meltzer@sun.uucp (Sandy Meltzer) (09/14/86)
I recently purchased a used HYPERION portable PC. I was told that it
was "highly" compatible with the IBM-PC, but have come across a specific
problem.
Most "graphic" oriented programs (Flight Simulator, MicroSoft Windows,
Trivia, etc.) seem to "hang" the system. The programs load okay,
display their initial graphics correctly, and prompt me for input.
If I try to respond via the keyboard, it appears "dead". Could these
programs be generating a keyboard interrupt? With some programs, the
keyboard is completely dead and I have to turn the machine on/off to
reboot. With others (like Windows), the keyboard does not respond
to anything except a keyboard reboot (ctrl-alt-del).
The interrupt "structure" is exactly the same as a standard IBM-PC
and runs all other programs just fine. I have tried the "problem"
software under DOS versions 1.25, 2.0, 2.1, 2.11 with identical
results. I sure would appreciate some feedback about this problem.
--
Sanford "Sandy" Meltzer - Sun Microsystems, Inc.
UUCP: {ihnp4,decvax,decwrl,seismo}!sun!meltzer
ARPA: meltzer@sun.com (or meltzer@sun.arpa)aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP (09/17/86)
The dope on the HYPERION:
The Hyperion PC is MS-DOS compatible with the IBM PC, and even
with most programs that access BIOS, or the hardware directly, under
MS DOS. The big exception is the keyboard. The Hyperion uses a
different keyboard controller, at a different location, producing
different codes, than the IBM PC.
What this means, of course, is that programs like Flight Simulator
that do not use the BIOS to read the keyboard will not work. Fortunately,
this is mainly games, not important programs.
What can you do?: (1) Patch what is necessary to read the Hyperion
keyboard into your game. I've seen this done once, but it isn't fun.
(2) Don't play games. (3) Get the Hyperion conversion kit.
Yes, there is a kit to upgrade the Hyperion to fairly complete PC
compatibility. It was about to become a product when Comterm dropped the
Hyperion. Actually, later revs of the Hyperion are almost true compatibles,
but I don't think they were sold in the States.
There is a company in Toronto selling the conversion kit - at least there
was as of this time last year. Sorry, I threw out the name - it was a bit too
expensive. In this day of 600$ clones it would have been better to buy the
clone. NB. it is not simply a new BIOS.
In my honest opinion, the best thing to do would be to not worry about
games, and to use it for important software. Oh, yeah - I was a Hyperion
owner. Word processing on the Hyperion got me through my last year of school.
Also the higher-than-PC resolution graphics.
Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana. USEnet: ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801 ARPAnet: aglew@gswd-vmsLINDSAY@TL-20B.arpa (09/26/86)
I agree with Andy Glew. If a game doesn't run on your Hyperion, then it's probably better to work on your serenity than to work on your hardware. I am the implementor of IN:SCRIBE, the screen editor that was distributed with the Hyperion. ( I wonder if Commodore picked it up when they bought the designs from Comterm, nee Bytec, nee Dynalogic.) When the design was started, there weren't any clones on the market, and the only portables used the Z80. It wasn't clear how the market would evolve, or how quickly. The initial design assumption was that programmers would care about portability: for instance, IN:SCRIBE is portable. Then they started to try outside software on their prototypes, and it became clear that practically everything they had done to make the machine cheaper or faster was "wrong" and had to be undone. The long and short of it is that they got the major commercial packages to run, and then stopped. I believe that some modern clones are even less compatible (but many are more compatible). This is the sort of thing that gets learned by experience, and that gets decided by the marketing department. Sorry the news wasn't better. Don Lindsay -------
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (09/29/86)
In article <4166@brl-smoke.ARPA> LINDSAY@TL-20B.arpa writes: >I agree with Andy Glew. If a game doesn't run on your Hyperion, then it's >probably better to work on your serenity than to work on your hardware. > >I am the implementor of IN:SCRIBE, the screen editor that was distributed with >the Hyperion. ( I wonder if Commodore picked it up when they bought the >designs from Comterm, nee Bytec, nee Dynalogic.) > > Then they started to >try outside software on their prototypes, and it became clear that practically >everything they had done to make the machine cheaper or faster was "wrong" and >had to be undone. > >Don Lindsay The Commodore derivitives of the Hyperion design (PC10, PC20) cleaned up almost all of the PC compatibilty problems about the time they decided to make a PC/XT rather than a portable. They implemented the standard expansion architecture, with only the Floppy and Serial/Parallel ports integrated on the main board. The systems are also shipped with industry standard mono/color or extended graphics cards. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)