Talk:RMX (operating system)

Latest comment: 2 years ago by Matthiaspaul in topic iRMX MBR partitions?

Intel SBC with Multibus? edit

Can anyone add some info about Intel SBC computers (with Multibus) that ran iRMX?

-- (unsigned) 2006-09-18T23:19:45‎ 86.132.29.68

Some notes edit

This is from my personal recollection only, so I won't put it on the main page. (I worked briefly in Intel Tech support for the RMX product line in 1984-85 but have had no connection with it since).

-- Rob Burbidge (talk) 09:37, 12 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

RMX88 edit

I believe that Intel had a product of this name. It ran on the 8088 or 8086, i.e. the first generation of Intel 16-bit processors. It was simpler than RMX 86 and I guess that it was closely based on the 8080 product line (which I had no connection with). I do remember that mailboxes were primary means of interprocess communication. At a wild guess, with no references at all, I'd guess it was a near-straight port of the 8080 line of RTOS products?

-- Rob Burbidge (talk) 09:37, 12 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

RMX286 edit

Don't know if this was the released product name but an Israel based dev team produced the first version of RMX that ran on 286 processor in protect mode. Source was based on RMX86 v6; the kernel was an extensive re-write but I was told the BIOS, EIOS and upper levels ported with very few changes, as a vindication of the clean design. It did have the capacity to break the 1M RAM barrier and access 16M, but the developers decided to use a single local descriptor LDT for the whole system image. While loosing the capacity for protection between jobs (processes) it did overcome a perceived problem with the 286 which was that loading and re-loading the LDT on context switching was relatively expensive.

-- Rob Burbidge (talk) 09:37, 12 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

Clones edit

Apparently, in USSR and Eastern Bloc these operating systems were cloned as BOS1810 and BOS1820. See [1] and ru:БОС_1820.

-- sendmoreinfo (talk) 21:01, 2 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

iRMX MBR partitions? edit

For the improvement of the Master Boot Record, Partition table and Partition type articles I am looking for the following information regarding RMX:

- MBR partition ID / file system type used for iRMX partitions (a byte value). Apparently, the RDISK tool just displays "iRMX", but other partitioning tools should display the actual byte value as well.

- Does the system only support primary partitions, or does it also support logical drives in extended partitions?

- Does the iRMX system only support CHS access (the only examples I have found so far), or does it also support LBA disk access?

- Since RMX seems to be available for various platforms, which platforms/versions use the MBR partitioning scheme?

I have read various documentation but could not find any information in regard to these topics. It would be great if someone actually using the system could provide it. Thanks.

--Matthiaspaul (talk) 19:32, 5 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

If you have a running (or dead) RMX system and are willing to spend a few minutes on this issue, but don't know how to carry out the checks, please feel free to contact me. I will happily remote-assist you.

--Matthiaspaul (talk) 15:43, 10 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

Learning that BOS1810/BOS1820 were East-German clones of iRMX in the 1980s and that WINCH was a disk maintenance / partitioning tool containing code to detect BOS, SCP (a CP/M clone), DCP (an MS-DOS clone) and MUTOS (apparently a VENIX clone) partitions, I could find those partition IDs listed in the DCP 1700 3.20 system documentation.[1] BOS was using partition ID 80h, therefore it can be deducted that iRMX was using that partition ID as well. Still, it would be nice, if someone still running this OS could confirm it. --Matthiaspaul (talk) 15:03, 3 December 2021 (UTC)Reply
  1. ^ Anwenderdokumentation - Anleitung für den Systemprogrammierer - MOS DCP 1700 (PDF). 3.20 (in German). Dresden, East-Germany: VEB Robotron-Projekt Dresden. 1988-01-29. C3013-0000-0 M3030, Textdiskette DCP1700 T1/2 C3010-9991-2M3020, Disk-Nr.: 5962 /88 ROBOTRON PROJEKT DRESDEN KA2 DD-DS 80*16*256. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2021-12-03.