Seiler@mit-xx@sri-unix.UUCP (08/11/83)
From: Larry Seiler <Seiler@mit-xx> There is a company called SVC (Silicon Valley Corp, in Sunnyvale CA) that sells a program for the Rainbow 100 that formats disks. It sure beats me why DEC didn't make disk formatting available if the hardware is capable of it. Details on request. Larry -------
mel@houxm.UUCP (08/13/83)
DEC didn't include a formatting program with their PC's
and this permits them to pick up the profit in supplying disks. At
$6.50 a throw, there is a lot profit per disk. They further enhance
that by having the system allocate space in 2K chunks so that on average
there is 1K waste space for each file, and of course, they don't push
use of SQ/USQ or LU to compact things.
Their latest rip off of their customers was to remove the initialization
of the communications port in the boot-up of the Rainbow. Thus, only the
expensive DEC supplied communications programs work. On mine, TERMINAL
READY to the modem is set on boot; on the latest models it's not. The
TERMINAL READY signal can only be brought up by an 8088 assembly language
program that hits the secret hardware registers with secret codes (DEC does
not supply any technical information at all for the Rainbow). There is
no CP/M call or program offered to initialize the port. [the grapevine
says that you hit 8088 port 02H with a 05H, and then port 42H with an E0H]
Mel Haas , houxm!mel