prindle@nadc (10/27/86)
From: prindle@NADC While peeking around in the CP/M BIOS (trying, with reasonable success, to read MS-DOS diskettes with a public domain program called RDMS), I ran across two additional diskette formats that the BIOS is keyed up to recognize: SLICER and EPSON EURO. Anybody ever heard of one of these systems? What I've been able to find out is that by poking the right values (ahh.. that's the key - the *right* values) into the MFM Disk Format Table (as documented, sort of, in the 128 PRG), you can make C-128 CP/M read just about any format. There are spare slots in the table. The info you need for a diskette format is bytes/sector, sectors/track, sides, where the allocation block and directory blocks are, how the tracks and sectors are numbered, etc. Given all the necessary info, it would seem that it would be a snap to write a sort of "UNIFORM-128" program. The question is: where are all the 5.25 inch CP/M diskette formats documented? Sincerely, Frank Prindle Prindle@NADC.arpa
sentinel@killer.UUCP (Rob Tillotson) (10/29/86)
In article <250@rutgers.RUTGERS.EDU>, daemon@rutgers.UUCP writes: > two additional diskette formats that the BIOS is keyed up to recognize: SLICER > and EPSON EURO. Anybody ever heard of one of these systems? > Well, the "Epson Euro" is an Epson QX-10 format that apparently was used on QX-10's distributed in Europe (the Epson people call it MFCP/M format). According to an Epson user I know, the QX-10 reads all 3 formats for internal compatibility, but the Euro format isn't very popular. The Slicer, as far as I know, was a 8/16 bit micro that ran both CP/M and MS-DOS. Nobody I've talked to has actually seen one, though, which makes me wonder why they bothered to put it in the BIOS at all... perhaps someone at Commodore had a Slicer disk laying around? > What I've been able to find out is that by poking the right values (ahh.. that's > the key - the *right* values) into the MFM Disk Format Table (as documented, > sort of, in the 128 PRG), you can make C-128 CP/M read just about any format. ... > necessary info, it would seem that it would be a snap to write a sort of > "UNIFORM-128" program. The question is: where are all the 5.25 inch CP/M > diskette formats documented? > Sorry, but I don't know. However, if you find out anything, please post it... I am writing just such a program, but have paused because I don't have data on any other formats. I suppose the best way to collect this information is to ask owners of different machines for the details, or to dissect a program like Uniform... I am sure that it works similarly to the 128's BIOS (i.e. changing the drive tables in RAM to the format you select) so they should have a similar table somewhere in them. Good luck. > Frank Prindle Rob Tillotson ...ihnp4!killer!sentinel {anybigsite}!pur-ee!sentinel sentinel@el.purdue.edu
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.COM (Dave Haynie) (11/03/86)
> > In article <250@rutgers.RUTGERS.EDU>, daemon@rutgers.UUCP writes: >> two additional diskette formats that the BIOS is keyed up to recognize: SLICER >> and EPSON EURO. Anybody ever heard of one of these systems? >> > The Slicer, as far as I know, was a 8/16 bit micro that ran both CP/M > and MS-DOS. Nobody I've talked to has actually seen one, though, which > makes me wonder why they bothered to put it in the BIOS at all... perhaps > someone at Commodore had a Slicer disk laying around? Greg Berlin, hardware designer of the 1571, used to have a Slicer around. Its a single board computer, which has the 8/16 bit 80186 chip on it. It was originally set up to run with CPM-86, I believe, but later they came out with MS-DOS ROMs. Anyway, that's probably where the Slicer format came from; strange, I'd never heard of that being built in before. >> Frank Prindle > > Rob Tillotson ...ihnp4!killer!sentinel > {anybigsite}!pur-ee!sentinel -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Haynie {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "Laws to supress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security." -Bene Gesserit Coda These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they may be yours too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~