What is OS-9, and how is used in the BEN?
OS-9 is an operating system. The CPU board used in the original BEN 5000 systems was manufactured by a company called MII. This was an off-the-shelf part that plugged into the G96 backplane. It used a version of OS-9, customized for this board by Microware Systems Co. It is a real-time multi-tasking, secure embedded system based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor family. OS-9 and the DFR applications have been burned into the CPU firmware (EPROM’s) that is in each BEN DFR. Here is an analogy that I have used often: In the BEN, the DFR applications runs on the OS-9 operating system much like Microsoft Word, Excel or Outlook run on the Windows operating system. Here are a couple of links if you want to know more…
