Porting Unix to the 386: A Practical Approach

William & Lynne Jolitz

Started open source UNIX.

Appeared in part as a 17 article magazine series in 1991-1992.

Documented the "how, what, why, who, when" of porting BSD to the 386.

Done while BSD was becoming "open source".

Tags:

386 UNIX
386 architecture
386 bsd unix
386BSD
386BSD port
386BSD specification
386bsd project
4.3BSD
80386 architecture
8042 keyboard interface
BIOS
Berkeley UNIX
CROSS SUPPORT
DESIGNING THE SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION
Global Descriptor Table
IDTVEC
Intel 80386
Interrupt Descriptor Table
Keyboard Driver
LANGUAGE TOOLS
Local Descriptor Table
Lynne Jolitz
Operating System
PORTING UNIX TO THE 386: THE STANDALONE SYSTEM
Porting UNIX to the 386
Porting Unix
System 5
System V
THE INITIAL ROOT FILESYSTEM
THREE INITIAL PC UTILITIES
TSS
Task State Segment
UNIX filesystem
William Jolitz
absolute code
absolute program
absolute program loader
absolute programming
abstraction of files
ad hoc configuration
address translation
address translation buffer
application program
archetypal root filesystem
article
automatically reboot
basic commands
basic operating system
basic structure
basic utilities
berkeley software distribution
booting
bootstrap
bootstrap bsd
bootstrap code
bootstrap proces
bootstrap process
bootstrap unix
broken filesystems
byte order
call gate
clock interrupts
command interpreter
command mode
common external representation
configuration of the processor
context switch
copyleft
copyright
critical section
cross development host
cross host
cross support
data object
data structure
database filesystem
design and implementation
development
device configuration
device configuration
device driver
device filenames
device interrupts
device memory
display codes
divide and conquer
emulation environment
entry into protected mode
error code
exception catching
exception handling
file abstraction mechanism
file attributes
file operations performance
file size
file structure
file transfer utility
filename translations
filesystem accessible
filesystem associated
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filesystem metaphor
filesystem operation
filesystem tree
formatted output
gdt
hardware features
heterogeneous design
hierarchical filesystems
history
home directory
housekeeping functions
how to read data from a memory address
idt
inactive portions
initial root filesystem
initial utilities
initialize segmentation
initializing paging
initializing the computer
installation
instruction queue
instruction segment
interface
interface standard
interoperability
interprocessor
interrupt control
interrupt control unit
interrupt handling
interrupt priority levels
interrupt routine
interrupt stub
interrupt vector
intersegment return
intrasegment return
kernel address space
kernel architect
kernel base address
kernel debugging
kernel hardware support
kernel memory
kernel stack
kernel/supervisor stack
keyboard controller
ldt
level of abstraction
lgdt lidt
lidt interrupt handling protected mode
link count
load the operating system
login account name
manual intervention
memory management
memory segments
meta data
microprocessor platform
minimal operation
modification date
multiuser operation
namespace
naming convention
object libraries
operating system kernel
operating systems
operating systems kernel
operating systems programming technique
optional filesystems
ownership
page directory
page directory base register
page fault
page table
page table directory
paging
paging MMU
physical address
physical memory
port 386BSD
porting 386BSD
porting BSD
porting bsd to the pc
porting unix to the pc
process context
process context switching
processor restart fault
processor structure
processor support
program communications metaphors
program counter
program loader
programming environment
proprietary hardware
protected mode
protection
protection violation
prototype kernel
purpose of gate A20
real mode
region descriptors
regression testing
relocation
reverse compatibility
ring
ring crossing
root filesystem
segmentation
segmented architecture
server processes
share address space
shell script
software interrupt
software porting process
special installation
spurious interrupt
stack frame
standalone program
standalone programming environment
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standalone utilities
stress testing
structure field alignment
structure packing
superuser account
supervisor only
supervisor ring
supervisory commands
system architecture
system call
system call handling
system crash
system design
system framework
system initialization
system management
system operations
system support
terminal emulator
u.
under development
undiscovered bug
undocumented
unintended modification
usable filesystem
user address space
user and kernel mode
user mode
user program operation
user ring
user space
user structure
utility tools
virgin birth
virtual address
virtual memory storage
virtual memory system
window system
write protect