README CubeOS 0.4.90

CubeOS Version 0.4.90
    Copyright (C) 1999,2000 Holger Kenn

*** WARNING ! This is an experimental release, don't use 
it for anything important, it has not been fully tested ***

    CubeOS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public
    License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
    version 2 of the License, or any later version.

    CubeOS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
    Library General Public License for more details.

    Clarification of Terms: The Library in the sense of the 
    GNU LIBRARY GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE is the CubeOS operating system 
    kernel and all its driver programs. All modifications that make 
    CubeOS run on a specific hardware platform or interact with sensors,
    actuators, communication protocols or devices are considered
    derived work in the sense of this License. Application programs that 
    make use of the CubeOS API are "work that uses the Library" and are 
    not considered as derived work and therefore are beyond the scope 
    of this License.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
    License along with CubeOS; if not, write to the Free
    Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston,
    MA 02111-1307, USA or look at http://www.fsf.org/

    The most recent release of CubeOS is available via
    http://www.cubeos.org/, the author can be reached via e-mail at
    cubeos@arti.vub.ac.be, bug reports or suggestions should be directed
    to cubeos-bugs@arti.vub.ac.be.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is CubeOS ?

CubeOS is an embedded operating system for mobile robots. It has been 
developed at the VUB AI Lab of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

CubeOS has evolved as the operating system for the lab's diverse robotic
hardware platforms. The most recent of these platforms is the RoboCube.

For details about the hardware platforms, please use the corresponding link
on the CubeOS homepage http://www.cubeos.org

CubeOS runs on m68k CPUs without MMU, it has special support for the
M68332 CPU, however it should not be difficult to port it to similar
architectures like the 68328/68328EZ (3com PalmPilot) etc.

CubeOS makes use of the Cygnus Newlib and the FSF's GCC set up as a cross
compiler, and Sun Solaris or Linux as a host system. CubeOS contains support
for general purpose OS features such as threads, semaphores etc. and for
robotic applications such as a/d converters, rotary encoders, radio
communication devices, motors and servos.

Where to go from here?

The CubeOS Manual and the CubeOS Tutorial are not distributed in the
cubeos tarfile, they can be found on www.cubeos.org in various 
formats for online viewing or printing. Obviously, the tutorial is 
a good starting point.

doc/devsys.faq contains some instructions on how to set up an development
system. 

doc/COMPILE_DEVSYS contains some instructions how to compile the crossgcc
from scratch.

init/ contains a test suite that demonstrates the use of CubeOS on the
RoboCube

