XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.os.linux.misc   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Fri, 9/20/2024 7:59 AM, chrisv wrote:   
   > The Natural Philosopher wrote:   
   >   
   >> If Linux had existed we would never have had DOS   
   >   
   > Linux on an 8088 and 64k of RAM?   8)   
   >   
   > I guess the 68000 was also an option...   
   >   
      
   GCC came out in 1987. Linux in 1991. There may be   
   something to the timing there. Maybe it wouldn't have   
   been as easy, to do it earlier.   
      
   The 8088 was 1979.   
   The 68000 was 1979.   
      
   The 68000 apparently had the address lines to operate 16MB of memory.   
   But at the time, our 68000 design had 128KB on it. The thing was,   
   DRAM was its own worst enemy at the time, a super-crude technology,   
   intended to make engineers jump from a second floor window. It's a good   
   thing we only had 128KB, at the time. The DRAM chips could only withstand   
   -0.5V of undershoot. Once a genius in the DRAM industry, figured out a way   
   to allow the undershoot to be -2.0V, that is when DRAM began to be more   
   practical.   
   Our system was a "cost be damned" prototype, so I feel we would have had   
   more memory, if who ever designed it, had wanted to add more. (The machine was   
   a freaking disaster, and FCC part 15, it would have blown the front end off   
   the test instruments - I took a machine home, and it wiped out all television   
   reception. We had a lot to learn back then, about emissions.)   
      
   https://wiki.console5.com/tw/images/thumb/1/1c/MC68000-MC68010-M   
   68HC000-64-DIL-Pinout.png/270px-MC68000-MC68010-MC68HC000-64-DIL   
   Pinout.png?20110817192929   
      
   By 1987 or 1991, I expect there was enough memory, for a person   
   to have aspirations. I don't think you could easily rush Linux   
   out the door earlier. Maybe you could have done your first version   
   on a mainframe. They had core memory.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)