tomlinson@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (05/30/91)
Here are the answers to all (well - most) of the questions I have received through e-mail in the past week (over 40 items!) DOS 4.01 locks up. This is caused by dos thinking that IBeM supports the enhanced keyboard functions. It doesn't. Why dos thinks this I don't know, as the bios is dated 1984, and the ID byte says its an XT (doing this fixed another program with a similar problem). To fix this I'll just emulate the other function calls as well (ie fixed by the time you order). PC-Tools crashes on exit. I know, but I don't know why. You might have to be patient on this one. A3000 and speed. As someone has already pointed out, the 68000 version can be faster than the 68020 version, as it can use less fast mem and doesn't go to chip for its meg of memory. Since most of the slowdown in the 68000 version is from using segmented memory, this version is almost optimal for this set up. On a GVP accelerator which won't run IBeM but does run IBeM000, it would be possible to make a more optimal version - but I am trying to keep the number of versions as small as possible. Speed. The speed of the 68000 version running on a standard machine is roughly the same as transformer (what did you expect?) Access. For those who can't FTP, I have requested it to be posted in comp.binaries.amiga. All we have to do is wait... Video modes. I have no immediate plans to emulate EGA/VGA graphics. Remember that the Amiga stores data as bitplanes and IBMs store 1/2/4/8 pixels (depending on colours) in the same byte. The time taken to split these is considerable. A mono mode does make sense, as this would speed up scrolling, especially on chip- only machines. Existing Users. If you want to know if you would benefit from the new version, try out the new demo. There is an update file explaining all the differences between versions. Version 1.04 is the same as 1.05 except 1.05 contains the 68000 version as well. GVP accelerators. If you get the message "illegal instruction" then your accelerator will need the new PAL to run this version. The 68000 version should run fine (it runs at about 70% of the speed though). It is difficult to show this using a monitor or writing small programs because of the cache and the way the 030 works internally. Mouse Support. This will be coming soon - just like the mono display. All I need is some time to write it! Hard Disks. Something which has been bought to my attention is one of the disks in common use on A3000's has 70 sectors per track. MS-DOS won't handle more than 63. If you want to use a drive like this, you can make a "fake" mountlist entry with five times the number of cylinders, and only 14 sectors per track. (Remember that the start and end cyls change also!) Payment. For everyone who can't read the docs, my address is M Tomlinson 30 Kirner St Christchurch 9 New Zealand. If you don't want to go to the bank to get a money order, send cash - that's the way most orders have been sent. If you like you can send NZ currency instead of US (US$30 = NZ$50, regardless of exchange rate :-). Mark Tomlinson (tomlinson@elec.canterbury.ac.nz) Disclaimer: I only wrote the thing!
drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Donald Richard Tillery Jr) (05/31/91)
In a message From: tomlinson@elec.canterbury.ac.nz >Video modes. >I have no immediate plans to emulate EGA/VGA graphics. Remember that the Amiga >stores data as bitplanes and IBMs store 1/2/4/8 pixels (depending on colours) >in the same byte. The time taken to split these is considerable. A mono >mode does make sense, as this would speed up scrolling, especially on chip- >only machines. My copy of Microsoft C Programming for the PC by The Waite Group says that EGA is a BITPLANE mode just like our graphic modes. Well, not exactly, the 4 planes reside in the same memory. A port is written to that tells the EGA board which plane that you are addressing. It also says that the 16 color VGA is that same as the EGA except that it has 480 vertical lines rather than EGAs 350. I sure would think that this would make it possible to emulate EGA and 16 color VGA on the Amiga. I need EGA (or better VGa) to run OrCAD for school. CGA is functional, but it is very slow and difficult to run in that limited resolution (and the 2 color CGA is distorted). The fact that it runs is a tribute to your program though, and I thank you (proven by money which you should have by the time you read this). Microsoft Mouse emulation (see below) would also help with this program. I'm only going to use the damn thing until I graduate, and then I'm going to write my own version for the Amiga (no really, I'm starting it in August when the diploma is in my hot little hand!). Then I'll sell it for 1/4 the price of the IBM version (the people who make it are not very friendly, and refuse to port it for our machine...I'll see if I can get their attention :-) >Mouse Support. >This will be coming soon - just like the mono display. All I need is some >time to write it! Yeah! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm still wondering if I can create a sort of dynamic hard drive for the emulator (kind of the way the AtOnce does). My needs are limited in the IBM area, and I don't want to have to repartition my HD once to make room, and again to reclaim the room after I graduate. Any chance of such a beast? I have trouble with the newest version of SI (Norton utility you know) version 5.something. It barfs with a divide overflow after putting up the title screen. Neat, now the old SI says I'm running a NEC V20...what does that stuff up there about the "68000?" mean? Rick Tillery (drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu)
kelson@ais.org (David Lewis) (06/05/91)
drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Donald Richard Tillery Jr) writes: >In a message From: tomlinson@elec.canterbury.ac.nz >>Video modes. >>I have no immediate plans to emulate EGA/VGA graphics. Remember that the Amiga >>stores data as bitplanes and IBMs store 1/2/4/8 pixels (depending on colours) >>in the same byte. The time taken to split these is considerable. A mono >>mode does make sense, as this would speed up scrolling, especially on chip- >>only machines. >>This will be coming soon - just like the mono display. All I need is some >>time to write it! Are you planning on supporting the serial port any time soon? I was looking at the demo docs.. and it said they werent supported as of yet? -- Internet: Kelson@ais.org
wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) (06/05/91)
I got the newest version of IBeM running on my 3000 a couple of days ago, BUT
I still cannot get IBeM to boot off of my harddisk. I am having NO problems
using the IBMC (C:) drive once I boot off of the floppy.
I get the message:
Version 1.05
Demonstration version.
using IBMC:
using IBMA:
invalid instruction encountered at 0000:7E01
I tried just not mounting IBMA: at all, but this did not help. I DID do a
system format of the hard disk by using format /s. What is wrong?
I also found that, although the new version does run Lotus 123 faster, it
still does not support any of the function keys. Why is this?
Could it be the 3000? 2.0? IBeM?
I have 6 Meg of ram and am using <2 meg on my harddrive for the partition.
I using MS-DOS v. 3.3. Is this the preferred OS for IBeM?
Thanks for any help.
--
William "Art" Warner //\
CBM Amiga Student Rep. \X/--\miga makes it happen..........
wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu IBM, Apple, Sun, & Next make it expensive!chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) (06/06/91)
In article <N0XCJ-?@irie.ais.org>, kelson@ais.org (David Lewis) writes: > >>>This will be coming soon - just like the mono display. All I need is some >>>time to write it! > > Are you planning on supporting the serial port any time soon? > I was looking at the demo docs.. and it said they werent supported > as of yet? I can understand why mark's not supporting serial emulation - most PC programs hit the hardware direct for serial (due to the total blecherousness of the BIOS routines). As for VGA mono - it's meant to be coming real soon now (of course since it requires a 640x480 screen, you're probably going to have to run your Amiga in PAL mode to be able to use it) ----------------------------------------------------------- | o John Davis - CHEM194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz o | | o (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department o | | o University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand o |
pashdown@javelin.sim.es.com (Pete Ashdown) (06/06/91)
chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) writes: >As for VGA mono - it's meant to be coming real soon now (of course >since it requires a 640x480 screen, you're probably going to have >to run your Amiga in PAL mode to be able to use it) Or productivity mode. Could it be that we've finally found a use for this? -- "I looked right, I looked left. Nowhere to go but straight ahead. There was no other choice. I ripped out the AK-47 and blasted a clean path right through the cluster of centaurs." - Go To Hell Dante: Inferno II Pete Ashdown pashdown@javelin.sim.es.com ...uunet!javelin.sim.es.com!pashdown
kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) (06/06/91)
In article <1991Jun5.214826.2436@javelin.sim.es.com> pashdown@javelin.sim.es.com (Pete Ashdown) writes: >chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) writes: > >>As for VGA mono - it's meant to be coming real soon now (of course >>since it requires a 640x480 screen, you're probably going to have >>to run your Amiga in PAL mode to be able to use it) > >Or productivity mode. Could it be that we've finally found a use for this? Overscanned screens can do nicely - I'm running a 716x480 right now. Not to mention the scrolling screens available under 2.0. (Mine is currently 1024x860) Kent Polk: Southwest Research Institute (512) 522-2882 Internet : kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu UUCP : $ {cs.utexas.edu, gatech!petro, sun!texsun}!swrinde!kent