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Intellivision Operating System Revealed
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the IntyOS site, which has released Version 0.2 Alpha of a "multitasked operating system for the Intellivision console." According to the site, IntyOS "..includes a powerful GUI which handles a mouse pointer, windows, menus, icons, etc", and was "..written from scratch in CP-1600 assembly language in order to fit exactly to the hardware specificities of the Intellivision. Its main goal is now to see how far it's possible to go with today's technologies on such a limited system from the early 80's" There's also a site mirror available, and the demo ROM is viewable in a Java applet.
can Doom run on it yet?
Why do this? Because it's there? I have a Tandy 102 without a working "P" on the keyboard someone could have. Maybe it would be neat to write a OS without using any P's.
The best way to do is to be.
http://intyos.spatula-city.org/
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
whats next, getting linux to run on an abacus?
I swear, this is still more proof that *BSD is dying.
sulli
RTFJ.
If someone can fit a GUI'd, multitasking OS in such a small amount of physical memory, why does Windows have to take up so much, or even Linux for that matter? I realize that programming in assembly is a bitch over C++, but surely Microsoft, with it's paid developers, could accomplish something streamlined like this.
I wish Gates would hold off on innovation for a couple of years to produce such a beast. I, for one, would gladly pay for an Assembly-optimized, thoroughly bug-fixed version of Windows.
My first console was the Intellivision. Bought it so that I could program it when they released the keyboard. Still waiting.
So wait, someone's installing an OS on a retro system... it isn't Linux... yet it's being posted on Slashdot?
What's going on here?
http://mediagoblin.org/
Chad Schell made a run of Intellicarts that let you download just about any game to your real Intellivision. It's only too bad he stopped after around 100 or so...
:)
And yes, I have one
The local cable TV system in Dubuque Iowa did an experiment with Intellivision, back in the day. Intellivision users could get a special cable adapter and play other users across the cable net. This was the first networked multiuser video game system in the world. The system also offered text chat. It was a short-lived experiment, IIRC it only lasted a year or two, then Group W Cable discovered it wasn't making any money on it, so they pulled the plug. Still, it was an awesome precedent.
I was curious if someone familiar with older processors could explain the significance of independent MOBS? Are these small independent caches for storing sprites or something?
Sounds like they are sprites - hardware ones, that is (sometimes called 'BOBs').
You create a bitmap in video memory (video memory was a section of RAM that was accessible by the video chip), then point a hardware register to it - the hardware takes care of drawing the sprite on the screen.
Typically you animate the sprite by changing the pointer to point to a different image.
The sprite hardware typically had location register(s) as well, so you could move the sprite on the screen by changing the X/Y registers.. the C64 had two registers (split over 3 bytes) to control the X/Y location of a sprite, but some systems (such as Atari, IIRC) only had one location register (for horizontal location), and you had to redraw the sprite to move it in the other direction.
An Intellivision contains a General Instruments CP1610, which is a 16-bit microprocessor. More details available here. The Intellivision contained a rather powerful processor for it's day, which is probably why this is possible. You could buy a keyboard for it (which contained additional RAM) that allowed you to program it in BASIC.
A big one is hardware abstraction. Sure, you can produce a 100% optimised 100% assembly program for a given system configuration. However I for one value the ability to have different hardware. For that you need abstraction. The Os needs to present a unified API for a given function (like OpenGL for graphics) and then handle the abstraction to the driver layer.
Another bigge is features. So great, they got a multi taking OS that runs a clock and such on an old system. Show me one that does the same things Linux or Windows does (like have a full featured web browser, 3d graphics, sound, etc) and then I'll jump on the bloat train.
Then there are others like maintainability, expandibility, portability and so on. Go ahead and write a major application, like something on the order of Office or Mozilla in pure assembly. Supposing you can even tackle that task, then try and maintain it. For even more fun, try porting it. You'll quickly see why C++ is a plus.
Yes, modern stuff does tned to suffer form some bloat since hardware allows it, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to use the extra power available.
All those man hours...could probably be better spent in any number of ways... Sorry, but I just don't see the value in a project such as this one.
...
And my time could be spent far better than by responding to your obnoxous flamebait post, but I just couldn't let it slide -- I despise this attitude, every time it pops up in technology, government, education,
There are smart and creative people out there. Every day, these people do things for no particular reason other than their own curiosity, education, and betterment. This is the human spirit at its finest. Sometimes these things become the foundation of new discoveries, sometimes they just get written up and provide inspiration, information, or amusement for others.
But the fact is, it's none of your business how these people you don't know spend their time. And since we're sharing our personal opinions here anyway, mine is that your time would be better spent learning HTML and doing something productive rather than posting anonymous ignorant criticisms of people who accomplish more than you could ever dream of.
This sounds like an Ig Nobel Prize candidate to me. To quote the website, "Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK. Technically speaking, the Igs honor people whose achievements 'cannot or should not be reproduced.'"
Sounds like we have a real winner, unless they've ported NetBSD to a toaster yet.