Will there be a new 2000/XL OS (3rd party) ?

I was just wondering if someone has thought about it? Like the 1000 3.0 beta from that japanese guy (http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~mpc1000), do you guys think there will be any for the 2000's?

I'm deeply sus about that 1k OS. I find it hard to believe that anybody would put in the many 100s of hours to build an OS from scratch. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a modification of the existing OS or a hack of the 2k5 OS. It's pretty cool tho!

It's not beyond the realm of possibility that you could make a new 2k OS or hack the existing one. IIRC the 2k uses a Motorola 68000 series chip (as found in Ataris and Amigas of old). It's very well-documented. But ... why would anyone bother? Are these machines really missing anything? Or at least anything of which they're actually capable. This is pretty ancient technology, we're looking at clock speeds of no more than 16Mhz, probably only 8Mhz. PCs are now running in the 1000s of MHz.

The other complication is programming all the peripheral chips, the DSPs, ADDA convertors, LCD controller etc etc. Even with unlimited access to official Akai documentation this is not a trivial task.

Not that I'd discourage anyone from giving it go.

Jim

Guys, I think this is a wise proposal. Akai would save themselves a lot of trouble if they made the OS open source.

It would give users a chance (to those who know programming) to improve the software and make it better/bug free!

How is that? Is there anybody here who could take care of such a task?

I can offer my two cents and beta testing time. I could also translate things from english to ebonics.

Any volunteers?

I would like to NOT spread that O.S. anxiousness over to the 2k/2kxl forums.

Thank you.

jellyjim wrote:It's not beyond the realm of possibility that you could make a new 2k OS or hack the existing one. IIRC the 2k uses a Motorola 68000 series chip (as found in Ataris and Amigas of old). It's very well-documented. But ... why would anyone bother? Are these machines really missing anything? Or at least anything of which they're actually capable. This is pretty ancient technology, we're looking at clock speeds of no more than 16Mhz, probably only 8Mhz. PCs are now running in the 1000s of MHz.

Correction !

The MPC2000 DOES NOT use a Motorola 68000 CPU.

Not even any thing like it.

The MPC2000 ( like the S2XXX, S3XXX, MPC3000 and MPC2000XL ) use an NEC-V53 CPU.

The NEC-V53 CPU uses an x86 ( Intel ) mnemonic/instuction set compatible with an Intel 286.

Some additional NEC mnemonic/instuctions are present also.

For the most part an NEC-V53 cpu is a variation of an Intel 286 with a bonus capability to run code about 30% faster than the similarly clocked original Intel unit.

So in simple terms ... the samplers above are based around embedded PC technology. ( Japanese style ).

Rohan.

mpc3000le wrote:

jellyjim wrote:It's not beyond the realm of possibility that you could make a new 2k OS or hack the existing one. IIRC the 2k uses a Motorola 68000 series chip (as found in Ataris and Amigas of old). It's very well-documented. But ... why would anyone bother? Are these machines really missing anything? Or at least anything of which they're actually capable. This is pretty ancient technology, we're looking at clock speeds of no more than 16Mhz, probably only 8Mhz. PCs are now running in the 1000s of MHz.

Correction !

The MPC2000 DOES NOT use a Motorola 68000 CPU.

Not even any thing like it.

The MPC2000 ( like the S2XXX, S3XXX, MPC3000 and MPC2000XL ) use an NEC-V53 CPU.

The NEC-V53 CPU uses an x86 ( Intel ) mnemonic/instuction set compatible with an Intel 286.

Some additional NEC mnemonic/instuctions are present also.

For the most part an NEC-V53 cpu is a variation of an Intel 286 with a bonus capability to run code about 30% faster than the similarly clocked original Intel unit.

So in simple terms ... the samplers above are based around embedded PC technology. ( Japanese style ).

Rohan.

Yes indeed! I opened up the MPC I just got to replace the floppy and give it a good clean and thought "...hmm, I see no Motorola chips. Whoops! That's me talking out my arse on the internet again. Oh well."

Some famous old bit of kit has 68000 series chips in it. I forget.

Jim

spread that new OS fever...