vanam@pttesac.UUCP (Marnix van Ammers) (01/22/85)
Any users of the Lobo MAX-80 out there? If so lets hear from you! The MAX-80 is capable of doing some fancy things with its programmable character generator and CRT controller. Has anyone taken advantage of these features? Has anyone added a hard disk? Has anyone added a hard disk made by a manufacturer other than Lobo?
toma@tekchips.UUCP (Tom Almy) (01/24/85)
I have one, with another on the way. I use LDOS to run all of my old TRS-80 programs, and CP/M 3.0. While I have written nothing that accesses the CRT controller or the display memory (other than reworking the CPM 2.2 font for reverse video some time ago), I have the 80 column mods for LDOS and VisiCalc, and some programs that simulate bit mapped graphics(!) on the display. The Maximul disks are a must have. In the hardware area, I build a ram-drive (256k) from a kit originally intended for big-board systems. I have software to use it in LDOS, both high and low memory versions, and in combination with the internal 64k ram drive. I also have modified CP/M+ to use it -- it is a replacement for the hard disk driver module -- this makes it possible to use Lobo's configuration program. The second LOBO will have an IOMEGA 10 Mbyte drive, for which I have to write a driver. I also made numerous mods to the character output routines for CPM 3.0 to get performance doubled (they are very slow). Other than that, their implementation of the BIOS is the best I have seen. A fellow I know who has a product (KAMAS) that runs on CP/M+ says that it is the only complete implementation among Lobo, Osborne (Executive) and Morrow as far as handling the serial device redirection and baud rate selection. I know several other LOBO owners in the area, but I don't know if any others have net access. Tom Almy