Programming Environment for a Motorola 68000 in Linux

Question

Greetings all,

I am taking a Structure and Application of Microcomputers course this semester and we're programming with the Motorola 68000 series CPU/board. The course syllabus suggests running something like Easy68K or Teesside Motorola 68000 Assembler/Emulator at home to test our programs.

I told my prof I run x64 Linux and asked what sort of environment I would need to complete my coursework. He said that the easiest environment to use is a Windows XP 32bit VM with one of the two suggested applications installed, however, he doesn't really care what I use as long as I can test what I write at home.

So I'm asking if there exists some sort of emulator or environment for Linux so I can test my code, and what sort of caveats I will run into by writing and testing my code in Linux.
Also, I plan to do my editing in Vim, which probably isn't a problem, but I would like any insight into editors for 68000 assembly, if you have any.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just to clarify - I don't want to install Linux on the board at all - I want to program on my home machine, test the code locally, and then bring it onto the board for grading/running.

Answer 1

I don't think that m68k linux will run on an actual m68000 because it does not have the requisite memory management hardware (68020 could use an external MMU, and 68030,040,060 are good to go). Use uclinux for the 68000.

Answer 2

I don't think you actually want to install Linux on your board, I think you want to find a simulator for your board that will run in Linux. Here are some tools you can explore but I don't see a simulator for Linux here.

http://people.msoe.edu/durant/misc/hc11/

Answer 3

The good news is that it does look like there is some interest in making Easy68K more portable, by replacing the Windows GUI with wxWidgets. The bad news is that it is a student's final project for the prof who wrote Easy68K in the first place. See this forum post for the story.

You might try getting his current source kit to build. It may work well enough by now.

GCC has had target support for the 68K family for as long as GCC has existed, IIRC. Of course, the Gnu assembler syntax is wildly different from Motorola's.

Edit: On the subject of editors, any friendly to programmers will do. Code coloring is not all that useful for assembly language, after all. Vim should be just fine... I wrote a lot of assembly in vi back in the day.

Answer 4

Have you looked at QEMU? It claims to do full system emulation for M68k (Coldfire).

Answer 5

VirtualBox OSE is free and does REALLY well for me running windows xp. You can map a drive between the two, do your development on the Linux side, and run it on the 68K emulator on the other side. I do this regularly for many tasks, not just programming.

Man.. the 68k... memories!!

Answer 6

You can also look at an answer I gave to question 1552200. In your case, some would say the easiest is develop under the Amiga with native tools on UAE. But to do it legally you have to buy ROMs and an emulator (very nice) called Amiga Forever or own an old Amiga ROM.

Answer 7

I wrote the port for Easy68k. I've been busy with school and haven't had much time to work on it. Also, I am not sure how much interest there really is in 68k assembly. I may pick it back up if ample interest is shown.

Answer 8

A Linux assembler for multiple CPUs is here: http://xi6.com/projects/asmx/

Run using: ~/bin/asmx -C 68000 -b 0 -o out.bin -- in.asm

No emulator unfortunately, but I'm using it for Sega MegaDrive/Genesis development so I just use the Gens/GS Emulator.