Talk:KERNAL

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Contents 1 0xF000 - 0xFFFF is not 8 KiB 2 ALL CAPS 3 Footnotes? 4 Why the name

[edit] 0xF000 - 0xFFFF is not 8 KiB

Rather 4 KiB. Did the writer mean that the kernel occupies the range 0xE000 - 0xFFFF, which would be 8 KiB, or that it is 4 KiB long as indicated by the range in the most recent version? 88.112.2.159 15:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes your right. The KERNAL occupies the last 8k of the 64k of the Commodore 64. The range is 0XE000 - 0XFFFF or 57334 to 65535 (http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/cbm/docs/c64-ram.html). StateOfTheUnion 00:35, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ALL CAPS

WHY IS THE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN IN ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS?

cause capz r k00l!1! Actually, I think the KERNAL was spelled with caps, as it is spelled that way throughout the article. ST47 22:25, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

That is right. The KERNAL is written in all caps in the Commodore 64 Programmers Rererence manual which details all the routines in the KERNAL. StateOfTheUnion 00:32, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but the programmers reference guide put a lot of stuff in all caps like SPRITE etc. Kernal doesn't stand for anything.

The article explains KERNAL, and that it was probably a Bachronym.

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John Feagans added the following comments on July 26, 2007 -----

KERNAL is the original name as I spec'd it. The spec section in the original article has the correct acronym. I'll let someone else edit how Bob Metcalf (ethernet PARC and 3Com founder) was a consultant at the Moorpark R&D facility for Commodore in the summer of 1980. He was a great inspiration.

The "N" was for networking. I provided hooks in the PET KERNAL ROM so that the "Teacher's PET" could be attached to a master-slave network. In the Commodore 64 there was a cartridge with the networking software and an interface card to the 6522 serial port. We had two test installations in New Brighton Middle School in Capitola, Ca. and the Watsonville Middle School in Watsonville, Ca. Both had a PET with 30 C-64's. I developed all the hardware and did the fabrication myself. Later a school in Wayne, PA was set up with a similar installation.

Another misconception is the origin of the Vic-20. The real creator of the concept was Jim Kennedy who was the Commodore engineering manager after Chuck Peddle left in August, 1978 to work at Apple. Jack Tramiel asked him to visit MOS and he talked to Bob Yannes where he got the specs for the VIC chip. He and I discussed a prototype VIC-20 -- but unfortunately Kennedy was canned in February 1980 when CHuck was re-hired by Commodore.

John Feagans Ele'ele, Hi.

KERNAL is the original name as I spec'd it. I'll let someone else edit how Bob Metcalf (ethernet PARC and 3Com founder) was a consultant at the Moorpark R&D facility for Commodore in the summer of 1980.

The "N" was for networking. I provided hooks in the PET ROM so that the "Teacher's PET" be attached to a master-slave network. In the Commodore 64 there was a cartridge with the networking software and an interface card to the 6522 serial port. We had two test installations in New Brighton Middle School in Capitola, Ca. and the Watsonville Middle School in Watsonville, Ca. Both had a PET with 30 C-64's. I developed all the hardware and did the fabrication myself. Later a school in Wayne, PA was set up with a similar installation.

Another misconception is the origin of the Vic-20. The real creator of the concept was Jim Kennedy who was the Commodore engineering manager after Chuck Peddle left in August, 1978 to work at Apple. Jack Tramiel asked him to visit MOS and he talked to Bob Yannes where he got the specs for the VIC chip. He and I discussed a prototype VIC-20 -- but unfortunately Kennedy was canned in February 1980 when CHuck was re-hired by Commodore.

John Feagans Ele'ele, Hi.

[edit] Footnotes?

I see 4 footnotes, with only 2 references to them.

[edit] Why the name

I think it was a play on the word Colonel, which is often pronounced Kernal. Here is an article on the history of the rank Colonel which gave me idea (exact same spelling - "Kernal"): [1]. So since the name "Commodore" is also a military rank it makes sense "Kernal" could also be. Unfortunately, this is an original research, so I cannot put this "find" to a WP article. :( It would be nice if someone could dig out some proof if this was really the case, in the meanwhile i hope my theory can help even here on the comment page. --Arny 00:46, 14 February 2007 (UTC)