PC coprocessor comments wanted
Thaddeus P. Floryan
thad at public.BTR.COM
Tue Jun 4 21:52:42 AEST 1991
In article <1991Jun3.155221.11868 at apollo.hp.com> bobp at gti.apollo.hp.com (Bob Plencner) writes:
>
> I'm looking for facts/comments on the PC coprocessor
>for the AT&T 7300 PC.
>[...]
The best way to answer some of the question(s) is by example (and humor :-).
Enclosed are some ls listings from one of my 3B1 sporting a DOS-73 card. Among
some of the software known to run just fine are included Turbo C 2.0,
WordPerfect 5.1, MicroEmacs 3.10, ProComm Plus, LOTUS 1-2-3, dBase II, and
quite a LOT from the net archives such as comp.binaries.ibm.pc which doesn't
require exotic video cards. If you get the pax2exe stuff (from the
comp.binaries.ibm.pc) then you'll also be able to create/process tar and cpio
archives in DOS; pax2exe is the DOS version of the UNIX/POSIX ustar "pax"
program. Numerous other useful net-available utilities operating fine with
DOS-73 include ls, help, various shells, etc. so check the net archives.
Commercial software that DOESN'T work (due to copy-protection) includes
Symphony 1.1 (1.0 does work), Microsoft Word, Microsoft Chart, dBase III,
Framework, PFS:Graph, and WordStar 2000 version 1.00 (1.01 and above do work).
(I haven't tried any of those, just copied that list from the DOS-73 manual).
The DOS-73 card "essentially" mimics the operation of DOS software displayed
on a Hercules monochrome monitor at 720x348. The "Ford driving simulator"
didn't run. Ephemeris runs when re-compiled to use ANSI screen sequences
(contrasted with its damnable default writing-direct-to-the-hardware-which-is-
all-too-typical-of-DOS-weenies); runs even better with an 8087-2 (8 MHz).
In general, the DOS-73 subsystem is a PC-XT at 8 MHz running MS-DOS 3.1,
with 512K RAM. I am NOT aware of any way to upgrade to 640K (or more). For
the very few things for which I must use "DOS" the DOS-73 operates nicely;
and, for my sanity, I'm pleased MicroEMACS functions well ... no way in hell
would I tolerate "edlin" (though it (edlin) does work).
DOS-73 filesystems are simply large UNIX files; see the first "ls" below for
what I chose for use on one of my systems: 20MB; that's the "dvd000" (for DOS
virtual disk number 000) file (one could have up to 256 with up to 12 per user
size-limited by free-space on your UNIX HD).
About the only other significant package I've heard that didn't run was
TurboTax for 1990 (required too much RAM); previous years' versions did run.
If you get a "real" IBM MS-DOS 3.1 software package (in the slipcase), you
can copy that stuff to, say, another directory on the DOS-73 subsystem and
include that directory in your path and run some items that did NOT accompany
the DOS-73 software release (e.g. label, etc.).
MS-DOS' "diskcopy" (to copy floppies) does NOT work (at least it didn't last
time I tried; I suspect the reason being it assumes a "proper" floppy disk
controller to which it can read/write the chip's registers whereas the DOS-73
card interfaces via software to UNIX for all peripheral I/O except the onboard
COM2: port (which, by the way, works nicely with ProComm PLUS)). Other DOS 3.1
thingies that do NOT work are FORMAT.COM, BACKUP.COM, SYS.COM, RESTORE.COM,
and RECOVER.COM (presumably for the same reason).
I got my "IBM MS-DOS 3.1" package at a flea market for $10; I wish you the
same success, because the additional docs (especially for someone like me
whose slogan is "MS-DOS vadanya" :-) are very useful (the DOS-73 docs assume
one is already relatively familiar with DOS).
Note that Emmet Gray's "mtools" package version 2 for UNIX operates just great
with the DOS-73 card; I can { copy | rename | dir | del | etc. } just fine on
the DOS subsystem from UNIX and note that the third command example (below)
was executed from DOS and that the fourth is the display of a file copied from
the DOS partition per "mcopy c:crap .". One can use both A: (the UNIX floppy)
and C: (D: ... N:) (the /usr/bin/DOS/dvd*) from the DOS-73 subsystem.
About the only real annoyance is that the DOS subsystem doesn't come up with
the correct date & time automatically (in my case, it's off by 7 or 8 hours
due to some braindamage re: time zones even though I have the correct stuff
in my config.sys.) If you "do" the typical DOS stuff and set the date & time
from the console in your AUTOEXEC.BAT then all will be fine during your DOS
session.
And, though *I* haven't tried this, I've heard that one can even use the DOS-73
remotely once you call into UNIX and start DOS. Only *ONE* DOS session can be
active at a time (since there's only one card; hmmm, wonder what would happen
if someone put six DOS-73 cards in a system (using an expansion chassis)?. If
someone wants to loan me some additional cards, I'll try it ... yowza, a multi-
tasking DOS!?!? That's gotta be better than OS/2, right! Consider:
OS/2
OS
--
2
1/2 OS
Half = 1/2
Half-OS :-)
BTW, the DOS-73 *DOES* work in a 3B1/UNIXPC Expansion chassis.
Hope all the above helps; listings follow. BTW, that "DOSapple" (below) is
*NOT* a Mac emulator (at least it didn't do anything useful when I started it
up and rapidly waved a 7.0 MacOS CD-ROM disk in front of the monitor :-)
tlabs6 ksh 10830/10831> ls -l /usr/bin/DOS*
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root users 129846 Dec 13 04:43 /usr/bin/DOS-73
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 485 Dec 13 04:43 /usr/bin/DOS-73.sh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 69124 Dec 13 04:44 /usr/bin/DOSapple
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 70980 Dec 13 04:44 /usr/bin/DOSconfig
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root users 72984 Dec 13 04:45 /usr/bin/DOSdisk
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 3926 Dec 13 04:45 /usr/bin/DOSformat
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 1146 Dec 13 04:45 /usr/bin/DOSformat.sh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 72470 Dec 13 04:45 /usr/bin/DOSinstall
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root bin 72174 Dec 13 04:45 /usr/bin/DOSremove
/usr/bin/DOS:
total 40251
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root bin 23210 Dec 13 04:43 COMMAND.COM
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root bin 50944 Dec 13 04:46 MS-DOS
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root bin 50688 Dec 13 04:46 MS-DOSRM
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root bin 2611 Dec 13 04:46 dc73.h
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 20480000 Jun 4 01:30 dvd000
tlabs6 ksh 10830/10831> ls -l /etc/lddrv/*dc*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root users 25633 Dec 26 03:24 /etc/lddrv/dc73
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 5946 Dec 13 04:46 /etc/lddrv/dc73.o
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users 120 Dec 26 03:23 /etc/lddrv/ifile.dc73
tlabs6 ksh 10830/10831> mdir c:
Volume in drive C is DOS HD
Directory for C:/
COMMAND COM 23210 5-14-85 12:02a
ASSIGN COM 1509 5-14-85 12:02a
ATTRIB EXE 15091 5-14-85 12:02a
CHKDSK COM 9435 5-14-85 12:02a
DEBUG COM 15552 5-14-85 12:02a
EDLIN COM 7261 5-14-85 12:02a
EXE2BIN EXE 2816 5-14-85 12:02a
FIND EXE 6403 5-14-85 12:02a
JOIN EXE 15971 5-14-85 12:02a
LINK EXE 38422 5-14-85 12:02a
MORE COM 282 5-14-85 12:02a
PRINT COM 8291 5-14-85 12:02a
SHARE EXE 8304 5-14-85 12:02a
SORT EXE 1664 5-14-85 12:02a
SUBST EXE 16611 5-14-85 12:02a
PM EXE 1408 10-21-85 3:12p
EXITDOS COM 1024 8-15-85 7:15p
MOUSE COM 16 9-08-85 2:05p
AUTOEXEC BAT 91 12-17-90 2:51a
ANSI SYS 1664 9-19-85 11:56a
FC EXE 14576 5-15-85 12:00a
FMDESK <DIR> 12-12-90 5:07a
DIGILINK <DIR> 12-12-90 11:13p
EPROM-1 <DIR> 12-12-90 11:13p
DOS-3V10 <DIR> 12-13-90 12:44a
AMIGA <DIR> 12-12-90 11:21p
UTILS <DIR> 12-13-90 1:11a
WORK <DIR> 12-13-90 1:12a
PROCOMM <DIR> 12-13-90 1:47a
EPHEM <DIR> 12-13-90 2:15a
CONFIG BAK 45 12-15-90 8:47p
FORDSIM <DIR> 12-15-90 5:51a
GAMES <DIR> 12-17-90 2:57a
STUFF <DIR> 12-20-90 2:22a
CONFIG SYS 46 6-02-91 11:55p
EMACS TUT 30327 6-04-91 1:19a
36 File(s) 7512064 bytes free
{ now entering the DOS-73 subsystem I did:
C:\> dir > crap
and then exited DOS (the "-t" below converts CR-LF to UNIX' LF end-of-line) }
tlabs6 ksh 10830/10831> mcopy -t c:crap .
tlabs6 ksh 10830/10831> cat crap
Volume in drive C is DOS HD
Directory of C:\
COMMAND COM 23210 5-14-85 12:02a
ASSIGN COM 1509 5-14-85 12:02a
ATTRIB EXE 15091 5-14-85 12:02a
CHKDSK COM 9435 5-14-85 12:02a
DEBUG COM 15552 5-14-85 12:02a
EDLIN COM 7261 5-14-85 12:02a
EXE2BIN EXE 2816 5-14-85 12:02a
FIND EXE 6403 5-14-85 12:02a
JOIN EXE 15971 5-14-85 12:02a
LINK EXE 38422 5-14-85 12:02a
MORE COM 282 5-14-85 12:02a
PRINT COM 8291 5-14-85 12:02a
SHARE EXE 8304 5-14-85 12:02a
SORT EXE 1664 5-14-85 12:02a
SUBST EXE 16611 5-14-85 12:02a
PM EXE 1408 10-21-85 3:12p
EXITDOS COM 1024 8-15-85 7:15p
MOUSE COM 16 9-08-85 2:05p
AUTOEXEC BAT 91 12-17-90 2:51a
ANSI SYS 1664 9-19-85 11:56a
FC EXE 14576 5-15-85 12:00a
FMDESK <DIR> 12-12-90 5:07a
DIGILINK <DIR> 12-12-90 11:13p
EPROM-1 <DIR> 12-12-90 11:13p
DOS-3V10 <DIR> 12-13-90 12:44a
AMIGA <DIR> 12-12-90 11:21p
UTILS <DIR> 12-13-90 1:11a
WORK <DIR> 12-13-90 1:12a
PROCOMM <DIR> 12-13-90 1:47a
EPHEM <DIR> 12-13-90 2:15a
CONFIG BAK 45 12-15-90 8:47p
FORDSIM <DIR> 12-15-90 5:51a
GAMES <DIR> 12-17-90 2:57a
STUFF <DIR> 12-20-90 2:22a
CONFIG SYS 46 6-02-91 11:55p
EMACS TUT 30327 6-04-91 1:19a
CRAP 0 6-03-91 2:21a
37 File(s) 7503872 bytes free
Thad Floryan [ thad at btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]
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