ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) (03/27/85)
I'm looking for advice from some people who have "been there" before. I am
considering buying an S-100 system running Digital Research's Concurrent DOS
operating system (Actually, I think it runs a Compupro variant of it that
they call Concurrent DOS 8-16).
The system I'm looking at would have the Macrotech 80286/Z80H processor card
in it, 512KB of Macrotech dynamic RAM, 40 meg of hard disk connected through
the Compupro Disk 3, floppies through Compupro Disk 1A, Compupro system
support and I/O boards.
My goals are to have a multi-user system which runs commonly-available and
cheap software, and which supports hardware upgrade easily. Easy upgrade
from a CP/M-80 environment is a plus.
Applications include heavy word processing (manuscripts of novels), moderate
software development, and some business accounting. I'm interested in
developing software for the MS-DOS and the CP/M environment. I'm also
interested in running some sort of bulletin-board software concurrently with
all the rest (know any appropriate software?).
The dealer is Competitive Edge, in Michigan (somewhere). They are asking
just under $6000 for this system. This would be a mail-order purchase.
I will of course obtain the software documentation and read it before
deciding to buy the system. Since I've never used anything like this,
though, (I use DEC-20's and VAXen at work, and CP/M-80 at home) I'm looking
for reactions from people who have actually used this sort of system before.
Please feel free to contribute general impressions as well as answers to the
specific questions below.
Hardware questions:
Should I worry about the fact that the memory is dynamic? I've heard some
horror stories about S-100 and dynamic ram. But in this case the
processor and the memory are from the same manufacturer, and the dealer
claims they sell this combination regularly and have no trouble. The
dealer says that the processors run with no wait states.
Does anybody have actual experience with the Macrotech 80286/Z80H board?
This is by far the best price-performance combination I've seen. Am I
missing something? Is this not as good as it looks, or is there something
else even better? (This system is snugly against the top of what I can
afford to spend; a more expensive one, even with MUCH better performance,
isn't an option at this point. Waiting 9 months is an option, however.)
Software questions:
Does it run CP/M-80 applications? Can it run multiple users using CP/M-80
applications?
How well does it run MS-DOS applications? Will most generic MS-DOS
applications run under it? What about PC-DOS applications that aren't
dependent on the graphics on the PC (or are there none?)?
Does it support some sort of "loadable device driver" concept like MS-DOS
does? Will it support MS-DOS applications that require them?
What C compilers are suitable for this beast? Would I end up using an
8086 C compiler and not fully exploiting the 80286?
What kind of utility package does it come with? Are they any good? I'm
particularly interested in any assembler and linkers that may be
provided. Is there a standard REL file format in the MS-DOS world (one
Because I get these newsgroups through a gateway, I can't just start reading
them; it takes a while to turn on a new group. Therefore, please mail
responses to this straight to me. Probably nobody else cares about this
anyway, no point in cluttering up the nets.
Thank you very much for your help.
-- David Dyer-Bennet
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