Eaton@HI-MULTICS.ARPA (11/22/84)
Are peripherals which are used with CP/M suitable for use with an IBM-PC? Specifically 8" floppy drives, 5 1/4" floppy drives, 5 1/4 winchesters, serial printers and parrallel printers? Jesse (knuckling under) Eaton.HFED@HI-MULTICS
David Towson (SECAD) <towson@Amsaa.ARPA> (11/23/84)
Jesse - I know of no reason why peripherals used with an IBM-PC cannot be used with another computer. Certainly, RS-232 serial devices should be usable, since RS-232 is a standard interface (a much abused standard, I admit). Parallel devices want to see seven or eight bits of data and as a minimum, some sort of "character available" signal or "strobe". A hardware hacker can usually fudge these things to work. The IBM-PC disk drives use a standard 5.25-inch interface. When I installed a pair of Tandon 100-2's for my son, I tested them first on my Radio Shack Model-I. Likewise, 8-inchers typically conform to the de-facto standard set by Shugart's SA-800 series. You will need technical documentation for the items you wish to use. I have the docs for the IBM-PC, and I will be happy to answer specific interface questions from a hardware standpoint. I know nothing of IBM-PC software. Dave towson@amsaa.arpa