Re: PCbox, an add to the MS-DOS 1.25 project

From: Michał Pleban <lists_at_michau.name>
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2017 14:52:11 +0200
Message-ID: <59E5FCFB.3020402@michau.name>
Hello!

Baltissen, GJPAA (Ruud) wrote:

> I have long thought about sending the original email. Why would one develop a 8088 version of a Softbox if you can use the PC as stand alone machine? Seen from this perspective it is absolute nonsense.
> But then why would we play with those old crappy Commodores if we all these mighty PCs around? :)

Well, that's a good point ;-)

> Eh, the idea was that by changing IO.SYS you change various INTs that is what makes these programs run on the CBM-II. But you already showed me that, in case of INT 13h the new one is hooked in so your changes are still there. If INT 10h and 16h are overwritten, then a driver in CONFIG.SYS can restore the situation.

Yes, all the changes can be made before IO.SYS even loads. A mechanism
can be made that checks periodically whether they were overwritten and
restore them.

> The 8088 board is directly attached to the CBM-II and uses its memory directly. The 8088 version of the Softbox is a stand alone computer which communicates with its host over the IEEE bus.

OK, I suppose the good side of that solution is that any 80 column PET
can be used, not just a CBM-II?

> A question to everyone:  how many 8088 boards are around? 

Looking at this list: I have two, you have one, Steve Gray has two if I
remember correctly and Bill Degnan has one. Robert Sprokholt has one and
he gave another one to Richard Langedijk, and then Mike Naberezny bought
five from him on Ebay - I don't know where they went later. That gives
13 that I know of.

A quick thought - instead of building a 8088-box, why not build a 8088
card for CBM-II by either copying the original or packing it into FPGA
or CPLD?

Regards,
Michau.

       Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list
Received on 2017-10-17 13:00:02

Archive generated by hypermail 2.2.0.