Hi,
The short summer in the Pacific Northwest is coming to its end, and I
started to think about projects for the long winter.
I visited a local surplus store yesterday and picked a few MC68020 / 20
MHz processors with sockets... They were real cheap, and I couldn't
resist. :-)
So I am thinking about what should I build with these processors. Here
are some of my ideas:
- It would be nice to build a computer that could run some kind of
UNIX. Unfortunately that means the system will need to have an MMU (and
the matching MC68851 PMMU seems to be an unobtainium). Are there any
UNIX-like systems that would work without an MMU? Any other OS
recommendations? OS-9 could be a good fit, but AFAIK it is not free. Or
maybe I should implement some kind of rudimentary MMU (e.g. 74LS612) or
use a CPLD?
- It could be a standalone system with processor, memory, several
UARTs, block storage (most likely an IDE compatible flash card).
- Or an extendable SBC with VME or ECB bus. VME seems to be a good fit,
although I want to keep the board size small, so most likely it will be
a single connector 24-bit address/16-bit data VME variety... Here is
such a project:
http://www.dutch.nl/bdj/vme/68020sys.htm
- Use 32-bit SRAM memory - four 512 KiB chips. Possibly add a connector
for a memory card for future extension (and to keep SBC small)
Thanks,
Sergey