Other PDP11 simulators

[Gordon JC Pearce]

Scott Stevens wrote:

> Why would the userspace daemons be needed?
> 
> Monolythic kernel.  No modules.
> Filesystem support built in emulator.
> etc. etc.
> 
> This is somebody who wants bare access to the hardware, the thinnest
> possible layer of emulation.  Probably they'd be better off launching
> it from a DOS session, actually, since Linux isn't really a compact
> 'program loader' and that's about all DOS really is.  Using Linux that
> way would be a waste.
> 

Well, if you want to re-invent the wheel, go right ahead.  Using the 
Linux kernel (or indeed any other Unix kernel, I would choose NetBSD 
myself) would give you some hardware support, networking if you wanted 
it, process separation if you think it's a good idea, and a lot more 
besides.

If you're happy to write a filesystem from scratch, and stick with only 
using BIOS calls (firmware BIOS at that, so no file handling for you!) 
then yes, you could just write it to load as an "operating system" in 
its own right.  You could make it a standalone DOS application that 
would use normal DOS calls too.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to use a normal application running on a 
normal operating system?

Gordon.