so far.
News September 2020
Gopher Client for the AMOS OS running on Alpha Micro machines
- 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)
Links and Notes from the September chat:
- 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
Video Recording: LLVM Backend for m68k - by Min-Yih Hsu
- PDF Slides
- Support the LLVM/m68k backend through BountySource
EmuTOS Release 1.0 Atari Amiga
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
Video Recording: Amitari - Atari Software on Amiga Hardware Atari Amiga EmuTOS
Recording from the m68k.info chat on 21st August 2020:
News August 2020
AT&T Unix on m68k Hardware emulator Unix Retro
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/
Hardware fix for the ZZ9000 graphics card and new firmware and tools Amiga
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).
Haiku on m68k Haiku NeXT
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/
NetBSD on Mac68K NetBSD Mac68K
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.
News July 2020
Debian m68k on Sharp X68000 Debian Linux X68000
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
Porting EmuTOS to an FPGA based m68k board FPGA EmuTOS
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
Links from the July online chat Meeting
- 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/
News June 2020
Freemint on ARAnyM AtariST EmuTOS
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.
Resurrecting GEM for the Apple Lisa GEM EmuTOS AppleLisa
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
m68k backend for LLVM has been finished LLVM Debian Linux
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
Linux/m68k driver for MNT ZZ9000 Linux Amiga
Stefan Reinauer has created an Xorg driver for Linux m68k: https://source.mntmn.com/stepan/zz9000-linux-m68k
Ideas
- Gopher Server
- Gemini Server
- RSS Feed
- Filter based on tags
- Colorful tags
- Hosting on an m68k machine (Vampire V4 standalone?)
- m68k Mailing Lists
- m68k Webpages / Forums