Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (07/21/89)
Info-IBMPC Digest Fri, 21 Jul 89 Volume 89 : Issue 69
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.army.mil>
Today's Topics:
80x86/8088 Microprocessors
References to programming Video Adapters and for the 8259A
Fetching Files from Obscure Directories in Simtel
More GIFfer files
Today's Queries:
Fooling DOS
Info on Educational system called Master-Slave wanted
Encryption hardware/software available?
Reading a strange floppy format on PC
Need 3-Com to VMS or TCP/IP mail geteway
HP-DESKJET-FONTS
Re-directing keyboard input from a file
Parent program
Problem with CROBOTS.ARC?
The Epson QX-16
Window Dev Tools
Z-248 Problems
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun 02 Jul 89 07:00:23 EDT
From: Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: 80x86/8088 Microprocessors
}Date: 16 Jun 1989 18:53-CDT
}From: SAC.DYESGPF@E.ISI.EDU
}
}The information posted on the 80x86 and 8088 family of microprocessors
}recently seemed very well researched with the exception of the 88's. The
}80x88 processors do not take twice the time to operate because the
}instruction queue compensates for 8 bit transfers to a great extent. I
While the instruction queue does indeed make up somewhat for the severe
bandwidth limitation of the 8088's CPU bus, it doesn't help nearly as much
as you might think. The 8086 has a six-byte prefetch queue, which is
large enough to hold anything but a maximal six-byte instruction with an
additional segment override (other processors in the family have
prefetches of up to 12 bytes). The 8088, on the other hand, has only four
bytes of prefetch, so a large percentage of instructions have to wait
while the fifth and subsequent bytes of the instruction are read from
memory at the rate of four clock cycles per byte (far jumps and calls,
anything using both a memory location and an immediate value, etc., are
slowed down by this).
Further, the prefetch queue is empty immediately after a jump, and is
easily drained by instructions which execute in less than four clocks per
byte. This includes most register-only instructions. For this reason,
even though SHL AX,1 is listed as taking two clocks, a sequence of four
such shifts takes a minimum of eighteen clocks, since the prefetch queue
will be drained by the first two instructions, and the next two will have
to wait until the two bytes of the instruction are fetched. If the
prefetch queue happened to be empty at the start of the first shift
(fairly likely), a sequence of four shifts could take as much as 32
clocks.
UUCP: {ucbvax,harvard}!cs.cmu.edu!ralf -=-=-=- Voice: (412) 268-3053 (school)
ARPA: ralf@cs.cmu.edu BIT: ralf%cs.cmu.edu@CMUCCVMA FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/46
Disclaimer? I claimed something?
"When things start going your way, it's usually because you stopped going the
wrong way down a one-way street."
------------------------------
Date: Thu 29 Jun 89 18:27:25-PST
From: ROHAN%ASTRO.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
Subject: References to programming Video Adapters and for the 8259A
Someone wanted to know a good reference on programming video cards. The
one I bought and use is "Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 VIDEO SYSTEMS" by
Richard Wilton (Microsoft Press). It covers MDA, CGA, Hercules, EGA, VGA,
and MCGA. (as I page through I dont see the 8514A). I recommend it.
Someone else wanted info and people to help them with the 8259A interrupt
controller chip. The only reference I have ever seen is "SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
TOOLS" by Ted J. Biggerstaff (Prentice-Hall). Now this book is from 1986,
and I have not seen revised editions in my local bookstore, so it may not
be still available. It explains how the chip works and goes on in other
discussions about communications and multitasking. It also discusses how
to make windows. (Not MS Windows).
Hope this info helps?
Rick Rohan
(not affiliated with the above printing companies)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 1989 15:44 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: Fetching Files from Obscure Directories in Simtel
The following is an example of a weird listing found on the
SIMIBM.ARC file. The file lists all documented files on Simtel.
Directory 8708013-dimensional surface plotting
Filename Type Length Date Description
==============================================
PD1: A 0 18864 8
I wonder, I do you ask for a directory of 870801? How do you order
a download of a file from this (and similarly coded) directory?
Ran, we don't have any obscure directory names in our archives. Are you
sure you have the latest SIMIBM.ARC? Earlier versions had some problems
with embedded double quotes.
--Keith Petersen
Maintainer of SIMTEL20's CP/M, MSDOS, and MISC archives
Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil [26.2.0.74]
Uucp: {ames,decwrl,harvard,rutgers,ucbvax,uunet}!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz
------------------------------
Date: Thu 29 Jun 89 17:27:57-PST
From: ROHAN%ASTRO.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
Subject: More GIFfer files
A couple of people wanted to know where more Giffer files were available
(other than CompuServe). Well I was able to find some more in the Simtel
directory:
PD3:<MACINTOSH.PICT>
Yes, these are Mac files, but with a binary editor of some sort you can
quickly fix them to run on a PC. It seems that a Mac file contains a
header that gives various info to the operating system about the file's
Icon and what programs use the file, etc. This can be striped off.
Looking at a normal PC Giffer file you will notice that the first few
characters are "GIF87". All you need to do is strip off everything before
these characters in the mac files. (I do this using the Point editor that
came with my Logitech mouse, but there are other binary editors, including
some PD ones on Simtel). All of the files I have downloaded from this
account have worked with the exception of two, which displayed error
messages AFTER having displayed the picture properly. I have tried to do
the same thing with Mac Giffer files from other sources, but not with such
good results. These seem to work however. One of them I suggest is
COLOR005.GIFF or "Balloons". If you have a monochrome VGA (or don't mind
B&W) another good one is BW006.GIFF (Edwin Aldrin on Moon). I believe
info on these files is available from:
PD3:<MACINTOSH.PICT>00README.TXT
If anyone has a better way of converting or stripping the headers off these
files, let me know. Also if you know of other sources of these files post
notice of them.
Rick Rohan
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 13:17:15 EDT
From: Etakeyam@letterkenn-emh1.army.mil
Subject: Fooling DOS
Has anyone out there ever puzzled over a programming problem, tried every
solution (creative or otherwise) all to no avail? That in itself would
not be the problem but there are those of us, programmers, who KNOW.
Yes...I am at the end of memory and have an internal stack failure over
this one.....
I want to know, or receive at least a lead, on HOW to "fool" DOS into
thinking it does not have a hard drive when the system is booted from a
floppy. There are several programs that do this mysterious
modification....Watchdog(PC Security) and PC LOCK.
If anyone has a solution, comment, questions, or whatever could you cast a
few bytes into this poor, pennyless PC Programmer's bit bucket? I've
really had it with this mystery...it's about time I cold boot myself.....
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 01 Jul 89 20:05:47 CET
From: HaraldRakoczy <S91%DHDURZ1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Educational system called Master-Slave
Hello,
I'm looking for an educational system which is known as
"Master-Slave-System" (this is NOT a product name but a terminology). This
is a system which allows to support education on computer systems. A
master-slave system allows to send the image of the teacher's screen to
all student's screens, one student's screen to the teacher's or to all
other student's screens and so on. Also, it allows to manipulate the
input of one student. I hope you will now understand what kind of system I
mean.
M Y P R O B L E M:
I know systems based on PCs and I know systems based on mainframes (IBM
/370-fa mily - 3084 for example). But I'm looking for a system which
supports both: PC and mainframe. This system can consist of hardware
and/or software (I think, that systemsoftware on the mainframe is
necessary). The system has to run under following conditions:
PC: IBM PS/2 modell 55SX, DOS 4.00, MS-WORD, OPEN ACCESS, WORD PERFECT
3278/79 adapter card, Emulation program version 3.0, perhaps a token-ring
adapter instead of the 3278/79 adapter card (only the master-PC includes
this card to build a connection with the mainframe)
Mainframe: IBM 3084-Q64, operating system MVS/XA, tp-monitor CICS, TSO
I will be very happy if anyone of you knows a solution for my problem.
Many thanks in advance for your efforts and any help you can give,
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 14:59:19 EDT
From: Susan Bramhall <SUSAN%YALEVM.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: Encryption hardware/software available?
We are interested in providing an encrypting gateway for our campus
network. The idea is that users on certain LANs considered secure wish to
send data across an unsecured ethernet spine and eventually into another
secure LAN or host. We have several ideas for the gateway (based on
previous software developed at Yale) but would like to acquire a software
or, preferably hardware, encryptor. Ideally, it would be a card with the
ability to encrypt/decrypt on its own chip rather than taking up
workstation CPU cycles. We would pass it data and a key and it would
return encrypted data. The gateway is being built on an IBM PS/2. Any
leads would be very much appreciated.
I also wonder if other sites are thinking about this problem and, if so,
what sort of solution are you looking at? All of the security discussions
which I have seen are concerned with authorization and access control
(such as dial back) rather than encryption of data. Does anyone know of a
forum where this has been discussed? Note, by the way, that we are not
planning to do any research into encryption algorithms, a subject I am
happy to leave to the mathematicians.
Susan Bramhall
Senior Research Programmer
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 18:09+0200
From: Bergmann@DMZRZU71.bitnet
Subject: Reading a strange floppy format on PC
we have a serious problem here:
We want to read some 5" floppys, from an old 8 bit OS called FLEX-6809
(TSC). the format is 80 Tracks, two sided, double density with track 0 in
single density (!!!!) . Sector size is 256 bytes (!!!!). Sectors on side
0 are numbered from 1 to 16 on side 0, 17 to 32 on side 1 for double
density. (1 to 10/ 11 to 20 for track 0)
Now here is our question:
1. Is there some program that can read this format.
2. if not, how can I read sectors physically. Maybe there is some
BIOS call or some interface for a high level language.
We have a lot of data, we want to analyze on a PC, but we dont want to
transfer it with Kermit (400 floppys), so any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Hans-Juergen Bergmann
UNI MAINZ
Psychology Dept.
POB 3980
D-6500 MAINZ 1 Bitnet: Bergmann@DMZRZU71
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 11:28:28 EDT
From: hegstrom@tecnet-clemson.arpa
Subject: Need 3-Com to VMS or TCP/IP mail geteway
we need to be able to send and receive VMS or TCP/IP SMTP mail on our
3-Com network. All three are on the same ethernet.
Promulgate routes 3-com mail to SMTP, runs on a Sun 386, and costs $35k,
hardware included. Are there any others?
If you know email directly to me, John Hegstrom, Internet
hegstrom@tecnet-clemson.arpa,
or call (301) 863-3365.
Thanks,
------------------------------
Date: 03 Jul 89 12:27 GMT+0100
From: Peter Maisel <maisel%ubt0.hrz.uni-bayreuth.dbp.de@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: HP-DESKJET-FONTS
Hello Networker,
Has anyone outthere information an converting HP-LASERJET like fonts to
the HP-DESKJET format. At the moment many PD HP-LASER-FONTS are useless
for DESKJET users. Thanks for ANY help.
Peter Maisel
University of Bayreuth
Computing Services
<BTR414@DBTHRZ5.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 16:21:05 BST
From: THRA004%mvs.ulcc.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Re-directing keyboard input from a file
Several programs won't accept the rerouting of console input as from a
file, using < from DOS. I have this problem particularly with Autosketch,
which aborts if one tries to do this. I have found that 4DOS's Keystack
routine works for this purpose: but is there a PD equivalent?
Christopher Currie
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 22:15:30 EDT
From: Paul Steckler <steck@eric.ccs.northeastern.edu>
Subject: Parent program
Does anyone know how I can find out the parent program of the currently
executing program in MSDOS?
I have heard that undocumented areas of the PSP give you a pointer to the
parent's environment block. If so, where is that pointer, and what is its
format, and where in the environment block is the parent's program name?
Paul Steckler
steck@eric.ccs.northeastern.edu
<< Were I Brittania, I'd waive the rules >>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 14:13 MST
From: "C. R. Oldham" <OLDHAM@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu>
Subject: Problem with CROBOTS.ARC?
Does anybody know is there is a problem with the CROBOTS.ARC file in
PD1:<MSDOS.C>? I have tried to download it several times with no luck
whatsoever. PKUNPAK gives me a CRC error...
Charles R. Oldham
OLDHAM@ARIZRVAX -- Bitnet
oldham@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu -- Internet
"Remember--Wherever you go...there you are."
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 11:18 EDT
From: Mike Richichi <MRICHICH%DREW.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: The Epson QX-16
Does anyone know about any national or local (to New Jersey) users groups
for the Epson QX-16? Or, even better, does anyone know where we can find
a VT100 emulator that can handle up to 9600 baud? Generic MS-Kermit is
not dependable above 600 baud on these machines, and the serial port
configuration is very nonstandard so something would have to be
customized. I was hoping to get in touch with people who might have
addressed this problem.
Mike Richichi, Student Operator, Drew University, Madison, NJ, 07940,
USA
MRICHICH@DRUNIVAC.BITNET
Disclaimer: I do not speak for Drew University, but if they were
smart they would let me.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 89 21:23 +0200
From: ANDERS MARTINSSON <E88_ANDERS@tekno.chalmers.se>
Subject: Window Dev Tools
I'm from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. I want
to know if Window Development Tools can be used by Borlands Turbo Pascal.
This Pascal is more easily available here than Microsoft Pascal. I would
be very grateful if you could answer this question as I'm thinking of
buying this package for use with Turbo Pascal.
Anders Martinsson
e88_anders@tekno.chalmers.se
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 89 7:43:14 KST
From: Gregory Hicks - COMFLEACT Chinhae <comfleact@taegu-emh1.army.mil>
Subject: Z-248 Problems
Have a few problems that you may have seen before. I know I haven't.
Problem 1: We made a sub-directory on our installed hard disk drive.
After connecting to it, we did a 'DIRectory' and noticed that the VERY
first entry was a '>' instead of the expected '.' entry. Can't remove the
directory either. We keep getting the "Invalid path, not a directory, or
directory not empty" message. This was done after the disk was freshly
'low-level' formatted, partitioned and had DOS reloaded from original
distribution diskettes.
Also can't load such programs as Norton Utilities. Keep getting a
"program too big to fit in memory" message. However, the same program
loads nicely from a floppy disk.
Problem 3: Another machine: If I make the boot device drive c:, I get a
musical note on the screen whenever I try a clear screen. In addition,
the system locks up when the screen is full. Have the following
CONFIG.SYS file:
[This problem was traced to a NANSI.SYS... Has anyone else had this
problem? Changing from NANSI to ANSI as supplied by Zenith with MS-DOS
solved the boot problem. However, I now get strange behaviour from my
autoexec.bat file when I do <alt>-F9 ...]
device=nansi.sys
files=20
buffers=30
device=vdisk.sys
Autoexec.bat looks like this:
prompt $e[37;44;1m
prompt $e[0;113;"cls";13p
prompt $e[0;112;"ll ";
prompt
cls
echo off
egablank
scroll
c:\bin\nde
cls
rtclock
ver
IF I make the boot device "floppy then winchester", everything boots OK.
Any ideas? I'm out.
Best,
Gregory Hicks
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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