Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 15, 2026

VERSAdos

VERSAdos is an operating system dating back to the early 1980s for use on the Motorola 68000 development system called the EXORmacs which featured the VERSAbus and an array of option cards. They were typically connected to CDC Phoenix disk drives running one to four 14-inch platters. The EXORmacs was used to emulate a 680xx processor in-circuit, speeding development of 680xx based systems. It also hosted several compilers and assemblers.

Last revised
Jun 15, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
298 w
Citations
3
Source
Wikipedia ↗
VERSAdos
DeveloperMotorola Microsystems Division
Working stateDiscontinued
Initial release1980s (1980s)
Available inEnglish
Supported platformsMotorola 68000
Default
user interface		Command-line interface
LicenseProprietary

VERSAdos is an operating system dating back to the early 1980s for use on the Motorola 680001 development system called the EXORmacs which featured the VERSAbus and an array of option cards. They were typically connected to CDC Phoenix disk drives running one to four 14-inch platters. The EXORmacs was used to emulate a 680xx processor in-circuit, speeding development of 680xx based systems. It also hosted several compilers and assemblers.

VERSAdos and the EXORmacs were produced by Motorola's Microsystems Division.

Overview

VERSAdos was a real-time, multi-user operating system. It was the follow on product to the single user MDOS that ran the 6800 development system called the EXORciser.

Both systems features a harness with a CPU socket compatible connector.

A Modula 2 compiler was ported to VERSAdos.2

Commands

The following list of commands and utilities are supported by VERSAdos.3

  • ^
  • ACCT
  • ARGUMENTS
  • ASSIGN
  • BACKUP
  • BATCH
  • BSTOP
  • BTERM
  • BUILDS
  • BYE
  • CANCEL
  • CHAIN
  • CLOSE
  • CONFIG
  • CONNECT
  • CONTINUE
  • COPY
  • CREF
  • DATE
  • DEFAULTS
  • DEL
  • DIR
  • DMT
  • DUMP
  • DUMPANAL
  • ELIMINATE
  • EMFGEN
  • END
  • FREE
  • HELP
  • INIT
  • LIB
  • LIST
  • LOAD
  • LOGOFF
  • MBLM
  • MERGEOS
  • MIGR
  • MT
  • NEWS
  • NOARGUMENTS
  • NOVALID
  • OFF
  • OPTION
  • PASS
  • PASSWORD
  • PATCH
  • PROCEED
  • PRTDUMP
  • QUERY
  • R?
  • RENAME
  • REPAIR
  • RETRY
  • SCRATCH
  • SECURE
  • SESSIONS
  • SNAPSHOT
  • SPL
  • SPOOL
  • SRCCOM
  • START
  • STOP
  • SWORD
  • SYSANAL
  • TERMINATE
  • TIME
  • TRANSFER
  • UPLOADS
  • USE
  • VALID
See also

See also

References

References

  1. Wing Ng, Kam; Tong, Chi Hung; Lee, Hung (November 1984). "A Unix-to-Versados link". Interfaces in Computing. 2 (4): 299–308. doi:10.1016/0252-7308(84)90051-5. ISSN 0252-7308. Versados is a multitasking operating system for the Motorola 68000 microprocessor.
  2. Ballarin, E.; Burkhart, H.; Eigenmann, R.; Kindlimann, H.; Moser, M. (May 1988). "Making a compiler easily portable". IEEE Software. 5 (3): 30–38. doi:10.1109/52.2022. ISSN 0740-7459. S2CID 13883709.
  3. M68000 Family VERSAdos System Facilities Reference Manual
External links