OS/A65 Computer and Operating System

(c) 1989-1997 André Fachat [Mail] [Homepage]

oa-1.3.94r.tar.gz

And the new version is much more portable than the old one. The source has been divided into system dependent stuff and system-independent stuff. Only in the arch subdirectory the different codes for different architectures are located. And a porting guide - well, some comments on porting to other platforms - is available. Currently supported are the famous Commodore C64, as well as the Gecko computer and my selfbuilt CS/A65 machine with virtual memory.

The development of the kernel is (hopefully) complete(!!), only bugixes will make it in. The system applications are adapted to the new ROM boot code, but do not (yet) use the new kernel features. The rs232 devices now support the new stream BRK flag, but nothing more, and the spooler does not yet forward the stream flags. Real applications are not yet available, because the next step is to implement the lib6502 for the system.

Because of this development stage the system is released for porting, commenting and development of system applications as a BETA release.

The new kernel description can be found in kernel2.html.

In 1989, after my first semester at university, I made the first line on the schematics for a small self-designed and self-built computer. This computer, based on the 6502 CPU, has until 1992 become a small computer system. But from then I only occasionally worked on it.

Well, after someone asked me to release it to the public, I decided to overhaul the documentation, translate it to english and put it under the GNU public license. (Which, of course, doesn't hold true for the ported BASIC interpreter. See this file for more.)

A CS/A65 emulator has been released!

There is a very, very preliminary design proposal for a 6502 standard library available. The library will not make it into 1.3, but will be part of the upcoming 1.4 version.

Version 1.3.13 has an experimental TCP/SLIP implementation, which is can be used as a client to a fileserver on the other side. Also a simple WWW server is included. There is a README for the SLIP stuff. Since 13d, the thing seems to be quite stable...

Version 1.3.12 supports the GECKO computer, a selfbuilt system without MMU. The schematics are also on the site!

Here is a short introduction to what has changed between versions 1.3.10 and 1.3.6g, because this is a more structural change then the one up to 1.3.12.

• Overview over the Computer System and its Software

• Have a look at the Hardware!

• Here is the cross assembler xa you need to assemble the whole stuff

• oa-1.3.13e.tar.gz, the source code, including the html docs and a pre-assembled 'c64rom' image.

• oa1313e.lzh, the source code, including the html docs as well as a 'c64rom' assembled ROM image, for the DOS people who cannot use my cross assembler...

• How to build the binaries

• A description of the files in the archive

• kernel interface

• Operation without an MMU

• filesystem interface

• standard library

• introduction to the devices

• summary of shell features and commands

• summary of monitor features and commands

• summary of features and extensions of the BASIC interpreter (c) Commodore

• The README that comes with the binary.

• The README.c64 with instructions how to run it on the C64

• The README.slip with instructions how to run the TCP/SLIP software

• The ChangeLog about the stuff

• There also is a list ofKnown Bugs

Well, when I did this project, it was just for fun. But now I find it quite nice. Well, if you know some magazin that would like to publish some of it, I will be glad writing an article or so (if anybody really wants it ;-)
But on the other hand my interests have moved. Occasionally I still work on the project - when I have the time (or take the time ;-)
But after all, I don't really have time for it.