[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Help: Softwr to Run DOS on MAC

REDELMAN@AUVM.BITNET (Richard B. Edelman) (12/27/89)

Can anyone recommend software which will create a DOS environment on
a Mac?   I want to run DOS progs on a Mac and transport disks back
and forth between the Mac and an IBM PC.

Thanks,
Richard B. Edelman

The American University
Washington, D.C.

BITNET: REDELMAN@AUVM
FAX:    202-885-1946
PHONE:  202-885-1948

LC.YRS@forsythe.stanford.edu (Richard Stanton) (12/29/89)

In article <89360.113013REDELMAN@AUVM.BITNET>,
REDELMAN@AUVM.BITNET (Richard B. Edelman) writes:
>Can anyone recommend software which will create a DOS environment on
>a Mac?   I want to run DOS progs on a Mac and transport disks back
>and forth between the Mac and an IBM PC.
>
You can get a board for the Mac (Probably not all versions) that
has an 80 something processor on it, and allows you to run DOS
programs directly. A friend of mine with a Mac II has such a board,
but it is apparently extremely slow, and expensive compared with
purchasing a low end PC box separately, then using a Superdrive to
transfer files between the two machines.

Richard Stanton

pstanton@gsb-what.stanford.edu

halam@umnd-cpe-cola.d.umn.edu (hasseen alam) (01/08/90)

Call up Insignia Software, and inquire about SoftPC.  I think they are
shipping v1.3 now.  This is nice.  It does a PC/AT or XT emulation.  But
if the application needs special Graphics card or if it uses Math
co-processors, then you are out of luck with this one.  This is a
inexpensive solution.  MacWorld and MacUser gave prety good reviews.
Even I tried it last summer on a SE/30.  OOO!! BTW this requires a lot
of RAM, FDHD and one of the 020 or 030 Macs.  There are a few third
party boards to do it also.  Try calling Orange Micro and Dayna Soft for
more info on their products.  You will find their numbers on any popular
magazines.

I hope this helps.

Haseen.

laba-4ad@web-1c.berkeley.edu (Joseph Teo) (01/10/90)

In article <89360.113013REDELMAN@AUVM.BITNET> REDELMAN@AUVM.BITNET (Richard B. Edelman) writes:
>Can anyone recommend software which will create a DOS environment on
>a Mac?   I want to run DOS progs on a Mac and transport disks back
>and forth between the Mac and an IBM PC.
>
>Thanks,
>Richard B. Edelman
>
>The American University
>Washington, D.C.
>
>BITNET: REDELMAN@AUVM
>FAX:    202-885-1946
>PHONE:  202-885-1948

The best and only program so far is SoftPC which provides an excellent
emulation on a 68020/30-based Mac complete with the disk cracking noise
on a PC. You can perform cut and paste operations between the PC application
and any Mac programs (excellent under MultiFinder). The Microsoft mouse
and PC parallel and comm ports are emulated too. I've tried to run
programs like PC-Tools, MS-Word, Wordstar, Tetris etc with it. I was told
it even works with Flight Simulator which is a stringent test of 
compatibility. With the SuperDrive, you can use the standard Mac floppy
as a PC 1.44MB floppy. You can have 2 PC hard disk volumes which are 
actually standard Mac HFS files. You can even assign a Mac directory as
a PC volume. The data forks of all the files can then be accessed as if
they were PC files!

The drawbacks are namely speed: on my SE/30, it produces only about 60%
the speed of a 4.77Mhz XT clone according to PC Tools and a pathetic 30%
according to Norton Speed Index. It only emulates the 8088 (actually the
NEC V20) and CGA so all EGA/VGA and 286/386 applications will not work.
Due to the different screen aspect ratio, the pixels cannot be mapped
directly and graphics will not look good on a 9" monochrome display. On the
Mac II, the display is much sharper than CGA and the effect on the mapping
is less pronounced.

Other alternatives include cards like the Mac86 for the SE and Mac286 for
the II which are costlier, somewhat less stable but a lot faster. Use them
if you have to access the MS-DOS environment frequently. You'll be put off
by the speed of SoftPC especially on highly interactive applications.

oivindt@ulrik.uio.no (Oivind Toien) (01/11/90)

In article <1990Jan10.014311.7148@agate.berkeley.edu>
laba-4ad@web-1c.berkeley.edu (Joseph Teo) writes:
     .....a lot deleted
   The best and only program so far is SoftPC which provides an excellent
   emulation on a 68020/30-based Mac ..... deleted...
   ..The drawbacks are namely speed: on my SE/30, it produces only about 60%
   the speed of a 4.77Mhz XT clone according to PC Tools and a pathetic 30%
   according to Norton Speed Index. It only emulates the 8088 (actually the
   ......a lot deleted

In a test I found that the clock-tick rate (Int $1C) was only about
4.5 Hz which is about 1/4 of what is it should be on a PC (approx.
18Hz).  I also tried to reprogram the "timer chip" to test the extent
of emulation of the hardware, but the clock-tick rate could not be
changed.  The test was performed on a Mac SE30 which was temporary at
my disposal together with the Soft-PC program.

This could have serious implications on the speed of programs using the
clock-tick to time events.


Oivind
-- 
==================================================================
Oivind Toien, University of Oslo, Norway        Phone 47-2-454732
<m_toeien_oe@use.uio.uninett>                   Fax   47-2-454726 
<oivindt@ulrik.uio.no>                                           

oivindt@ulrik.uio.no (Oivind Toien) (01/11/90)

In article <1990Jan10.014311.7148@agate.berkeley.edu>
laba-4ad@web-1c.berkeley.edu (Joseph Teo) writes:
     ..... deleted
   The best and only program so far is SoftPC which provides an excellent
   emulation on a 68020/30-based Mac   ..... deleted...
   ..The drawbacks are namely speed: on my SE/30, it produces only about 60%
   the speed of a 4.77Mhz XT clone according to PC Tools and a pathetic 30%
   according to Norton Speed Index. It only emulates the 8088 (actually the
   ...... deleted

In a test I found that the clock-tick rate (Int $1C) was only about
4.5 Hz which is about 1/4 of what is it should be on a PC (approx.
18Hz).  I also tried to reprogram the "timer chip" to test the extent
of emulation of the hardware, but the clock-tick rate could not be
changed.  The test was performed on a Mac SE30 which was temporary at
my disposal together with the Soft-PC program.

This could have serious implications on the speed of programs using the
clock-tick to time events.


Oivind


-- 
==================================================================
Oivind Toien, University of Oslo, Norway        Phone 47-2-454732
<m_toeien_oe@use.uio.uninett>                   Fax   47-2-454726 
<oivindt@ulrik.uio.no>