Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!stanford.edu!rutgers!banana!mips!public!thad From: thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1 Subject: Re: PC coprocessor comments wanted Message-ID: <2941@public.BTR.COM> Date: 4 Jun 91 11:52:42 GMT References: <1991Jun3.155221.11868@apollo.hp.com> Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, Mountain View CA Lines: 216 In article <1991Jun3.155221.11868@apollo.hp.com> bobp@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 12-12-90 5:07a DIGILINK 12-12-90 11:13p EPROM-1 12-12-90 11:13p DOS-3V10 12-13-90 12:44a AMIGA 12-12-90 11:21p UTILS 12-13-90 1:11a WORK 12-13-90 1:12a PROCOMM 12-13-90 1:47a EPHEM 12-13-90 2:15a CONFIG BAK 45 12-15-90 8:47p FORDSIM 12-15-90 5:51a GAMES 12-17-90 2:57a STUFF 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 12-12-90 5:07a DIGILINK 12-12-90 11:13p EPROM-1 12-12-90 11:13p DOS-3V10 12-13-90 12:44a AMIGA 12-12-90 11:21p UTILS 12-13-90 1:11a WORK 12-13-90 1:12a PROCOMM 12-13-90 1:47a EPHEM 12-13-90 2:15a CONFIG BAK 45 12-15-90 8:47p FORDSIM 12-15-90 5:51a GAMES 12-17-90 2:57a STUFF 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@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]