Re: writing operating systems in ADA

[Jerome_V_Vollborn@cup.portal.com]

I think the poster is refering to the Intel 432.  I don't remember the 
operating system being written in Ada but the 432 did support object 
in the hardware.  Each processor was considered an object and had 
a stored object description.  See Elliot I. Organick' book "A
Programmer's View of the Intel 432 System" (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 
1983, ISBN 0-07-047719-1).

The major problems with the 432 were marketing and technical.  The 
marketing problem was that the 432 did not look like an 8080 (1/2 :-).
The technical problem was that the 432 was a bus hog.  When it went 
to request data from memory, it sent a processor number, an address 
and a length.  The return packet was the processor number, address, 
length and data.  Too expensive for Multibus I to handle.

				Jerome Vollborn
				(Jerome_V_Vollborn@cup.portal.com or
				 uunet!lci386!jerome)