hicks@WALKER-EMH.ARPA (Gregory Hicks COMFLEACTS) (05/27/88)
Info-IBMPC Digest Thu, 26 May 88 Volume 7 : Issue 27
This Week's Editor: Gregory Hicks -- Chinhae Korea <hicks@walker-emh.arpa>
Today's Topics:
TurboPas Long Integer Procedures
FAST disks on PC AT clones
Some Useful Information on Big Disks on PC AT Clones
Big Disks on PC AT Clones
Results: Maxtor ESDI drive is *NOT* bigger than advertised
King James Bible
Today's Queries:
'MULTASK' Multitasker
Bug in Reminder program
Easy Link
LONG PATHS
Hard Disk for the model 30
Help with connecting external 5.25" drive to laptop
IBMPC Video I/O Interrupts
Intel AboveBoard/386 problems
Looking for PS2 Mouse Driver
Mouse API in DOS mode of OS/2
MSC 5.1 SETUP program warning
PS/2, TEK4010 and PrintScreen
IBM-PC - Ethernet Interface Queries
T100 Mods
Voice Communications Application Program Interface
Info-IBMPC Lending Library is available from:
Bitnet via server at CCUC; and from SIMTEL20.ARPA (see file
PD1:<msdos>files.idx for listing of source files)
SIMTEL20.ARPA can now be accessed access from BITNET is via
LISTSERV@RPICICGE.BITNET using LISTSERV Commands
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 May 88 15:23:29 EDT
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@braggvax.arpa>
Subject: TurboPas Long Integer Procedures
TOADLONG.ARC - Updated long integer package for Turbo Pascal 3.0
Fully commented Turbo Pascal and inline assembler
source. Includes procedures, functions, and a demo/
test program showing speed increases when using
long integers vs. real numbers.
Author: David Kirschbaum, Toad Hall
kirsch@braggvax.ARPA
Recently uploaded to SIMTEL20.ARPA (probably in PD1:<MSDOS.TURBOPAS>).
Contact me via EMail if you can't snarf from there.
------------------------------
Date: 3 May 88 08:38:33 GMT
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Subject: FAST disks on PC AT clones
In article <613@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
>
>Has anyone found that the controller has a big effect on HD performance.
> I have a Micropolis 1335 (71MB formatted, 28ms) drive with a DTC 5280
>controller in a 386 box, and the Infoworld benchmark says that it is a
>dog! CORETEST 2.4 and PC Mag Benchmark suite 4 agree that it is a 28 ms
>drive! Steve Satchell (IW) has yet to answer this question about what
>the IW test does that might make this combo look so bad. Perhaps one of
>you has a thought?? Thanks.
The controller has little to do with seek times. It should also be noted
that for many applications, average seek time has almost nothing to do
with performance, either!
For most applications, DATA TRANSFER RATE is much more important. This is
affected by:
- interleave supported by controller
- data buffering in controller
- head switch time of drive
- track-to-track seek time of drive
- drive data format (MFM, RLL, ESDI, SCSI in increasing speed order).
If you deal with lots of short accesses to widely varying data areas (e.g.
random lookups in a database with thousands of short records), then the
seek time will be important. For everything else, including program load
time, sequential data search, etc., the data rate is much more important.
CONTROLLERS
Your absolute fastest possible data rate will be had with a synchronous
SCSI controller running at full speed with a SCSI drive. I haven't seen
one yet.
Next is an ESDI controller/drive running full speed. CAST makes
controllers that run full speed (> 1 MB/sec on Coretest!); Adaptec is
supposed to (I'm testing that later this week). OMTI controllers do not
get full performance out of ESDI: they 'only' go around 700K/sec. I
haven't tried the WD ESDI controllers, but if their MFM/RLL performance is
any indications, I doubt they would do very well.
Next is RLL full speed combo. Both Adaptec and OMTI versions go full speed
1:1. Adaptec is a little faster (less overhead/better buffering) under
most circumstances. If you have a very fast bus (10MHz 0 wait state)
though, the Adaptec controllers actually slow down! If you have a slow AT,
the Adaptec is definitely best: it gets full RLL speed (> 700K/sec on
Coretest) on 6-8 MHz AT's. OMTI gets 660-700K/sec on 8+ MHz AT's.
MFM running 1:1 interleave is next, getting about 1/3 less throughput than
RLL (around 450K/sec). Adaptec and OMTI make good MFM controllers. Certain
WD flavors can do 1:1. DTC controllers don't.
If a controller can't handle 1:1 interleave, you lose big very quickly.
2:1 interleave cuts your data rate in HALF! (There's no such thing as
1.5:1).
DRIVES
The only really tricky question is: "Which drives are good RLL drives?"
(Well, a second part is 'which controllers can do RLL best on non-RLL
drives?' Answer: Adaptec has better window margins (see #1 below for
definition) than others. Not a big deal in general, though.)
The answers:
1) The Seagate ST-225 and ST-238 are *NOT* good for RLL. They are
barely good as MFM drives! (Their electronics and platter material just
can't handle the narrow 'window margins' (technical term meaning 'how
accurate must the data signal timing be?').
2) Miniscribe drives, whether certified for RLL or not, make prettty
good RLL drives. Their electronics/platters were *designed* for RLL. Some
are not officially RLL certified, which simply saves Miniscribe from some
warranty claim costs. 3650's work just fine!
3) Maxtor drives seem to work just great, even though they are not
certified. Also note that the 1140 is really a 2190 with a different
label: It is advertised as having only 918 cylinders, but really has 1224.
$1795 at Fry's + an RLL controller gets you 240MB of disk space!
4) Anybody have experience with other brands?
Pete
--
OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746
------------------------------
Date: 1 May 88 07:54:37 GMT
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Subject: Some Useful Information on Big Disks on PC AT Clones
A few people made comments about using lots of small partitions to take
advantage of a big disk drive... This set the jello that's left of my
brain off again. Here's some stuff I forgot to include in my summary:
There are significant tradeoffs involved in deciding whether to parcel
your big disk drive(s) into lots of little (<32MB) partitions or a huge
partition. I'll try to make this simple...
CLUSTER SIZES
Huge partitions *require* big cluster sizes. On average, you waste 1/2 of
a cluster of disk space per file ('cuz the last cluster in each file is,
on average, half full). If you have lots of files, you therefore waste a
chunk of disk space by going to big clusters. On the other hand, DOS does
a linear traverse of the cluster list for a file every time you access the
file. Big files get lots of clusters. Therefore, big clusters can
*significantly* speed up access times for big files.
MEMORY
To begin with, DOS3.3 is a hog compared with earlier versions. Usually it
takes up around 40K extra RAM from your 640 (compared with earlier DOS
versions).
Now add N buffers **PER PARTITION** and you've got a lot of space used up
by DOS. If you have partitions C: through J: (8 partitions) and you set
'buffers=10' in your config.sys, you've just allocated 10*8*512 = 40K
worth of buffer space. I've got a customer with 480MB of disk space; he
tried lots of small partitions with buffers=20 (for better speed). That
came out to 16*20*512 = 160K of buffer space! And he wondered why AutoCAD
wouldn't load. [I don't remember offhand whether you also get a set of
buffers per floppy. You can play with this by changing N in your
config.sys, then comparing the change in memory usage.]
ORGANIZATION
This could be considered a wash. Since you can SUBST a drive letter for a
path on another drive, you can make big and small partitions look pretty
much the same to a user.
On the other hand, I personally like to have everything organized under a
single hierarchy; this is tough when things must be spread over lots of
partitions.
Note that if you have BIG files, it is a pain to go looking for them in
lots of different disk partitions. Some folks toss 1MB+ files around with
impunity. It doesn't take much to fill up a 32MB partition with stuff like
that!
COMPATIBILITY
2K cluster sizes (and therefore, small partitions) are in general more
compatible with software utilities that play with low level hard disk
stuff. Most end users will never notice the difference, however; they
don't regularly reformat their drives!
CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS
If you have memory to spare in your 640K, and you don't need room for big
files in a partition, then small partitions will probably be fine.
If you are playing with big databases, you'll benefit a lot if you make a
partition for the database file that has big clusters (e.g. 32K). Do this
even if you make the partition itself small. Going from 2K to 32K clusters
can give an order of magnitude increase in performance!
If neither of the above applies to you, then what do I care? :-) Make up
your own mind; it's your system, not mine!
Pete
--
OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746
------------------------------
Date: 29 Apr 88 18:30:08 GMT
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Subject: Big Disks on PC AT Clones
phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) asks about big drives, big partitions, and
fancy disk manager programs.
I've been looking at all this a lot recently. Here's some answers:
[By the way... this article is Copyright 1988 by Octopus Enterprises. You
may use this information in any way that you like, as long as it doesn't
get republished without permission. I'm not charging you for the info, so
please don't charge others for it either!]
You CAN handle drives bigger than 32MB as long as you are using DOS 3.x
(earlier versions of DOS didn't have a big enough FAT table to make it
practical).
You CAN have partitions bigger than 32MB as long as you don't use some of
the low-level hard drive interface programs that assume a normal (2K)
cluster size. PC Tools, for example, gets sick on partitions bigger than
about 160M. The (amazing, wonderful, etc) new 'SpinRite' program that
optimizes low-level formats can't handle partitions >32MB in its current
version. Norton seems to be OK. CHKDSK can get sick.
What are the pieces of the puzzle?....
BIOS: Doesn't directly support drives >1024 cylinders, thus requiring
special device drivers. The 'Setup Drive Type' table imposes limitations
on wasted disk space vs. your boot partition (see below). The BIOS
generally doesn't care two hoots about partition size.
DOS: Except for custom versions (Toshiba and Compaq), no version of MSDOS
supports partitions bigger than 32MB. No (standard) version of DOS prior
to 3.3 directly supports multiple 32MB partitions on a single drive.
CONTROLLER: # heads and # cylinders supported is limited by the
controller. Some controllers have special support for large drives. E.g.
OMTI and Adaptec have built-in low level formatting, and partitioning into
N 32MB partitions. OMTI makes itself look like lots of separate drives.
Adaptec loads a special driver into your boot partition; the driver then
takes care of telling DOS about the extra partitions.
SPECIAL DEVICE DRIVER/PARTITIONER: These things have several functions,
some of which could be accomplished in other ways, some of which need the
special software:
a) Low level format (usually doable using debug & controller firmware)
b) Override 'Setup drive type' table. (generally unique)
c) Fancy partitioning, e.g. >32MB partitions (generally unique)
d) High level format (also can be done using DOS FORMAT command)
e) Intense surface test of drive (also doable with other purchased
software)
What are the limitations? Let me outline them in some kind of category
sequence:
BUCKS:
In general, you'll end up spending a nice chunck of change ($50 or more)
on a 'disk partition manager' program in order to deal with big drives
and/or big partitions. Why so much bucks? Because the programs are
necessary, they are NOT a mass- market item, and they are easily pirated.
There are some exceptions:
a) If you just need to handle big drives, but don't need big partitions,
you have a few low cost choices:
1) Use DOS 3.3. It handles lots of 32MB partitions on a single drive.
Downside is that 3.3 is a memory hog (and typically costs a little more
than 3.2 anyway).
2) Use an RLL drive and an Adaptec RLL controller (e.g. 2372 HD/FD
controller). You pay maybe $70 extra for the controller, but you get 50%
more disk space, 400% more throughput (700K/sec), and the controller
firmware is able to download a FOO.SYS partition manager driver onto your
boot partition (nice trick!)
b) If you are buying a Seagate drive, the drive usually comes with a
custom version of Disk Manager included. First partition must be <=32MB,
but other partition(s) can be >32MB.
BIOS PROM LIMITATIONS:
If your BIOS doesn't have a drive table entry that supports a drive with
a) # Cylinders <= # Cylinders on your drive b) # Heads <= # Heads on your
drive then you need a new BIOS. The problem is that the startup test will
crash and burn because it can't find the whole drive listed in your setup
parameters.
If your BIOS doesn't have a drive table entry that supports a drive with
a) # Cylinders <= # Cylinders on your drive
b) # Heads EQUAL TO # Heads on your drive (*note* above was <= )
then your boot partition is going to waste some potential disk space.
The boot partition can only use heads listed in the BIOS drive table. For
example, if your drive has 18 heads, your setup params drive has 4, and
you make a 10 MB boot partition (C: drive), you'll have 10MB of wasted
space (heads 4-7 on the first cylinders of the drive).
GENERAL BIOS LIMITATION
If your drive has more than 1024 cylinders (e.g. Maxtor 1140, 2190, etc),
it gets very interesting. INT 13 in the BIOS does not support more than
1024 cylinders. So what to do?....
a) Use an OMTI RLL controller and SpeedStor
b) Buy your drive from Storage Dimensions (makers of SpeedStor and a
subsidiary of Maxtor); they'll give you a souped up version of SpeedStor
that handles >1024 cylinders on just about ANY controller. [*flame*- is
bundling like this legal? I thought that bundled software also had to be
made available separately at a reasonable price!]
c) Buy the generic version of Disk Manager along with their
'SuperProm' extended BIOS drive table [$100 for two PROMS. Yech.] [They
are working on a new version of Disk Manager that doesn't need the extra
PROMS. It'll be ready Real Soon Now].
d) Buy Vfeature Deluxe from Golden Bow ($110 or so)
BOOT PARTITION SIZE LIMITATIONS
Almost all known large-drive-handling methods require the boot partition
to be <=32MB. The exception is Vfeature Deluxe, which claims to allow the
first partition to be huge if you want. I've got a copy coming in early
next week; we'll see....
In addition, under many circumstances [seems somewhat random so far], many
disk-partition-managers/DOS versions/??? require the boot partition on a
large drive to be bigger than 16MB or you won't be able to boot from the
hard drive. Has something to do with FAT table sizes. Someday I may
understand this problem better, but for now suffice it to say that you may
end up making the boot partition bigger than you would otherwise like.
OTHER LIMITATIONS
The Seagate version of Disk Manager isn't flexible enough to work with
most RLL controllers. I've tried Adaptec and OMTI. Haven't tried Western
Digital. The problem is that most RLL controllers steal the last cylinder
for their own use, so a nominally 820 cylinder drive looks like it has
819. This drives DM crazy.
OMTI controllers steal 1K at the end of your 640K (so you end up with
639K). This makes EEMS backfill impossible on '286 machines. On '386
machines, if you get "386 to the Max", they can send you a little routine
that relocates the stolen 1K to low memory so backfill will work properly.
RECOMMENDATIONS
IF you are getting a Seagate drive and normal controller, use the free DM.
IF you don't care about big partitions, use DOS 3.3 or an Adaptec
controller and spend the saved bucks on your sweetie.
IF you are getting an OMTI controller, get SpeedStor. They work well
together.
IF you are getting a < 1024 cylinder drive, SpeedStor works and is cheap.
IF your boot partition must be big, or your drive is > 1024 cylinders,
get Vfeature Deluxe [tentative recommendation based on lengthy talk with
their tech support; I haven't tried it yet].
Tech support experience: GREAT: SpeedStore, Disk Manager, Golden Bow.
OK: [slow to answer, limited hours] Adaptec. NOT OK: [had to wait for
callback several times] OMTI.
--
OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746
------------------------------
Date: 11 May 88 08:09:12 GMT
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Subject: Results: Maxtor ESDI drive is *NOT* bigger than advertised
In an earlier article discussing big disk drives, I mentioned that
1) Maxtor 1140 (140 MB MFM/RLL drives) are *really* identical to Maxtor
2190 (190 MB MFM/RLL) drives.
2) Rumor had it that the 170MB ESDI drive from Maxtor has everything it
takes to *really* be twice as big; a jumper would enable the extra heads.
I now have results to report on the rumor (#2): Too bad. The drive is NOT
bigger than advertised.
To repeat a clarification of #1 provided by somebody (don't remember who,
sorry!) in this group:
Maxtor 1140 drives really are the same as Maxtor 2190's. EXCEPT for
some VERY OLD samples, which do not work at greater than 918 cylinders
(1140 has 918, 2190 has 1224). Any 1140 shipped within the last few years
should have no trouble acting as a 2190.
A hint on my investigation of 'disk manager'/'speedstor'/'vfeature deluxe'
big-disk managers:
1) Vfeature deluxe is NOT copy-protected, as mistakenly reported by
someone. You simply have to 'lock' it to your system before using it. If
you 'lock' a copy of the original disk, you won't have any trouble. This
'lock' procedure seems to be common for programs that need to access the
disk controller at a very low level. I haven't tried re-locking to a
different machine; I'd consider inability to re-lock a bug. But you can
copy the original disk all you want for backup purposes.
2) Handling drives with >1024 cylinders on a PC is *very* tricky. So far,
the only working mechanisms we've found involve (1) Use of Adaptec
controller card, and normal (32MB) partition sizes; or (2) OMTI controller
card and SpeedStor software.
We're still yelling at Adaptec/Golden Bow/OnTrack/Storage Dimensions/
etc. to see who is willing to fix the world so that other reputedly-
working solutions will actually work. (For example, Storage Dimensions
advertises that SpeedStor will handle >1024 cylinders on Adaptec
controllers. It doesn't, at least at the current rev level.
I'll give a full review once we have good answers.
Pete
--
OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746
------------------------------
Date: 1 May 1988 14:46:13 CDT
From: Mark S. Zinzow <MARKZ%UIUCVMD.BITNET@CORNELLC.CCS.CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: King James Bible
I have the bible available via anonymous ftp. Get on uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
(eveings only, not 8-5 CDT or CST IP address 128.174.5.54) and cd to pcsig
and get the files disk766.arc through disk772.arc.
This is part of the PC-SIG libary which we have on line. We are due for a
big update soon, but we are out of space so I'm not sure how I'm going to
handle it.
------------------------------
Date: MON MAY 02, 1988 21.30.45
From: BDON%MCGILLB.BITNET@CORNELLC.CCS.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: 'MULTASK' Multitasker
Does anyone have experience with the 'multask' multitasker (available on
simtel20 as pd1:<msdos.sysutl>multask.arc)? If it is reliable, it is
quite a find despite its limitations (two tasks max, nonconfigurable 70% /
30% service ratio for fgnd and bkgnd, supports BIOS-compatible software
only) since it is only 16K and presumably it follows that its overhead is
low relative to eg. Desqview.
Reply to me and I'll summarize etc.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 May 88 15:53:35 edt
From: Mike Watson <mwatson@NSWC-OAS.ARPA>
Subject: Bug in Reminder program
I use the REMINDER.ARC program from Simtel 20's PD1:[MSDOS.DESKACCESS].
It worked fine until March 1 this year. From playing around with the date
it seems that Leap Day threw it off one day in its calulations. Does
anyone have any suggestions or fixes? TIA.
Arpa: mwatson@nswc-oas.arpa
Usenet: uunet!nswc-oas.arpa!mwatson
------------------------------
Date: 2 May 88 15:08:31 GMT
From: johnh%wheaton%ihnp4%cbosgd%mtune@mtunx.att.com
Subject: Easy Link
Can someone tell me about easy link? Here are some questions:
Is it a micro based system? Is there some service (like compuserve) to
keep e-messages.
It apparently requires a 9600 baud modem. Will a trailblazer work? what
other kinds will work? What are the costs associated with it? Is there
facility to access it from a unix or vms enviorment?
Any other comments would be appreciated. Please e-mail as I do not
frequently get to this group.
johnh...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
UUCP: ihnp4!wheaton!johnh telephone: (312) 260-3871
(office)
Mail: J. Hayward Math/Computer Science Dept. Wheaton College Wheaton Il 60187
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 May 1988 07:29 EDT
From: Dick Sidbury <SIDBURY@SCRANTON>
Subject: LONG PATHS
Can someone tell me how to increase the environment space available
for the PATH to a value more than 128 bytes. The environment space can be
increased by use of the shell command in config.sys but that doesn't
appear to increase my possible path length. I am currently using PC DOS
3.3 on a "standard" IBM PC with a bunch of other junk in the config.sys an
autoexec.bat files.
Thanks,
Dick Sidbury
[Try a statement in your CONFIG.SYS file of the form:
SHELL=command.com c:\ /e:160 /p
This will increase your environment space to approx 2.5kb. The number
after the /e: is the number of 16 byte paragraphs (DOS 3.1) (number of
bytes for DOS 3.2 and above...) that you want in your environment. The /p
says 'Make it permanent.' (ie: replace COMMAND.COM with 'MYSHELL', in this
case with the COMMAND.COM that comes with DOS.) --gph]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 May 88 13:24 EST
From: "NESTOR A. VEGA" <V999PXFS@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Hard Disk for the model 30
I purchased an IBM PS/2 model 30 with two floppies. I have been trying to
upgrade the system with a 20 meg hard disk. However, I have found this
task is not easy for two reasons. First IBM doesn't market the hard disk
that they provide when they sell with a unit. Second, no third party
manufacturer takes advantage of the hard disk controller that is built
into the motherboard.
As I see it the options are therefore three (all of which will take up one
expansion slot, of the three in the machine):
1. Buy a PLUS hard disk card for about $600. This is the only card
that will (truly) fit in one expansion slot (PC Magazine, Dec 1987).
2. Buy a CMS hard disk for the model 25-30 which comes with the the
controller from PC Network for $300.
3. Buy a Seagate ST-125 3.5" hard disk and a controller that takes the
power from the motherboard.
Any suggestions?
------------------------------
Date: 3 May 88 07:10:32 GMT
From: unido!gmdzi!axel@uunet.UU.NET (Axel Meckenstock)
Subject: Help with connecting external 5.25" drive to laptop
I tried to connect an external Tandon 360 K 5.25" floppy drive to a
Bondwell laptop (8 MHz 8088). The Bondwell accesses the drive and reads
track 0, side 0, i.e. the first 9 sectors, so I can see the directory of
the floppy disk, but an access to higher sectors yields an error.
I connected the cable as documented in the Bondwell manual (DB25 to 34pin
connector) and put a DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /d:2 /f:0 statement into the
CONFIG.SYS.
Another drive (80 tracks) showed the same problem. The connection of an
Irwin 40 MB streamer (for AT) didn't work either (the software didn't
recognize the streamer).
Can anyone imagine why the floppy doesn't work ? Is there a bug in the
documentation ? Is it a problem with the floppy drive (it works perfectly
in an AT) ? Is it a software problem ?
Thanks in advance
A. Meckenstock
------------------------------
Date: 11 May 88 12:03:31 GMT
From: mcvax!hslrswi!ogorman@uunet.UU.NET (Ian O'Gorman)
Subject: IBMPC Video I/O Interrupts
I have a requirement to trap any video I/O which comes thro interrupts 10h
and 21h (BIOS and DOS). The requirement is that any output thro these
interrupts be converted to an ANSI sequence, with control of to where the
final output goes (e.g. to COM1).
Does anyone have info/implementation of anything which will be of help to
me? Please reply to the network address below.
Thanks in advance,
Ian O'Gorman
Hasler AG, Belpstrasse 23, CH-3000 Berne 14, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 31 631671
X.400: ogorman@hslrswi.hasler
Bitnet: ogorman%hslrswi.UUCP@cernvax.BITNET
Uucp: ... {seismo,ukc, ... }!mcvax!cernvax!hslrswi!ogorman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 May 88 09:50:52 EDT
From: Joe Morris (jcmorris@mitre.arpa) <jcmorris@mitre.arpa>
Subject: Intel AboveBoard/386 problems
I'm looking for anyone with experience installing an Intel AboveBoard/386
in the old (5-slot) PC-1 with an IBM expansion chassis attached. My
immediate problems are:
(1) - The AboveBoard/386 doesn't like to see both an IBM EGA board and the
expansion chassis transmitter at the same time. Symptoms are confused
graphics (and a POD beep); two different IBM EGA's got the same symptoms
but a QuadEGA+ board works.
(2) With the QuadEGA+ installed, it works fine on reads but DMA writes
to the expansion chassis don't work.
To the extent that it works, it's fine: Norton SI is 16 plus change. It's
a little hard, though, to run without writing to the fixed disks in the
expansion chassis. Ideas, anyone?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 May 88 08:52:57 +0300
From: Simon Shickman <SIMON1%HBUNOS.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: Looking for PS2 Mouse Driver
I have a PS/2-50 with the build-in mouse, running DOS 3.3. The new
PC-Paintbrush by Z-Soft claim to support PS/2, and the driver for the
mouse was to come with the mouse. My mouse did not come with a driver.
Can anyone please tell if there is such a driver? Is it by IBM? What is
the product number? If the answer is to this list, please cc:
<SIMON1@HBUNOS.BITNET>
Thanks a lot.
Simon Shickman <SIMON1@HBUNOS.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 May 88 18:21:32 +0200
From: Duchatelet Francois <MAGALI%BUCLLN11.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Mouse API in DOS mode of OS/2
Does anyone have problems running Microsoft's MENU program in the DOS
mode of OS/2 (keyboard emulator) :
The initialisation goes right, and when I move the mouse the cursor
follows well, but when I press any of the two buttons, the related menu
appears, but the system is crashed.
I use Microsoft's serial mouse on a IBM AT with OS2 vers 1.0 standart.
If anyone can help me, I would appreciate.
Thamks in advance.
Francois Duchatelet (+32 2 770 78 36)
Student in engineering
Av. Heydenberg 24
B-1200 Brussels
BELGIUM
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 May 88 09:42:43 EDT
From: Joe Morris (jcmorris@mitre.arpa) <jcmorris@mitre.arpa>
Subject: MSC 5.1 SETUP program warning
I just received the Microsoft C 5.1 distribution package and tried to
install it on my (true-Blue) AT. As soon as I started the SETUP program,
it rebooted the machine.
Trying it on various systems around the office, it turns out that it blows
approximately 40% of the PC's out of the water, and works on the remaining
60%. When I called Microsoft they stated that they know of the problem
but would ship me a replacement SETUP program. (They gave an estimated
time to delivery of two weeks!) They claim that the SETUP program either
bombs immediately (having something to do with determining the type of
display), or runs successfully, so if it doesn't immediately blow up then
it's running OK.
One other thing: the README.DOC file on the setup disk gives the TouchTone
code for help with the C compiler. The only problem is that the number
they give (1222) was obsoleted a month ago and gets you some unrelated
corner of Microsoft.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 88 10:32 CET
From: Ulf Emanuelson <VETUF%SEUDAC21.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: PS/2, TEK4010 and PrintScreen
I need some help with how Print Screen works| I have an IBM PS/2, mod.
50, using Kermit 2.30 to make it behave like a TEK4010 terminal. My
problem is that all I get is a black paper with some white squares here
and there, when I try to print the screen to my IBM Proprinter XL24. I am
using DOS 3.30 and I specify both GRAFTABL and GRAPHICS in my AUTOEXEC.bat
file. PrintScreen while not emulating a TEK4010-terminal works OK.
Any ideas on how to solve the problem are appreciated. Thanks in
advance.
Ulf Emanuelson
Swedish Univ. Agric. Sci.
Bitnet: VETUF at SEUDAC21
PS. Can someone inform me on how I can get programs for uuencoding and
uudecoding, and also where/if Van Buerg's LIST (NOT an infected LIST60||)
is available. DS.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 May 88 20:12:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: "C. V. R. Murthy" <cm36+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: IBM-PC - Ethernet Interface Queries
I would like to ask some questions on the IBM PC - Ethernet Interface
card (NIC) interface ? (hardware as well as software). If not so : please
skip reading this beyond this line with a request for any pointers to
sources of information. If so I would appreciate some body sug- gest me
answers to following questions? (some references journals etc also will
do)
Hardware Questions :
What kind of interface is generally used: DMA etc? How does PC CPU and
NET CPU talk to each other via extension slot? Is there a special
mechanism for interface between PC and NIC: eg FIFO or custom built chips?
Software Questions :
Does this networking require a device driver to be written (in order to
interface to MSDOS)? What is the usual interface to a programmer writing
network applications: such as telnet or tftp ?
I need to understand these points to implement an interface between a
serial world and the Ethernet.
Thanks Very Much,
-- Murthy.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 May 88 16:30:00 -0400
From: Fred Baube <fbaube@note.nsf.gov>
Subject: T100 Mods
Has anyone tried to replace the ROM's in their Toshiba T1000? Maybe take
out some unused drivers and put in some handy utilities? Maybe a Unix
kernel?
/f
In a magazine: "OS/2 is half an operating system"
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 May 88 23:10:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Sandrof <ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Voice Communications Application Program Interface
Is there anyone out there who has experience programming IBM's Voice
Communications Application Program Interface on the pc? I've had some
problems with it failing for no apparent reason. If anyone has experience
with it, I'll describe the problems more fully. Otherwise I'd probably
just be blowing gas.
Mike Sandrof (ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu)
Programmer
Health and Human Services
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon U.
------------------------------
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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