wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (01/30/91)
In article <6040009@hpspkla.spk.hp.com> burgess@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (David E. Burgess) writes: I have inherited an XT (wasn't working so was given to me) that has a multi-function card with a clock/calendar. The problem is the documentation for the card says it's compatible with the TIMER.COM function of DOS. My prob- lem is the version of MS-DOS I'm using (3.20) doesn't have such a 'critter. Does someone know where I could get this file or enough documentation to read/write from/to the clock and calendar? Although David requested a reply via e-mail, I'm posting this because I believe the answer will be of general interest. For any clock/calendar using the National Semiconductor MM58167A chip, I recommend the following program (available via anonymous FTP from SIMTEL20) instead of TIMER.COM: Directory PD1:<MSDOS.SYSUTL> Filename Type Length Date Description ============================================== MMCLK12.ZIP B 23782 900803 Real time clock card driver, MM58167A chip This is a device driver (installed via CONFIG.SYS) that uses the clock/ calendar to take over all timekeeping functions. It is completely transparent to user software; in particular, you do not need to issue a TIMER command to reload the clock/calendar whenever you reset the date or time in DOS. Also, in case your system suffers from the "doesn't always advance the date at midnight" or "misses multiple days with no system activity" bugs, this driver will cure such problems, because it gets the date directly from the clock/calendar instead of from DOS. MMCLK12.ZIP includes complete source code (in assembly language). Oh, by the way, I wrote the MMCLK12 package, so I may be a bit biased regarding its capabilities. :-} If you run across an MM58167A-based clock/calendar card that does not work with the MMCLK12 package, please let me know and I'll try to help you to get it to work. -- Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683 "I could be chasing an untamed ornithoid without cause."