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BMNeXT v0.1.0

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@github-actions github-actions released this 28 Oct 21:40
v0.1.0
b331d2e

The first BMNeXT: a bare-metal NeXT emulator for the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, running Previous (SVN trunk r1858, Previous 4.5) on the Circle kernel. It comes from BMAtariST 0.1.0 (itself from BMApple2, BMCoco, BMA800XL and BMC64), with Hatari replaced by Previous.

What it does

  • Emulates the NeXT Computer (68030), NeXTcube, NeXTcube Turbo, NeXTstation, NeXTstation Turbo, NeXTstation Color and NeXTstation Turbo Color, with Previous's own CPU, MMU, FPU, DSP and chips.
  • Your own NeXT ROMs go in the roms folder; BMNeXT finds them by size and name. No ROMs or NeXTSTEP images are included.
  • Disks: SCSI hard disk, CD-ROM and floppy images, the NeXT Computer's optical drives, and blank hard disks and floppies made from the menu. A hard disk in SCSI disk 0 is started from.
  • The MegaPixel Display's 1120x832, in four greys or 4096 colours, pixel for pixel at 1080p.
  • Sound at 44.1 kHz, over HDMI.
  • The NeXT's own network (Machine, Ethernet Connected), through the Pi's Ethernet or Wi-Fi: Previous's SLiRP router and its NetInfo and NFS servers. NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP get their address and router by themselves.
  • Input: USB keyboards by key position (Windows is Command, F10 is Power), USB mice with Previous's acceleration.
  • F12 opens the menu: disks, the machine, ROM, memory, what it boots from, Variable Speed, mouse speed, video, sound (with test tones) and network. It shows the emulation's speed as a percentage of the real machine's.
  • Web UI, in a NeXT style, for disks and settings.

No NeXTdimension yet (planned); the NeXTstation Color and Turbo Color give colour.

Tested

On a Raspberry Pi 5: OPENSTEP 4.2 starts to its login window on a NeXTstation Turbo Color, at the real machine's speed or faster with Variable Speed, with sound, the web UI and the network (DNS, telnet and other connections out) working. Also in the PC simulator, where the NeXT Computer, NeXTstation and NeXTstation Turbo Color start to their ROM monitors, and NeXTSTEP 3.3 and OPENSTEP 4.2 to their login windows. Not yet tested on a Pi 4.

The first tests on the Pi 5 found and fixed a black screen at start, settings that weren't saved, a very slow display, sound at the wrong pitch, the A key on the Turbos' keyboard, and a missing default route; the changelog has the details.

Network notes

  • Create /etc/resolv.conf on the NeXT (as root) for names to resolve, with this line: 
    nameserver 10.0.2.3
    10.0.2.3 is the network's DNS server inside BMNeXT, which passes lookups on to your network's.
  • Ping won't work to anything outside: SLiRP, Previous's router, can't send real pings (Previous on a desktop is the same). Only its own addresses, 10.0.2.2 and 10.0.2.3, answer. Connections to servers (telnet, ftp, the web) work; use one of those to test the network.

Known limits

  • Disk images can be at most 2 GB on the Pi.

To install, unzip bmnext-v0.1.0.zip onto a FAT32 SD card and add your ROMs to roms. See the installation guide and the user guide.

Assets 3
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