[MiNT] minimal support base

[Martin-Eric Racine <q-funk@pp.fishpool.fi>]

On 2.12.1999, Lonny Pursell <atari@bright.net> wrote:

> if you have too little memory to run MiNT properly then it's
> your bad luck.  Why hold back the entire platform?

This has been brought up before, but not in this perspective of
holding down the platform evolution to fit the ST's limitations.
This is a quite novel and interresting perspective.

Recently, Konrad also asked wether we should continue adding more
features and optimization options, despite the increased memory
requirements, or if maybe it would be better to slip development
into separate kernels for 68000 and 68k.

This leads to one question that hasn't been agreed before:
What should our minimum support level be?  

68030?  With or without assuming a 68881 FPU is present?
Or more generic, like 68020-40, perhaps?

And how much ram should we expect?

Any specific TOS version for each hardware type?

Or should we keep on assuming 68000 with 4 MB and unknown TOS?

Assuming 68000 support is still desirable, should we fork this
into a separate kernel, optimized for 68000 and minimal ram?

Do we assume an AES will be used and how much ram do we set
assides for it and its applications?

There are probably other issues I might have forgotten, but this
should provide a good base for discussion.

PS:  it would be nice if as many people as possible expressed
     themselves on this issue, as it might determine a lot of
     things on how future kernel development will procede. 

     Mere users are particularly welcome to express themselves
     on this issue, since they know better what hardware they
     need MiNT to perform.

-- 
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Martin-Éric Racine            The Atari Stacy and TT030 Homepage
Lappeenranta, Finland          http://members.tripod.com/~TT030/
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   "When the time comes, I will know and I shall be."  Q-Funk