jmm@cloe.gti.upm.es (Jose Manuel Menendez Garcia) (10/19/90)
Hello world! I'm an Spanish 800XL owner (whose English is not very good, by the way), who got really surprised by the amount of still Atari 8-bits friends there. I must confess that I parked my old machine when I left the University and started working in a image processing research group, with PC's and Sun workstations. Reading the news, I found that it's possible to establish some kind of communication between a PC and my old 8-bits machine. I would be very thankful if somebody could help me in this way. I would also apreciate any kind of information concerning the possibility of displaying gray-scale images on the screen. My stuff is very reduced: I have the previous mentioned 800XL, a disk drive (1050 I think), the 850 module for connecting a parallel printer, and some broken joysticks. Thanks in advance, Jose Manuel. E-mail: jmm@gti.upm.es post-address: Jose Manuel Menendez | /------ -------- o Grupo de Tratamiento de Imagenes | / / / E.T.S.I. Telecomunicacion (U.P.M.) | / / / Ciudad Universitaria s/n | / --/ / / 28040 Madrid | / / / / Spain | /_____/ / /
fseipel@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Frank E. Seipel) (10/20/90)
New 8-Bit Product by Roger Heller - JACS Reprinted from Between Bytes - 6/90 Perhaps this item belongs in the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR column, but it strikes me as such a novel idea that I decided to give it an article of its own. As you are probably aware, the world is getting overcrowded with IBM PC's, XT's, AT's, and their clones as well as 386- and 486- based computers that are called "industry standard" but aren't really clones of anything. Whether you like them or not, they are powerful computers. They have lots of memory (the smallest ever made had 128K), they have big floppy disks (small ones have 360K), and they usually have hard disk with megs and megs of space. Just what the Atari hobbyist needs! The problem is that they aren't compatible with Ataris. The disks use a different format. An 8-bit Atari couldn't address all that memory, even if it had it. If you have an industry standard computer you have all that power sitting ardound with no way to use it on your Atari. Well, maybe there is a point of compatibility. The PC has a serial port that just deals in the bits and bytes of transmitted data -- ASCII text, binary files, anything you want to transmit. The Atari's SIO deals in just the same things. If only they could talk to each other! Nick Kennedy, an electrical engineer from Russelville, Arkansas had the idea. He isn't a computer professional, but he is an Atari hobbyist, and he is interested in data interfacing. He put together a little box and a few cables, and it worked so well he's selling them now. SIO2PC is a system that allows you to store Atari programs and data on the PC's disk and to use the PC's memory as one or more ramdisks. The hardware part allows the Atari SIO to connect directly to an RS-232 port (the PC's serial port). The Atari doesn't need an 850 interface or any communications software or drivers. The software part runs on the PC. It is an Atari disk emulator with PC file I/O capability. With it you can set up Atari ramdisks in the PC's ram space. You can load these ramdisks with files and data from your Atari, and you can save them to the PC's hard and floppy disks. Once you get your Atari software on the PC, you can boot your Atari from the PC without even having an Atari disk drive connected. FEATURES - You can: > create 1 to 4 ramdisks >Write the ramdisks to a PC disk file >Load the PC disk file back into a ramdisk >Use PC COM port 1 to 4 for the SIO2PC connection > Change ramdisk ID numbers >Choose from 4 ramdisk sizes >Format in normal density, DOS 2.5 density, or double density >Use PC batch files to automate set-up of SIO2PC Future features: >"Remote control" program to control the PC from your Atari >PC to switch ramdisk ID's automatically for rebooting >SIO2PC to run in background on the PC as a TSR (so someone else can work with the PC while you're using it as a disk/ramdisk manager) >Utility to convert PC files to Atari files (download files with the PC and then convert them to Atari format, create PC files with an editor or word processor and then use them on the Atari). Now working and included: >Print on a printer attached to the PC >Convert Atari files to PC format in order to work with them on the PC Now the business talk: The price of SIO2PC, complete with cables and connectors is only $49.95. He promises your money back if it doesn't work, and no more than $5 for upgrades. For the real hobbyist, a kit of all parts, box, etc, is available for $35. This sounds like the best idea that has come down the pike for a while. Much better than using an old Atari as a printer buffer! I'll have copies of his letter and feature sheet at the meeting. N.R. Kennedy 300 South Vancouver Russelville, AR 72801 (501) 967-3843 I am the newsletter editor for an 8-bit club in Columbus, Ohio. I have many articles in the form of text files. If anybody is interested I could send some of them up here. I also run two 8-bit BBS's, A.C.E.C. at (614)-471-8559, and Pandora at (614)-471-9209.
jmm@cloe.gti.upm.es (Jose Manuel Menendez Garcia) (10/22/90)
Hello again, world!! In my previous message, I said: > Reading the news, I found that it's possible to establish some kind of > communication between a PC and my old 8-bits machine. Well, I have received two answers, and I thing I am going to try first the one from Chris_F_Chiesa: MYDOS program. Chris sent me an e-mail, saying that the executable code for MYDOS was posted in May, and the source one a few weeks ago. Could someone re-post it for me, please ? I don't care if it is executable or source code. Thank you, Frank E. Seipel, for your kind answer. SIO2PC seems to be another interesting possibility. I will consider it. Jose Manuel e-mail: jmm@cloe.gti.upm.es