Author: The Paranoid (dialin-212-144-215-246.arcor-ip.net)
Date: 03-03-2005 20:44
The MMU in the Atari ST computer has nothing to do with
what processors have on-chip today. It is a customchip
that has been integrated with Glue and Blitter to the
COMBEL in the STE as far as i recall and makes sure all
DMA-chips get access to the bus when they require it.
I agree that it is not necessary to provide all aspects of
the hardware of an Atari ST - especially the MMU of the
Atari ST is a device that is fully transparent to the software.
However, if a "Super ST" is wanted, a certain degree of
hardware compatibility is required. Otherwise you'll simply
buy a cheap and ugly PC and run Aranym on it, which is
just meant to do what you aim at: A certain level of TOS-
compatibility on cheap up-to-date hardware.