capn%uw-vlsi@sri-unix.UUCP (12/16/83)
From: Ed Mills <capn@uw-vlsi> David, Here is a response to some of your requests of DEC 8. 2. Buffered keyboard. Followed with avid interest a column in Byte where some brave adventurers were trying it, and they (I think) finally gave up or found a simplistic solution or something. Any pointers to articles, public domain stuff, etc. (I'm running a Liberty Electronics Freedom 100 terminal, and it won't give me that onboard the terminal alone either.) RESPONSE: I have a BIOS which does just that and it's a very nice feature. It also gives some meanings to control characters such as sorted directories, flushing the track buffer, kill input or printer queue, etc. It also has memory disk, disk track caching, and some stty stuff. Unfortunately it's based on Ithaca Intersystems version 4h BIOS. If you happen to have access to the beast I can send you my version without it being a copyright violation. I haven't heard of any public domain BIOS's. Do such things exist? 4. Implementing a (new?) CP/M call (ho, boy - no flames about tampering with the sacred, please) -- Check Status of Reader and/or Punch. Reason: Wanna use that third serial port (1 for terminal, 1 for printer, 1 for modem) as a fully capable port simultaneously with the other two so I can (a) relay between two modems, simultaneously print to printer and a bar code printer, and other daydreams. And NOT have to write specific software to check the third port (like I have with MDM714 and KERMIT) - just use STAT and other common utilities. RESPONSE: To do what you want I think there is a better way. Just modify the ConSt entry to return the remote status as the high four bits and the console as the low four. If there is nothing on the remote every thing is ok. If you want to be really safe, get the source to CP/M and have the BDOS always do an ani 01 in its status call. That way only programs which call the BIOS will see the remote status. If you want the CP/M source write me and I'll send you the address of the man who sells it. you might also consider one of the ZCPR's. There are other reasons for adding BIOS entry points. I use mine to enable control interception, and to enable XON/XOFF handshaking on the remote. What I did was to place 3 distinctive bytes just after the new entry so programs trying to use it could verify its existance. 5. Stuff in some more memory. Who can GUARANTEE a nice fat 256- or 512-Kb memory board (static like I presently have or good dynamic) that'll work with my buss and CPU board and DMA and all the other Morrow goodies? RESPONSE: I have a Compupro 128K static board and it does everything except talk to my front panel. I think they also make a 256k board. Guarantee? 6. Stuff in a 68000 CPU board. Read wonderful things about Compupro's board, but all configurations seem to indicate ALL Compupro boards on the bus (and preferably a Compupro buss too!). What Morrow stuff would I have to yank out and replace to make such a wonderful thing happen? (Would like to keep the Z80 right where it is for some sort of dual-processor capability.) RESPONSE: Compupro and Morrow are both good boards so they SHOULD talk. You would have to hack together the two BIOS's. If you have any luck running the two processors in the same buss PLEASE tell me, and maybe the net too, I'ld love to do the same thing but haven't worked out a way. (I'm really a software type.) GENERAL: There seems to be very little on the net about nice features in BIOS's. If people have ideas, this might be an interesting topic of discussion. Ed Mills Capn@uw-vlsi
andree@uokvax.UUCP (12/25/83)
#R:sri-arpa:-1465200:uokvax:7900004:000:110 uokvax!andree Dec 22 17:13:00 1983 Could you post more details on your BIOS for the Ithaca hardware? Or maybe post a copy to net.sources? <mike