otto@tukki.jyu.fi (Otto J. Makela) (01/30/91)
I haven't noticed a FAQ listing for comp.os.msdos.programmer, have you ? If there isn't any, here's a starter with the three most common questions I've seen in this newsgroup... If there is, maybe this could be merged into it ? I'd like some more info on literature for the 3rd question. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The three most commonly asked questions on {alt,comp.os}.msdos.programmer: 1. How do I reboot the machine with a program ? 2. What are the proper IRQ settings for serial ports ? 3. Where can I find information on programming the VGA/serial ports etc. ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. How do I reboot the machine with a program ? In the following examples, jump to "warm" to produce a warm boot, and "cold" to produce a cold boot (memory tests and all). DEBUG assembler (for example MASM won't compile this): WARM: MOV AX,0040 MOV DS,AX MOV AX,1234 MOV [0072],AX COLD: JMP FFFF:0000 C (for example Turbo C): warm: *( (unsigned short int (far *)) 0x00400072L ) = 0x1234; cold: ( (void (far *)() ) 0xFFFF0000L )(); Who says C is a high-level language ? :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What are the proper IRQ and I/O address settings for serial ports ? The only ones that are really standard are COM1 and COM2: Port IRQ I/O COM1 4 03F8h COM2 3 02F8h one common way of setting COM3 and COM4 are: COM3 4 03E8h COM4 3 02E8h but also both on IRQ5 is common. Or other on IRQ2, other on IRQ5. See below for more information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Where can I find information on programming the VGA/serial ports etc. ? First, a plug for Ralph Brown's excellent INTER list, which is free and available from BBSs and ftp sites near you. Two common ftp sites are wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (for US users, file pd:<msdos.info>inter191.zip) and nic.funet.fi (for European users, file pub/msdos/info/inter191.lzh), remember to set tenex mode before transferring. The list gets updated frequently, so check if the version 1/91 is already old by the time you read this... Here is a collection of common hardware/software/hardware-oriented books: Author Book Peter Norton & ? Peter Norton's Guide to the PC Winn Rosch Winn Rosch's Hardware Bible Forester ? The Programmer's guide to EGA and VGA ? ? The Programmer's guide to SuperVGA ? ? The PC listbook? -- /* * * Otto J. Makela <otto@jyu.fi> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */ /* Phone: +358 41 613 847, BBS: +358 41 211 562 (USR HST/V.32, 24h/d) */ /* Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE */ /* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */