Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (09/05/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Thursday, September 4, 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 82
This Week's Editor: Phyllis O'Neil
Today's Topics:
PC XT 286
PCjr 640k Internal Memory ADD-ON
PC-Kat
Device Drivers
Re: Graphics Software Package Query
More on COMx Interrupt Handling (and Other Topics)
Yet More on Asynchronous Interrupts
Today's Queries:
Quick Basic & DOS 2.11
Path Builder Available?
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Date: Tue, 2-Sep-86 21:05:24 EDT
From: David Farber <farber%pcpond.pc.udel.edu@Louie.UDEL.EDU>
Subject: PC XT 286
To: ud-ibmpc@louie.udel.EDU
...
The new IBM Personal Computer XT Model 286 combines the cost
effectiveness and flexibility of a Personal Computer XT with
the high-speed, high-performance technology of the Intel
80286 microprocessor.
The IBM Personal Computer XT Model 286 can operate up to
three times faster than earlier models of the Personal
Computer XT in most applications and comes standard with 640
kilobytes of memory. Various memory expansion options allow
users to increase memory up to 12.6 megabytes.
Standard features of the new system include a half-high, 1.2
MB, 5 1/4-inch, double-sided diskette drive, a 20 MB fixed
disk drive, a serial/parallel adapter card and the IBM
Enhanced Personal Computer Keyboard. An optional second
diskette drive may be selected from the following offerings:
-- A half-high, double-sided 3 1/2-inch, 720 KB internal
diskette drive priced at $190-a.
This drive also is available for installation in the IBM
Personal Computer AT (R) Models 319 and 339. The diskette
drive allows exchange of data between the IBM Personal
Computer AT, the IBM Personal Computer XT and the IBM PC
Convertible.
-- A half-high, 5 1/4-inch, double-sided diskette drive with
1.2 MB of storage capacity, priced at $275.
-- A half-high, 5 1/4-inch, 360 KB, double-sided diskette
drive, priced at $225.
The new computer also supports the IBM Personal Computer 3
1/2-inch External Diskette Drive. This enables users to
exchange information between the IBM Personal Computer XT
Model 286 and the IBM PC Convertible.
The IBM single unit price for the new Personal Computer XT
Model 286 is $3995. It is available now through Authorized
IBM Personal Computer Dealers and IBM branch sales offices.
IBM Personal Computer XT System Board Enhancement
IBM also announced an enhancement to the two 20 MB fixed disk
drive models of the Personal Computer XT (Models 088 and
089), increasing their standard system board memory to 640 KB
from 512 KB with no change in price.
Tape Backup Program for IBM Personal Computers
IBM today introduced a software package to facilitate tape
backup for IBM Personal Computers.
SY-TOS (TM) Tape Utilities is designed to work with the IBM
6157 Streaming Tape Drive to provide an easy-to-use,
versatile tape backup system for the IBM Personal Computer,
Personal Computer XT, Personal Computer AT, 3270 Personal
Computer, 3270 Personal Computer AT and Personal Computer XT
Model 286.
The program supports file, partition or entire disk backup
and restore. The IBM single unit price for SY-TOS Tape
Utilities is $70. It will be available this month from
Authorized IBM Personal Computer Dealers and IBM marketing
representatives.
Educational Software
IBM also announced nine new educational software programs for
use by students 1/4 IBM Personal Computers: three programs in
the IBM Personal Computer Punctuation Series; three programs
in the IBM Personal Computer Combining Sentences Series; two
programs in the IBM Personal Computer Geometry Series and the
Introduction to General Chemistry, a vendor-logo program.
The Punctuation Series helps students learn correct
punctuation and capitalization skills. Available next month
in three levels and designed for students in grades 3 through
8, it has a one-time license charge of $110 (single pack) or
$475 (school pack), per level.
The Combining Sentences series is designed to develop
sentence structure and compositions skills. Also available
in three levels, it has a one-time license charge of $110
(single pack) or $495 (school pack), per level, and will be
available next month.
In the Geometry Series, students build an understanding of
relations and concepts in plane geometry. The program will
be available in November 1986 for a one-time license charge
of $195 (single pack) or $975 (school pack) for each of two
levels. Introduction to General Chemistry uses simulated
experiments with color graphics and animation to help
students gain experience in collecting and interpreting data.
The starter set has a one-time license charge of $590, with
additional student sets available for $150. The network
version, which supports all users in a network, is $1,770.
All three versions will be available this month.
IBM PC Convertible Speech Adapter
IBM also announced an optional speech adapter for the IBM PC
Convertible. Designed primarily for education applications
in kindergarten through 12th grade, the IBM PC Convertible
Speech Adapter lets the computer "talk" to children as they
use interactive education programs such as IBM Personal
Computer Writing to Read (R) Version 3.0.
The IBM PC Convertible Speech Adapter will be available in
the fourth quarter of 1986 through IBM marketing
representatives and Authorized IBM Personal Computer Dealers.
IBM's single unit price for the product is $495.
-All prices shown are IBM single unit prices for products
purchased directly from IBM. Dealer prices may vary.
Personal Computer AT and Writing to Read are registered
trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
SY-TOS is a trademark of Sytron Corp.
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Date: Tue, 2 Sep 86 18:32:49 pdt
From: Ernie Meri <hoptoad.UUCP!leadsv!meri@cgl.ucsf.edu>
Subject: PCjr 640k Internal Memory ADD-ON
To: info-ibmpc%usc-isib.arpa@cgl.ucsf.edu
There is a product available from :
ES Quality Products
5311 Mango Blossom
San Jose, Ca 95123 (408) 224-5574
that not only can expand your internal memory to 384 or 640k (without
additional power supplies or sidecars), but will accelerate mpu
performance double that of a standard PCjr. The plug-in card inserts
into the 8088 mpu header inside the PCjr and costs approximately
$120.00 (less memory chips). I have been using the "jr HOTSHOT" for
six months, with excellent results with all the common database and
spreadsheet programs, plus keeping side-kick and lightning resident.
The only drawback is using cartridge BASIC, (it does not recognize the
extra memory), and then you must reboot the software to the "standard"
configuration or get a hold of a copy of GW Basic (which will run fine
as long as you don't ask for screen 4-6 or other PCjr unique
features). Since most of my work doesn't depend on cartridge BASIC,
this is a real boon in getting performance out of the Jr - plus they
offer a 2 YEAR guarantee on the "HOTSHOT" card.
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Date: 3 Sep 1986 09:08:30-EDT
From: mlsmith@NADC
To: jshaver@apg-3.arpa
Subject: PC-Kat
Cc: info-ibmpc@usc-isib
I was quite impressed with PC-Kat until I took a good look at
the listings. They were wrong!!! PC-Kat does not seem to understand
DOS 3.X FATs. It gets lost when the directory files are split across
the disk. I do not know if there is a critical distance or if any
split will do this. The effect is that the last file found before the
split is repeated for all subsequent files. If anyone has a working
version for DOS 3.X, please send it to pc-blue.
mlsmith@nadc
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Date: 3 Sep 1986 09:20:21-EDT
From: mlsmith@NADC
To: cbsoth@brl
Subject: Device Drivers
Cc: info-ibmpc@usc-isib
A good example of a driver that can be included in config.sys
or executed as a program is mouse.sys and mouse.com. The difference is
where the program is loaded. Mouse.sys is added to config.sys and is
oriented to those people that always want the mouse loaded. Mouse.com
is for those that only use the mouse rarely or have some resident
software that interferes with config.sys operation. {Mouse.sys/com are
trademark software of Microsoft}
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Date: Wed, 3 Sep 86 11:58:49 PDT
From: Jim Anderson <bilbo.jta@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU>
To: info-ibmpc@b.isi.edu
Subject: Re: Graphics Software Package Query
I don't know if they are still in business, but you might look at
MetaWindow from MetaGraphics. I don't have their address handy, but
the product was mentioned as product of the month in PC Tech Journal a
few months back and they did advertize in PC Tech Journal and several
other magazines about that time. If you are interested in contacting
them and cannot find them send me some mail and I will try to find the
address.
I was using the package a few months back in beta form. The major
deficiency of the package was lack of support for hard copy devices.
It included support for all common (and some uncommon) display boards
including EGA. It used table driven display algorithms and had
facilities for user supplied tables to support display devices other
than the built in ones. There were no external device drivers as in
Halo. The package was very fast. They had a bulletin board system
for support.
The licensing agreement seemed far too liberal. If you bought the
package for somewhere between $50 (Turbo Pascal) and $150 (several
different languages) you could include it in products with no royalty.
I too have tried to deal with Media Cybernetics, and cannot understand
their pricing.
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Date: Thu, 4 Sep 86 10:07:32 EDT
From: Jordan%UMass.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Kevin Jordan (413)
545-2690)
Subject: More on COMx interrupt handling
To: info-ibmpc@b.isi.edu
In addition to the comments which have already been made on this
subject, there are a couple of very subtle characteristics of the 8250
that you need to watch out for. When writing your own asynchronous
interrupt handler for the 8250, your interrupt handler should always
read the IIR (Interrupt Identification Register) to determine the
source of interrupt. If you read between the lines of the IBM
Technical Reference, you will see that one possible source of
interrupt is the IIR register itself. When the IIR register is a
source of interrupt, the IIR register will contain the value 2. This
is the same value contained by the IIR register when the Transmitter
Holding Register is a source of interrupt.
The only way to distinguish between these two possible sources of
interrupt is to interrogate the Line Status Register to see if the
Transmitter Holding Register is indeed empty. If you fail to do this,
your interrupt handler may make the false assumption that the THR is
empty when it is not. This may cause some characters to be lost on
output. When the IIR itself is a source of interrupt, the act of
reading the IIR cancels that interrupt source, so no further action
needs to be taken if your interrupt handler determines that the THR is
busy (the THR was not the source of interrupt).
Another thing to be careful of is that your interrupt handler should
not immediately exit after processing one interrupt. Instead, it
should branch back to a point of beginning and re-examine the IIR
register in case more than one interrupt is pending. If you fail to
do this on some PC models, some interrupts appear to be lost. The
8250 or clone on some models does not seem to re-issue an interrupt
request when it has more than one interrupt pending.
These words of wisdom have been born of experience. Not all PC models
behave the same way with respect to programming the 8250. On some
models, the PC/AT for example, the IIR register itself never seems to
be a source of interrupt. On the PC/XT, however, it is a source of
interrupt. Conversely, it does not seem to be necessary to re-examine
the IIR register after processing one interrupt on the XT. It is,
however, necessary on the AT.
If you follow these guidelines and program your 8250 interrupt handler
accordingly, your handler should work properly on all models. If you
fail to follow these guidelines, it may only work properly on one
model, or on a small cross section of PC clones.
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Date: Thu, 4 Sep 86 22:05 EDT
From: Hess@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: More on Asynchronous Interrupts
To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU
Re: Andrew J. Thomas: More on Asynchronous Interrupts
Suggest *not* setting *both* OUT1 and OUT2. Why? Well, if you look
at the schematic for the IBM boards, you'll see that only one of them
is actually wired to anything which would allow/disallow interrupts.
The other one goes nowhere. (I think, but am not sure, that OUT2 is
wired, and OUT1 is useless -- but I don't have my manual here...) The
other one is, alas, used in an incompatible way by some modem
manufacturer somewhere. For instance, the Qubie internal modem card
uses the other line to mean modem-reset, which clicks the speaker,
temporarily de-asserts the lines, etc. The effect of trying always to
put both lines high on that card is to just make a small continuous
clicking sound and prevent the card from working. Now, it's not at
all compatible with IBM's, but both are not necessary for IBM's, so
you might as well only do one of them.
Re: Sperry IT (AT clone) and add-on 360K drives
We purchased a Toshiba 360K drive for our Sperry IT. It failed to work,
by only being able to format the outer tracks of a disk. Another
replacement Toshiba drive failed in the same manner. But the Toshiba
drive works just fine in a genuine IBM AT. We bought Mitsubishi (what
Sperry uses in their original equipment) instead and it worked just
fine. Just to let y'all know...
Re: 12 MHz AT (PC's Limited) Query?
Does anybody actually *have* one of these beasties? Does it run as fast
as they say? Does it clone properly? Does the AST Aadvantage card with
100ns memory chips perform with 1 wait state respectably? Is the disk
controller fast enough that it's not a system bottleneck? Does it
really work? Fast?
Brian (Hess@MIT-Multics.Arpa)
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Date: 3 Sep 1986 08:02:15 CDT
Subject: Quick Basic & DOS 2.11
From: Walt Livingston <DSDC-SDT2@GUNTER-ADAM.ARPA>
To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU
I have a problem that someone out there might be able to help me
on, especially MicroSoft.
Using a TANDY 1200 HD (XT compatible with 640K) and MS-DOS 2.11.
hen executing programs compiled as .EXE files (using BRUN20.EXE
runtime module) with MicroSoft's Quick Basic V2.0, and going from one
program to another with the "RUN filespec" command without exiting to
DOS, eventually gets a "Program Too Large" 9error message. This
indicates that memory is not being released by the previous
program(vs). Two of the programs had built-in "SHELL" state- ments.
When these were used to execute the RAM command, it showed that I had
a 516K system instead of a 640K system. The next time I used the RAM
command it showed that I had a 392K system; i.e., 124K chunks are
missing. I looked at locations 0040:0013-14 and it showed 640K as it
should.
To get around the "Program Too Large" message, I changed the
programs to CHAIN instead of RUN. This solved that problem. However,
the SHELL statements hang the machine if executed from within a
program that was CHAINed to; i.e., if that program is executed
directly from DOS, SHELL works correctly.
Both of these problems have been duplicated on other hardware,
so I know it's not "TANDY" incompatibility.
Any assistance from anyone would be greatly appreciated.
Walt Livingston
DSDC-SDT2@GUNTER-ADAM
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To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
From: "Roger Fajman" <RAF%NIHCU.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU>
Date: Wed, 0>3 Sep 86 21:07:20 EDT
Subject: Path Builder Available?
Does anyone know of a program that can be used in a batch file
to search the AUTOEXEC.BAT file for a PATH command, check that
PATH command for the presence of a particular directory, and add
the directory to the PATH command if it is not already there?
The idea is to use such a program in an automatic installation
batch file for a piece of software.
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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