Virtual Memory...????

[sm001pe@unidui.uni-duisburg.de (Pereira Martins)]

Dear Eric & all on #atari !

Well, we have many new software on Atari: Speedo 5, MiNT 1.11
Atari LinuX, Bash 1.14.x, MiNTOS, MiNT Net 0.5x, NVDI 3.0, Cala
mus SL /summer 94, DA's Render Kit .... so we can't complain about
this :-)
and many other programs I don't want to mention, because it
would take lot time to do so.

But we don't have a real memory concept on atari & nobody seems to 
miss it ? Well, much things are adapted from BSD. And ideas like
Smallergadget (Iconify) from X Windows, Windows,... & TrueType / Type1
Font Support like on Apple & Windows...

 But a virtual memory concept like OS/2, Windows, X Windows, LinuX, Mac
Finder.... we don't have !!! 

Well, Outside seems to work ?!? I could only test the Outside demo 3.3
and this release works fine, but complains about the PMMU being just in
use... nevertheless is works fine!!

VRAM refuses to work :(( This is a pitty because I'm reg user of Vram. :)

But it would be useful if virtual memory driver like VRAM & OUtside
could have access on the MiNT Kernel... or even became part of the
kernel. It would be useful if they would have an official interface to
access the PMMU. 

If we could have memory protection & virtual memory this would be very
useful. Perhaps Bjoern Brauel/Roman Hodek (Atari LinuX), you (eric :),
Uwe Seimet (Outside), Overscan (VRAM) could work together and implement
a virtual memory concept. Perhaps using a swap file mounted on U: like
on LinuX & Unix. 

Unfortunately, I don't no much about virtual memory... well, i.e. I can't
write such a driver ... sorry :(

BUt I know that it's REALLY necessary to implement this as soon as possible

With best regards, Filipe... ;-)