lvw@rama.UUCP (Lyndon VanWagner) (01/09/90)
I'm considering purchasing a used unix-pc (3b1, 7300) as a home machine. However, I would like to check on its MSDOS (if any) compatibility, when the DOS board is installed. Can anyone give me their experiences with this? Is the screen compatible with some IBM PC graphics board? Or, should I wait for the Intel 386 prices to drop, and put ESIX on it? Of course, then I would have to wait for a year or so... I am so sick and tired of using my non-standard, floppy-based, MSDOS machine (a Tandy 2000) and want a real Unix machine for home use! How big is the following for the 3b1? Where can I get support for it? Where can I get software (like enhancements and a software development system) for it? (You see, I'm new to this newsgroup - so please be nice: no flames please). I happened to read about a proposed System V Rel 3.2 port for the 3b1. What/if-anything has happened to this idea? Was it canned because there wasn't enough technical documentation on the in-nards? (Its too bad, that when a company decides to drop and orphan a machine, it doesn't make the technical information public domain). -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lyndon C. VanWagner UUCP: lvw@sc.harris.com Software Engineer -or- ...!rochester!tropix!rama!lvw Technical Support Group PHONE: (716) 924-9303 ext. 226 Harris Corporation, Scientific Calculations Division, Fishers, NY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cornfield's Law (paraphrased): Before anything can change, everyone must agree. By the time that happens its a different problem. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) (01/11/90)
In article <10678@rama.UUCP>, lvw@rama.UUCP (Lyndon VanWagner) writes: >I'm considering purchasing a used unix-pc (3b1, 7300) as a home machine. >However, I would like to check on its MSDOS (if any) compatibility, when >the DOS board is installed. Can anyone give me their experiences with >this? Is the screen compatible with some IBM PC graphics board? > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Lyndon C. VanWagner UUCP: lvw@sc.harris.com >Software Engineer -or- ...!rochester!tropix!rama!lvw >Technical Support Group PHONE: (716) 924-9303 ext. 226 >Harris Corporation, Scientific Calculations Division, Fishers, NY >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am reading from the AT&T "UNIX-PC Reference Manual." In the section describing the "DOS-73 Coprocessor" card, page 1.2, "General Description," the manual claims that the DOS coprocessor emulates a Hercules MONOCHROME graphics card. Further reading says that the card's hardware whatches for something to write to the emulated screen memory and sets a flag to notify the system to update UNIX-PC's display. Additional IBM PC features emulated or provided: COM1: (emulated) COM2: (provided; fully implemented - presumably fully compatable) (Intel 8250 Asynch Com chip) LPT: (emulated) floppy (emulated) disk 8253 (provided) timer/counter chip 8259 (provided) interrupt controler socket for 8087 math coprocessor (provided) However, I don't have a DOS coprocessor card, so I can't tell you how well it really works. I've thought about getting one, but the most recent price I've seem was about $700 - still too high for me to consider it (yet).
res@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Rich Strebendt) (01/12/90)
In article <2421@ttardis.UUCP>, rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) writes: | In article <10678@rama.UUCP>, lvw@rama.UUCP (Lyndon VanWagner) writes: | |I'm considering purchasing a used unix-pc (3b1, 7300) as a home machine. | |However, I would like to check on its MSDOS (if any) compatibility, when | |the DOS board is installed. Can anyone give me their experiences with | |this? Is the screen compatible with some IBM PC graphics board? | | I am reading from the AT&T "UNIX-PC Reference Manual." In the section | describing the "DOS-73 Coprocessor" card, page 1.2, "General Description," | the manual claims that the DOS coprocessor emulates a Hercules MONOCHROME | graphics card. | ... However, I don't have a DOS coprocessor card, so I can't tell you how | well it really works. I have a DOS-73 board, so I can comment from experience. For character graphics the emulation is quite acceptable. I run programs like Harvard Total Project Manager (Version 1.0) on it and the PERT charts and Gantt charts look just fine. For bit level graphics the DOS board is absurd. For example, if I try to run TETRIS on it, the display looks like a TV set with a horrible horizontal sync problem. Each line of the display is offset from its predecessor by a large amount. Any program that tries to do Hercules bit-level graphics simply trashes the display. This appears to be because the PC and the UNIX PC screens have different numbers of pixels per row(?). Add to this problem the problem that the memory is terribly undersized for modern applications. For example, HTPM versions beyond 1.0 are too big to fit into the undersized DOS board's memory. While it is claimed that there is 512K of memory, only about 400K of it is available for applications to use. So, if you are looking to do fancy graphic applications using the DOS-73 board, you may be disappointed. However, if character level graphics are sufficient for your needs, the board will probably do fine as long as your application will fit. Despite these limitations, I personally have found the DOS-73 board to do a good job for the kinds of things I want to do with it. Rich Strebendt ...!att!ihlpb!res
zman@cbnewse.ATT.COM (william.j.zimmerman..jr) (01/13/90)
I have been using the DOS-73 card in a UNIX PC for a couple of years now, and in general I am pleased. In real life I used to have to test MS-DOS software on our network products for compatibility. After testing, I almost always would try the software on my DOS-73 card. As Rich Strebendt pointed out in an earlier article, some s/w will just plain not run/hang the card. That's the worst case. The best case is when you don't know that you are running the card. A lot of s/w falls in between. One outstanding example comes to mind. I just bought the 1990 version of Turbo-Tax and decided to see what it looked like on the DOS card. Answer - incredible. When you tell it to show you your 1040 min graphics mode, it makes a DOS CGA display look amateurish. If anyone wants to know what will run and what won't, write to me - I may have tested it. Bill Zimmerman att!iwlcs!wjz 708-979-7677