emjhm@uokvax.UUCP (02/01/84)
#N:uokvax:7900012:000:1244 uokvax!emjhm Jan 30 17:32:00 1984 Does anyone know anything about the CONIX shell that runs on 32K or greater CP/m systems. I saw a full page advertisement in the Feb. "Computer Shopper" that said it could handle quite a few of the nice things that UNIX has to offer like file pipes/tees and re-direction to name a few. It looks pretty decent for those of us who can't afford full blown UNIX or who are stuck with mere finite spaced, relatively slow floppy disks systems and 8080 or Z-80 processors. Some of the nice things about CONIX seem to be that you can use only the parts that you want or disable functions or frills that you don't need or haven't the capacity for. They also say a few things in their ad which seem to be contradictory. Like for instance they say that the CONIX command processor will run under any CP/M and BIOS on virtually any machine without modification and in the same breath say that it can access 16 disk drives(actual or virtual if they don't exist). How would that be possible without at least fiddling with the BIOS jump vectors? Some folks have their CBIOS in ROM. Will it run on their system? I'd appreciate hearing from anyone that has heard anything or is presently using CONIX. There's got to be a gotcha somewhere. Jim Miller
glen@aecom.UUCP (02/08/84)
> > In reply to: > uokvax!emjhm Jan 30 17:32:00 1984 . . Jim asks for general info about the ConIX shell for CP/M . systems, and specifically, about a problem that might arise . on systems implementing a BIOS in ROM. . Tis true. ConIX will not work properly on systems that implement a BIOS in ROM. That is because ConIX must modify the CONST, CONIN, CONOUT, LSTOUT and SELDSK jmps in order to intercept a program's request for I/O during redirection and ExpanDisk (16 drive) references. There is, however, a "theoretical" way around this. "Theoretical" because I have never tried it, but it should work. In short, you should SYSGEN a new version of CP/M to reside lower in memory to make room for a RAM BIOS table which is simply an exact duplicate of the ROM jmp table. This should be easy enough to try before taking a jmp into ConIX. The only gotcha is if CP/M is resident in ROM with the BIOS. In such a case, CP/M couldn't be moved by MOVCPM and this fix wouldn't work. I haven't heard of or seen a system that is all-ROM CP/M, although it probably exists. I have heard about BIOSes in ROM, but I don't know of the names of the manufacturers of such systems. Maybe someone could enlighten me. There might be a fix that I haven't yet thought of. There are some users out in netland that have already purchased ConIX. Maybe you can solicit comments from them regarding its performance. I can only say that it works, since I am: Glen Marianko Computer Helper Industries Inc. ConIX Program Designer Feel free to pick my brains. But, please, leave something over for me. ...!aecom!glen
phil@amd70.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (02/12/84)
Re: an all-ROM CPM, I believe Intel has a device called the 80150
(or maybe 80130, there's one for CPM and one for RMX) which has,
among other things, a version of CPM-86 in ROM. I don't know if
anyone has used it yet, but I would expect it to have been done
by now. So don't be surprised if you run across such a thing.
I don't really understand Intel's motive in offering such a thing.
They tout a diskless computer system, but who wants to run CPM just
for itself? Most people want to run wordstar or visicalc, so you
still need a disk. I personally would demand two disks so I
could make copies, and so what good does the 80150 do then?
--
Phil Ngai (408) 988-7777 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!philburton@fortune.UUCP (02/13/84)
#R:aecom:-36300:fortune:25500006:000:337
fortune!burton Feb 13 11:42:00 1984
Xerox implements the BIOS in ROM for the 820, 820-II, and 16/8 systems.
They have released the BIOS source only for the original 820.
Philip Burton 101 Twin Dolphin Drive
Fortune Systems Redwood City, CA 94065 (415) 595-8444 x 526
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{allegra decvax!decwrl!amd70 cbosgd harpo hpda ihnp4 sri-unix}!fortune!burton