68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81 68xxx Machines V1N3 Apr81

68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81 68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81

User Manual: 68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 16

Download
Open PDF In Browser	View PDF

~acftines
Price: $2.75

Vol. I, Issue 3, April 1991

76. 68n. /llCbiD" js published and copyright (C) 1991 by Catham Rouse Company, RDI! BOI 371,
Wyolling DR 19934. Ph. \302) 492-8~11. The edito~ is Jall~s H. DeStafeno. One year USA subscription
is $12.\0. Canada aDd Mexico $14.2~. All otbers \surface $17.25. All "ajor credit cards ",cepted.
Our low prices reflect a 10% casb discount. Please add 1 % to credit card orders. AnT site display
ad,ertislng is accepted. The half page rate is $IO/issue. Write for other size/duratlon rates.
Readers are encouraged to contribute letters, articles, programlling inforllation and other
material related to cOllp"ters witb the 68n x) processors; excepting Macs and Amigas. Please send
lIaterial to the above address. Thank you for your support.

The
E d i t o r ' s Tho~ghts
By Jim DeStafeno

Well. .. Due to Ron Anderson's
treat, its even a tighter squeeze
this month, but its well worth it.
We have had lots of questions
about REXSDOS and 8K*D08; what are
they, what are they I ike, where
can they be gotten, etc. Ron has
done a yoemans
job discussing
them. He even tossed in 08-9/68000
for good measure. Guess Ron is one
of four or five people that have
written this article, He has long
term in depth first hand experience with the three operatingsystems. This makes him uniquely qua'"
lified to undertake the task. I
count us luck to have such a man
on staff.
And speaking of "good guys",
van der Poel finishes his three
part series this month. I'm not a
"e" programmer, yet I've been able
to enjoy his ef forts. I hope l' ve
convinced him to share wi th us
more of the ways he has used to
solve vexing programming problems.
still havn't heard from IM8 on
the MM/l or Frank Hogg Lab. s on
their machine(s).

April 1991

Issue:

This
Editor's

thoughts

Ref1ections In 'c'
Bob van der Poel finishes
his 3 part C programming

1
3

series.

REX.R,

S1t*DOS

OS-~/68000

and
. .

.

5

Ron Anderson discusses

and compares the three
operating systems.

Advertiser's

Index

C1assified Ads

1

2

Advertiser's Index
Granite Computer Systems

3

The 68xxx Machines

4

Bob van der Poe1 Software

4

delmar company

8, 9

Palm Beach Software

11

Peripheral Technology

13

68xxx Machines

Page 1

Microware has just announced a
translater program that converts
source code of their 09/68K BASIC
to their 'c' compiler source code.
That not only means a Basic program can be compiled to M/L, but
when written on one computer it
will run on all the computers the
Microware 'c' language runs on. I
feel this is a major pargramming
advancement.
Lastly, if you've written a
short program, have a new piece of
software you'd like to evaluate or
have other information our readers
might be interested in, let us
know. We are always interested in
printing articles from new writers. And, as always, your comments
and criticisms are welcome.
So, kick back and let Ron and
Bob take you for a ride; which
would be hard i f not impossibl e,
to get anywhere else.

Classified

Ads

- WANTED 55-50 equipnent. swr CPU
card, also Gimix PIO #28 (30 pin) FOG.
Alen E. Gordon, 11) / 160 NW 176 st /
Miami, FL 33169/ (305) 653-8000.
- SALE Complete, ready to plug in; all
hardware, software, manua 1s and cab 1es ; super fast 20MB hard disk and
35/40 track, double sided floppy disk
drive; both in one case, for CoCo I,
II or II I. Works with both BASIC and
05-9. HD is partitioned. Used sparingly; $525. Jim DeStafeno / Rd 1, Box
315 / Wyoming, DE 19934 / (302)
492-8511.
- SALE Tandy/TRS-80 Model 100 laptop
C011luter. Bui It in 300 baud modem.
BASIC, text editor, communications
software bui It in Ra1. Has 32K RAM.
Includes modem and printer cables and
all manuals. Good condition. $115
including
shipping.
Phone
Randy
Krippner: (414) 853-1044.

Se:1_ect:::i_<>ns
Part 3 of 3

In

C

By Bob van nor Poel

Last issue, in Part 2 of this
series, we created an array of
pointers to functions which let us
create a cursor with different
video attributes. This month we
will take this concept one step
further and set up an array which
contains not only function pointers, but also a set of unique values paired to each function. This
type of table is very useful in
the main input parser of a program.
My text editor VEO has a main
loop which simply waits for a keypress and then branches to an appropriate routine: if the keypress
is a character then we go to the
edit() routine, if it is a control
we execute the appropriate function. This could be done with a
massive SWITCH .. CASE, but the method presented in the following
fragments is much easier. First
off, a structure is needed which
will hold both the keyvalues and
the corresponding functions:
struct jumpent{
char key;
int ("fn)O;
};

Next, let's have a look at the
idle loop:
mainloop()
{

1*

let the compiler know which
routi nes we'] 1 be usi ng *I

extern i nt addmacro().

append(),

£indO,

000

block(), delete();
register int k;
static struct jumpent cmdsl]={

Turn that old computer equipment into
cash with a 68xxx classified ad. For
Sale ads are $5.00 per 50 character
line. Wanted ads are just $2.50 per 50
character line.

'a'-Ox60, addmacro,

'g'-Ox60,
'f'-Ox60,
'b'-Ox60,
'd'-Ox60,
0,0;

append,
find,
block
delete,

for{; ;)(

Page 2

68:u:x Machines

April 1991

k=curkey(x,y,*curpos,O);
if(k>=' , edit(k);
e he
i f (do jump( k ,cmds
doerror{ "Unknown function");
}

»

Of course, VEDs list of functions is much longer. The main
jump table has over 60 entries.
Both the structure and the loop
are more complex, but this example
will suffice for our needs here.
What we have done is to set up
an array with entries matching
each possible keypress and the
corresponding function.
In this
example, if CTRL-A is pressed we
want
to
call
the
function
addmacro(), for CTRL-D we want
delete(), etc. All we need now is
a function, dojump(), which will
examine each entry in the array
looking for a match and, if one is
found, call the corresponding function.
dojump(c,tbl)
char c;
struct jumpent tbl[];

{
for( ; tbl->key; tbl++){
if( tbl->key==c){
(*tbl->fn)();
return 0;

April 1991

return -1:

This function receives the key
to look f or the base address of
the tabl e. I t loops through the
table until a match or the end of
the table is found. If the character 'c' is found in the table the
corresponding function is called
and a 0 is returned. If a match is
not found a -1 is returned so that
the caller can alert the user that
an unknown or illegal option was
selected.
The idea of jump table selection can be expanded for your own
needs. For example, there is no
reason for the match characters to
remain type char. With a simple
modification they could easily be
changed to integers, floats, or
even strings. I t is also possible
to change things so that parameters are passed to the functions,
and with some trickery the functions could even return values.
By using pointers to functions,
we can create compact, fast C programs. Due to space limitations,
there is onl y space to show code
fragments and simple examples, but
with this base you should be able
to expand this technique and adapt

68xxx Machines

Page 3

Grea~

05-9

50f~ware

VBD: OS-9 Text Editor

. $24.96

the concept to your own programs.
If you have any comments on this
series or suggestions for future
articles please drop me a note
here at the "The 68xxx Machines"
or directly to me at PO Box 355,
Porthill, 10, 83853.

The best editor for OS-9 just got
better. Version 2.0 of this best seller now includes 36 definable macros,

case-switcher,

and

even

more

speed. See the review in Mar/Apr Clipboard. Works with 128 or 512K. Upgrades to version 2.0 with new 28 pg.
manual are $12.00 with proof of purchase.

Coo

III III

-.f..o

....
........
'" ....
1<1<
~

C

VPRINT: OS-9 Text Formatter. $29.95

Qj

An unbelievably powerful formatter.
Features include complete proportional font support, multiple columns,
footnotes, indexing, table of contents and more. Comes with 120 pg. manual, demo files and extensive macro
file. 512K RAM recommended.

I

C

'C'C
01 01

c; c;

I
I
I

01 0:1

uu
0000

;;J;;J

... ..;

. $19.95

....
........

Turns your printer into a printing
press for labels. WYSIWYG previewing.
Supports ALL printers. Useful and
lots of fun. One of Rush Caley's Top
10. Requires 512K Coco 3. Coco 2/3
version $14.95

~~

~

.... N

~
~

'C 1Il
"'QC
c,
'C~

.. 0-

OIl"'"

-....

"'N

"'00

~'

Qj

~~
01 01

Cc
IIlC

Ultra Label Maker 9

..........

I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

II

5 .. ....
!

•• .:J
~
~

~

~

='!:!::S

Ztf..lUtf..l

I
I
I
I
I
I
I

~'-'

'"

U

III
~

..,.

:e= ....
...C ::s~"'~
~ ..
a~Q
...c........ ao=.s
IC..;E
.Q
..= ~~~
0-

,.II:

COl>

'C

C

fI.l

Magazine Index System 9 . . . $19.95
Now you can find those references
fast. Comes with extensive Coco magazine data files. File compatible with
our RS-DOS vers ion. Another one of
Rush Caley's Top 10. Requires 5l2K
Coco 3. Coco 2/3 version $14.95

Sorry, no credit cards. Enclose check
or money order plus $2 S/H. Complete
catalog available. Send $1.00. (Pree
with order.) Most orders shipped next
day!
Bob van der Poel Software
P.O. Box 57
Wynndel, B.C.
Canada VOB 2NO

Page 4

OR

P.O Box 355
Porthill, ID
USA 83853-0355

68xxx Machines

April 1991

REX. 5K*D05 an.d
05-9/68000
By Ron Anderson

This is a "special report" in
response to, "What is REX, MONK,
SK*DOS and OS-9/68XXX?" (But lets
call 05-9/68000 OS-K) The focus is
on REXDOS and MONK because they
are the newest operating systems
available for Peripheral Technology computers. We've been talking
about SK*DOS for several months,
and OS-K has been mentioned as
well. REXDOS was developed several
years ago by Dan Farnsworth for
his own use. It and MONK, a simple
startup boot / debugging 68000
program, (normally called a monitor program), along with OS-K and
SK*DOS are now available for the
Peripheral Technology 68000 computers.

»> GETTING REX UP «<
At work I have a number of
PT68K-2 (PT= Peripheral Technology) computers and an older -lAo I
have a PT68K-2 at home too. The
company presently doesn't have any
of the new PT68K-4 systems, though
our next addition will most likely
be one of them.
When Dan Farnsworth asked me to
check out his REX and MONK combination, I reminded him I didn't
have a -4 system. "That's OK, REX
should run on a -2 just as well.
We'll have a chance to see if
there are any glitches." So I
agreed to the test.
After two weeks of sessi ons,
some lasting until 2 AM, I had i t
all working. Don't get me wrong,
it wasn't difficult, but I had a
lot of stuff I wanted to port over
to REX. If the stuff couldn't be
ported, I wasn't much interested
in using REX for anything.
First job was to get my system
configured. I have some old 40
track standard DSDD drives. (Dan
tells me they are obsolete. However, the company probabl y has 20 or
30 of them on various older systems used for development work).
The system I choose to use for the
test has a Monochrome video board
and monitor, a 20 MEG hard disk,
an 80 track floppy and two 40
track floppies. I disconnected the

April 1991

hard drive for the preliminary
tests.
I found I could boot from the
supplied system disk. I immediately duplicated it per the instructions in the manual.
Next I enabled the 40 track
drives. Soon, I noticed the floppy
MAKDISK utility formated with no
sector interleave (i. e. I saw sequentially numbered sectors
on
each track). REX not only reads a
track at a time, but no interleave
means it reads a track in one revolution of the disk drive. Wow! I
formatted an 80 track disk that
way. It turned out to be really
fast reading and writing.
Next I tried to format a 40
track disk, but got a fatal error.
A call to Dan with the problem
rewarded me a few days later with
a new MAKDISK utility. I t seems
MAKDISK didn't read the drive steprate from the Drive Information
Table (DIT) correctly. It tried to
step the 40 track drives too fast.
with all
working cleanly
I
tried Dan's editor,
EDDI,
and
found
the documentation didn't
apply to the video monitor and IBM
keyboard configuration I was using. Another ca 11 to Dan got me
the correct information for commands.
As soon as EDDI was running, I
decided to work on the Whimsical
compiler. After a short conference
with its author, John Spray (who
works with me), I modified the
necessary system interface code.
With a little debugging we (John
with my help), had a cross compiler running; (running under SK*DOS
on one machine while compiling
code for PAT to run under REX). I
soon had PAT, my own editor running under REX.
When long time computer users
switch systems, they (speaking for
myself too) try to make the new
system look just like the one they
are used to. For example, FLEX had
a LIST utility that displays a
text file to the screen stopping
every 24 lines until the user hits
ESC or space.
When I got into MS-DOS I found
TYPE lists a file with no stops.
Rather then TYPE, I typed LIST and
got a NO SUCH FILE error so often
I
made
a
batch
file
called
LIST. BAT. It simply told the computer to type the fi I e and pipe
the output to MORE. MORE stops
listing every 24 lines and prompts

68xxx Machines

Page 5

the user to press a key to continue.
A week later we (again John
with my help), had Whimsical running under REX and capable of compiling itself; making an exact
copy of i tsel f abl e to run under
REX. Along the way, I backed all
my fi 1 es off the hard disk and
reformatted it with the REX format
utility. I had a slight problem
getting REX to boot from the hard
disk. A call to Dan got me the
answer the next night by phone.
All works fine now. I've even modified my pet home made utilities
so they work under REX as well.

»> WHERE DID REX COME FROM ? «<
Lets look at a little history.
Dan, like myself, was a long time
user of computers based on the
6800 and 6809 processors. The main
operating system available for
those processors was FLEX, supplied with the hardware of South
West Technical Products Co. FLEX
was written and supplied by Technical Systems Consultants, originally located in West Lafayette
Indiana; presently in Chapel Hill
North Carolina.
TSC as they are known, have
long since dropped support of FLEX
(which at least operationally, I
understand, was a copy of an operating system developed by DEC for
their PDP series of computers).
TSC has gone on to bigger and better things in the form of Uniflex,
·a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system developed first for
the 6809 and later extended to run
on a 68000 bas.ed computer.
Dan and lots of others including myself, liked FLEX a great
deal. We always felt we had something better than CP/M used by the
machines with the 8080 and Z-80
Intel processors. In retrospect,
some of that might have been the
"my dad's car is better than your
dad's car" syndrome.
Anyway it was agreed the 6809
is vastly easier to program in
assembler (all we had at first)
than it was with the Intel processors. Therefore ... it was not unreasonabl e for Dan to wri te an
operating system for the 68000
hardware very similar in "look and
feel" to FLEX and the earlier DEC
operating system.
In fact, he has done more than

Page 6

that. He also wrote an extensive
ROM monitor program called MONK to
run with REX.
I must point out both REX and
SK*DOS have maintained complete
text file compatibility with the
old FLEX. In addition, SK*DOS has
compatibility with binary program
files as well. That was a natural
desire since the early development
of software for the 68000 systems
had to be done on 6809 systems
using cross assemblers. A cross
assembler is an assember program
that runs on one machine but generates code for a different processor or operating system. (In
the process of get ting a lot of
familiar software tools
transferred over to a new processor or
operating system, having a cross
assembler or compiler is of great
value, as is disk compatibility.)
While old FLEX binary file format is not quite compatible with
REX files, it is easy to write a
program to convert FLEX files to
REX compatible files.
(Dan has
already done so). I won't get into
the binary file structure or the
differences in great detail. They
are fairly trivial, Dan having
I eft the "short record" for", of
FLEX out, probably for simplicity
and size. (A cross assembler or
compiler that runs under FLEX and
produces code for SK*DOS could be
easily modified to produce code
for REX.
Normally magazines don't want
comparison articles written because there is usually a winner
and a loser. That doesn't help
advertising revenue. ["68xxx" says
let the chips fall where they may.
Ed] In this case, I think I can
make a good case for choosing any
of the three operating systems.
I've mentioned OS-K briefly previous 1 y, but not in great depth.
There are numerous factors to consider in choosing your operating
system. Let's look at each in
turn.

»> A LOOK AT REXDOS «<
There are several good reasons
you would want to consider REXDOS.
First of all it is now supplied
with all
Peripheral
Technology
PT68K-4 computers. These computers
can use high density floppy drives
(the ones used by AT and newer
style IBM clone computers). That

68xxx Machines

April 1991

means you can install a 1.44 megabyte 3.5 inch drive and/or a 1.2
megabyte 5.25 inch drive.
They read and write more quickly than conventional double density drives because they pack the
data more closely. One of the main
features of REXDOS is the floppy
disk file handling. REXDOS (May I
use REX for short?) handles disk
files by reading and writing a
whole track at one time.
~ecause of the whole track approach, the sectors are physically
on the drive in the order in which
they must be read. A whole track
can be read in one revol ution of
the disk. By timing test, disk
operations (read and write) are
about 2.5 times fas ter using REX
than the times of SK*DOS.
I'd better expand on that. The
test consisted of copying a very
long file from hard -disk to floppy. Dan's separate read and write
test* indicate reads from a floppy
are twice as fast and writes are
seven times as fast. Actually it
is not qui te that simpl e because
REX reads a whole track even if
only one sector is needed, so REX
is a bit slower with very small
files, but considerably faster for
large files. I am told a -4 with
the high density drives reads and
writes files about 2.5 times faster then myoid -2. That approaches
the disk operation speed of IBM
clone.
As for terminals, REX will run
a serial terminal, a monochrome
(Hercules) board and monitor and/or any color monitor from eGA to
VGA. The PT uses third party graphics adaptor boards. They can be
bought inexpensively form Peripheral Technology or your own computer "goodie" source. Graphics
adaptors vary somewhat. Some use
"different" hardwat:e which they
make compatible by means of a
onboard BIOS ROM. REX requires a
boar& with "standard" hardware.
Check with Periphera 1 Technology
for approved boards.
Even with these features, REX
is a very simple and small single
user operating system. Even so, it
is rather difficult to add other
co-resident programs. Perhaps the
average user wouldn't want or need
to do that, at 1 east not for a
whil e.
REX gets along fine with software written for loading at absolute addresses. That is, it does-

April 1991

n't require position independent
code. Of course, programs written
in position independent code work
fine under REX
too.
Operating
systems calls take more bytes of
code than with SK*DOS.
In general there are fewer and
less capable as calls than in
SK*DOS. Most of those who would be
capable of writing assembler code
interfacing with the operating
system would be able to code the
missing routines rather easily. As
Dan put it, the operating system
features supplied are generally
those required for the operating
system.
Where functions might be
useful to a user, Dan has made
entry points available
to the
user. The usual as calls exist for
such things as opening a file to
read or write, closing a file,
etc. There are call s to output a
string of characters terminated by
$04 (a leftover from FLEX in these
days when e uses $00 and most
others follow). I have converted
several
utility
programs
from
SK*DOS to REX versions with little
difficul ty.
The
original
copy
of
this
discussion contained one strong
negative reaction to REX due to
the lack of a buil t-in mul tiple
directory feature. One night I was
discussing this wi th Dan and he
suggested multiple small partitions for the hard disk. My immediate reaction was I would then
have directories of fixed sizes,
which struck me as a disadvantage.
However, after kicking the idea
around, I soon had a scheme tha t
could change partitions leaving
the working drive number alone. I
won't go into detail here since
the subject is complex enough to
deserve a whole article at another
time. By the time I was finished,
I had 15 partitions on my hard
disk (aside from the drive 0, the
system disk partition). Thirteen
of those are 30 cylinders or just
under 1 Megabyte.
Two are
60
cylinders, just under 2 Megabytes.
By the time I was f ini shed, I
had figured out how to give partitions names,
and change REX's
Drive Information Table by overlaying different starting sectors.
This allowed switching directories
by name (CD TEXT would switch to
that directory). I was also able
to make commands to find the name
of the present directory,
(PO
shows the Present Directory name).

68xxx Machines

Page 7

OS9/68000 SOFTWARE
EL) - Screen edi tor and text formatter
. . . . $275.00
A high quality documentation tool and program editor ideally suitpd to
laser printer users. Uses function and cursor keys on any t",rminal, configurablp per user .. Microjustifies mixed proporti.onal text. Automatic
table of contents generation and user-definable macros and commands.
Dr i ves any pri nter. I deal for mu I t i -user systems. Avai I abl e on a 30-day
try before-you-buy basis.

OlJ I CK

V 4 _ 0 0 - The C source code checker
. . . . . $495.00
Flexelint finds quirks, idiosyncracies, glitches ann bugs in C programs.
50 options control checking by symbol name or error number. Checks include intermodule inconsistencies, definition and usage of variables,
structures, unions and arrays, indentation, case fall-through, type conversions, printf and scanf format string inconsistencies, and suspicious
semi-colons. A must for all serious C programmers.

FLEXELINT

Intell igent Make Program
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $250.00
IMP does everything you wished Microware's Make would do, and a great
deal more. It is well-behaved, consistent, and extremely flexible. It
has a built-in C-like preprocessor and has comprehensive debugging
facilities. Rules can be user-defined, and make files for jobs other
than assembly-language or C compilation are easily constructed.

IMP -

- OS-9/58K Disassembler
... , .
. $250.()1)
This high-speed, three-pass 68000 disassembler can also handlp the 68010
and 58020. It intelligently decodes module headers and produces symbol
information that can be repeatedly edited and passed through the disassembler allowing iterative disassembly. The system libraries are read to
supply symbols.

T'>ISASM~_OS9

C Source Code Windowing Library
. . . . . . $250.00
This C source code library package supports multiple overl"pplnq windows
displayed on one character-based terminal screen. It supports window
headers and footers, and pop-up windows. Windows may be moved, pannpd,
written to while off-screen, etc.

WINDOWS -

User State Program FroUler . . . . . . . . . . . . . $270.00
Designed to profile user-state programs. Profile effectively samples"
traced execution building statistical information as it goes. It reads
symbol table modules to give a function-by-function account of the time
spent during execution. The user may ·zoom in" on a function to find a
smaller range of addresses where time is being spent.

PROFILE -

U " r I L I T I E S - C Source
Forty useful utilities are supplied
cluded are utilities to move files,
cross-reference C programs, set and
ments.

PAN

Code Utility Set
. . . . . . . $250.00
in this C sou Ice code package. Infind files, patch disks, undelete,
remove tabs, and spell-check docu-

- MS-DOS to OS-9 WIndowing System
...........
. . . . $ 350.00
PC9 allows an MS-DOS computer to be used as a t.erminal to mul tiple
processes on a remote 08-9 system linked by a single serial cable. Each
OS-9 process is displayed through a resizable, moveable window on the PC
screen. Terminal emulation facilities support uMACS and other screen
ed i tors and provi de a programmable PC keyboard. Access to PC disk dr i ves
is also available through the OS-9 unified I/O system, giving disk
capabi I i ty to ROM based OS-9 systems. A hot key swi tches between DOS and
OS-9 displays.

PC 9

* e mar co *

Middletown Shopping Center - FO Box 78 - Middletown, DE
302-378-2555
FAX 302-378-2556
O~"9 lS a Trade Mark of ~iCrO'liaIe Systems Corp,
F:exe~:rt:5
Trade Marl of Giope! Software. MS·OOS is a Trade Marl of Microsoft.

1Q709

SYSTEM IV COMPUTER
THE SYSTEM IV is a high performance computer system bAsed Oll t hp ',1,,1 ('rol A ('IlOOO
mi croprocessor operat i ng a t a clock speed of 16 liHz Atld has heell eles i glled t c,
provide maximum flexibility and versatility,
liicroware's Profpssiollal OS9.
68000 operating system is included ,.,ith the SYSTEM IV providing all efficient
multi-user and multi-tasking environment. This provides tile user with" PC fOJ
home use, small business applications and a viable low-cost solution for many
industrial control applications (embedded systems),
Special requirements
(such as midi, sound, A-D/D-A, net-working, etc.) ilre easily handled with
readily available low-cost PC/XT boards which can plug into the SYSTEM IV expansion slots. And, as user requirements change or improved special function
boards become available, they may be added or replaced at the user's option.
Thus, when software requiring multi-media or other new capability becomes a
real i ty, the user wi 11 be able to add tha t capabi I i ty eas i 1 Y and have the I ates t
technology at his disposal.
TO ACCESS THE LARGEST SOFTWARE BASE avai lable, an liS-DOS board, the ALT86, wi II
be available shortly as a low-cost option. This board has a V30 (8086) microprocessor running at 10 MHz, includes 1 Meg of O-wait state RAM, uses the Chips
and Technology BIOS, has a socket for an 8087 math co-processor and plugs illt"
one of the SYSTEM IV expansion slots. Additionally, an OS9/6809 software emulator/interpreter will be available soon. The emulator/interpreter will permit
running most COCO OS9/6809 software on the SYSTEM IV.
OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS may be installed. These include CPM, UNIFLEX, MINIX,
STARDOS, REX DOS and most any other operating system capable of running on the
68000 microprocessor chip.
THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM IV is derived from previously successful designs all"
uses components that have been tested and proven in other systems. SYSTEM IV's
uniqueness stems from the ability of its designer and manufacturer, Peripheral
Technology, to provide well designed, reliable hardIVare at a low cost. FUlther, only the functions necessary to the basic operation have been designed
into the mother board. Seven PC/XT compatible expansion slots allow an unrestricted selection of standard PC/XT accessory boards by the user. The usel
is not locked into any preconceived notions of what is best.
THE MOTHER BOARD is a 4 layer XT size board which holds the microprocessor,
sockets for up to 4 MBytes of O-wait state RAM, a battery backed-up clock, 4
serial ports, 2 parallel ports, a high density (37C65) floppy disk controller,
7 PC/XT compatible expansion slots, a memory expansion connector to allow an
addi tional 6 MBytes of O-wai t state DRAM, keyboard connector and the necessary
system support chips.
THE TERMINAL SYSTEM includes the mother board wi til 1 f1Byte of on-board DRAM, .high density floppy disk drive (3 1/2" or 5 1/4"),1 serial port connectors. il
parallel printer port connector, a 200 watt power supply, mini-PC style casp
capable of holding 5 half-height drives and Professional OS9/68000. This configuration requires the use of an external terminal(s).
T~E CONSOLE SYSTEM adds a VGA (800 x 600 x 16) graphics board and an AT stylF
keyboard and provides full graphics capability at the console. Terminals may
be added.

THE SYSTEM IV comes with a one (1) year parts and labor warranty.
$

TERMINAL System

999.00

$1,149.00

CONSOLE System
OPTIONS

3 MByte additional DRAM
Hard Disk Controller and driver
40 MByte Hard Disk
20 MByte Hard Disk
Additional 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" HD Floppy Drive
AT Style keyboard and 800 x 600 x 16 VGA Card
and driver
For 1024 x 768 x 256 VGA Card w/l Meg of Memory
add
in place of standard VGA card
deduct
Mono Display Card in place of VGA card
Prices sIlbi-ect to change withont

$120.00
$ 69.00
$295.00
$240.00
$ 92.00
$159.00
$170.00
$ 50.00

not:c~.

Special monitor prices when ordered with the SYSTEM IV.

See the PERIPHERAL TECHNOLOGY AD for kits.

* e mar co *

Middletown Shopping Center 302-378-2555

PO Box 78 - Middletown,
FAX 302-378-2556

DE

19709

Finally I could make a new directory or remove one,or get a list
of all the active directories.
The fixed size for each is not
really a major disadvantage. A
major ADVANTAGE of the scheme is
each partition has its own directory sectors. The directories tend
to be short or at least shorter
than if all the files on the disk
were in one I arge one, so disk
access is faster overall.
The directory complication only
arises if you are using a hard
disk.
If you plan to use only
floppy drives,
you can use a
different disk for each kind of
computer
activity.
Each
disk
becomes a new directory.
Another initial disadvantage,
REX was missing the ability to
redi rect
input
and
output
as
SK*DOS and OS-K allow. The scheme
of using device drivers and device
numbers is not implemented.
The substitute for output to
printers, the ability to run two
different printers on different
ports is very good. The code which
runs the printers is essentially a
device driver, though a bi t simpier ,and less flexible in nature
than that of the other two OSs.
SK*DOS has the input and output
redirection
to
files
via
t.he
mechanism of the < and > operators
on a command line. I've written a
couple of utilities
to handle
those operations. old FLEX had an
I and an 0 redirection utility
that did just what you think they
might suggest. I've written them
for REX as well. No doubt Dan
would have done so if he had
needed them for anything.
They are not very complicated.
Using them (they are public domain
and will be avail abl e from Dan,
Peripheral Technology or me), is
quite simple. Suppose you want to
assemble a file and run the listing to another file rather than
the printer. Normally you would
assemble the file: ASMK FILE +BGS
To shift the output to a file
called FILE.LST you would use the
o utility like this: 0 FILE.LS.T
ASMK FILE +BGS
The output file specification
must follow the 0 which must be
first.
0 opens the output file,
substitutes some code to write to
that file in place of the terminal. Essentially it overwrites the
OUTCH vector in REX. When control
is returned to REX, the input line

.aqe 10

pointer is right at the A of ASMK,
so it assembles the file.
The
output goes to FILE.LST. At the
end of the assembly, ASMK or any
other program does a JMP WARMS.
Warm start of REX closes all open
files, so FILE.LST is closed. It
works fine. In fact, when you use
the P for output to a printer, the
printer driver does pretty much
what 0 does.
Dan has developed a pseudo disk
directory system called SUB CAT
which allows different directory
files. They all
remain in one
large directory per drive whether
or not you use SUBCAT.
(This is
true of SK*DOS as well. There is
basically one large directory, but
files are tagged with a directory
code) .
Using SUBCAT is a simple process. You can sort files into
directories. Then you can use the
features of SUBCAT, which presents
you a screen directory listing
from which you may choose a file
by bumping the cursor down through
the list. Then you may choose one
of several options to edit the
chosen file, assemble it, delete
it, copy it to another drive or
disk, view it on the screen, etc.
One very nice feature, you can
insert up to 36 characters as a
comment to go along with each
directory entry. (We've all at one
time or another, done a directory
of our system disk and wondered
what several of the command files
were or what they did.) A disadvantage of the system is you are
never "in" a directory as such.
Newly created files are not automati ca 11 y pI aced in the current
directory. You must remember to
"load" them, probably an operation
which would shortly become second
nature. Once you have "loaded" a
file to the directory, its name
stays in the directory regardless
of how many times you edi t and
reassemble it. (The name stays in
the directory even if you delete
the file without going through
SUB CAT , i.e. directly with the
delete utility).
If you like a menu style of
operation as opposed to using a
command line, (i.e. choosing from
a list of possibilities rather
than simply telling the computer
what to do), you will like this
utility a great deal. On the other
hand, i f you 1 ike command line
style, you probably will avoid it.

68xxx Machines

April 1991

You might begin using REX w th
SUBCAT, then a you become famil ar
with the system switch to us ng
the command line directly.
I f you are a real hacker 1 ike
me, you probably will have an
overwhelming reason to want to
have REX. Dan has made it public
domain. If you want to develop
software or utilities to do something special, you can peek at the
source code and figure out how it
works so you can attack the problem.
I ventured into such a project
just a couple of nights ago. I was
trying both a video (Monochrome)
termina 1 wi th an IBM c1 one keyboard and a serial terminal. I was
checking whether everything worked
correct I y in swi tching back and
forth between them. I needed two
different versions of my editor
PAT, for no other reason than I
needed a different terminal configuration file for the serial
terminal.
After
digging
in
the
MONK
source I found MONK places the
address of the keyboard handler in
a trap vector at memory address
$74. Also byte $76 became $IB when
the terminal was live and $IC when
the monochrome was live. I used
that fact
to detect which is
active and load the appropriate

PAT version, all transparent to
the usel:". The point is, it was
easy when I could look at the
operting system source code.
Dan or Peripheral Technology
will supply all the source code
for REX and MONK.
I think the
price is $15. With it you can
program your own MONK ROMs. If you
prefer to buy the ROMs also, the
charge is $20.
This discussion wouldn't be
complete without a mention of one
very nice feature of REX. It has a
buil t-in terminal emulator which
operates when you use it wi th an
IBM
keyboard
and moni t or.
It
accepts a substantial subset of
the commands for a Televideo 925
terminal.
Part of the reason it was so
easy to get PAT running under REX
was the terminal
emulation.
I
simply selected a configuration
file I already had for a Televideo
terminal and modified it a little.
Dan claims the IBM keyboard is
"fully decoded". However I found
t·he cursor keypad arrows to emi t
the same codes as 'H, 'J 'L, and
'M. That is easy to get around.
When you get a key and it is one
of those, you can look at a variable, which is non-zero if the
control key is being pressed.
When the arrow keys are used

PT68K2/4 Progrnms for REXDOS & SK*DOS
EDOI

SPELLn
ASl\IK
sunCAT
KRACKER
NAI\IES

~creen editor And form:tller
A 160,OOO-word spelling checker
A nAtive code As~emhler
A sub-directory mnn:tger
A diSAssembler progrAm
A nllme And Rddr~~s mnnl1ger

A

$50.00
.$50.00
$25.00
$25.00
$25.00
$25.00

Inclllde operating system, disk rormAt, lerminnl Iype And te1t>phone
number with order. Person:!1 checb Accepted. No chnrge ennk

PALM IH~ACII SOFl"VAHE
Rou(e 1 Box 11911
Oxford, FL 32684
9041748-5074

April 1991

68xxx Machines

Page 11

alone, the control key is up. of
course when you type
the
L,
control key is down. I found I
still couldn't distinguish between
the 1 eft arrow and the backspace
key since both emi t code $08 and
the control key is not down for
either of them.
Dan has been very quick to fix
things and to add things I have
requested. what is left to clean
up is in the area of differences
in the opera ti on of very simil ar
utilities, or perhaps in skimpy
documentation. I am in the process
of trying to help Dan with the
documentation. l' ve been so busy
playing with REX I haven't made a
lot of progress. However I now
know enough about REX to be able
to do an intelligent job (1 hope).
REX is the simplest of the
three operating systems and as
such might be an easy one to use
while learning about the 68000
processor.
Enough
software
is
presently available for it to be
useful. Dan has his editor EDDI,
the assembler ASMK, the directory
system SUBCAT, as well as his
spelling checker SPELLB for sale.
I have PAT running under REX,
subject to a little more testing.
I've been using it for several
weeks with no new bugs found. The
Whimsical
compiler
is
running
fine. Thanks to John Spray, I also
have a
cross compiler version
running which I can use to compile
programs on the SK*DOS machine
that can be read and run on the
REX machine. In addition, Dan is
working on a BASIC interpreter,
and there is a good possibility of
a C compiler in the future,
A

»> A LOOK AT SK*DOS «<
SK*DOS was written by Peter
stark, STAR-K Software. He is a
long
time
computer
hobbyist,
writer
of
computer
articles,
teacher of computer science, and
friend (I hope still).
Peter
wrote
SK*DOS
several
years ago. It had been shipped
with Peripheral Technology hardware until just recently. Athough
SK*DOS is also based on FLEX, it
has capabi I i ties beyond those of
FLEX.
It is written wholly in
position independent code, therefore even all the utilities are
posi tion independent. This makes
it easier to stack programs in

Page 12

memory without interference and
gives greater overall flexibility.
Whimsical, a language similar
to Pascal that compiles to M/L,
which
runs
under
SK*DOS
also
generates
position
independent
code.
However,
SK*DOS' s
"c"
compiler generates absolute position code;
which is
a
little
inconvenient.
SK*DOS can run wi th a serial
terminal,
monochrome
(Hercules)
board and monitor, or with a CGA
board and monitor. I understand
Peter is working on EGA/VGA compatibility presently. SK*DOS is
available for the -4 hardware. It
supports high density disk drives;
both 3.5" and 5.25". A revised
version for the older -2 computers
can also support
high density
drives via a floppy controller
board that plugs into the I/O bus.
It
is
supplied
by
Peripheral
Technology.
SK*DOS can be purchased from
Peripheral
Technology
or
from
Peter Stark. Contact ei ther for'
details on the current version.
One reason why you might want
to try SK*DOS is the built-in
multiple directories.
In SK*DOS
you are
always in a
"current
directory" on your working drive.
If you edit a file, or create one,
it is automatically done in the
current directory. You can use
directories on your system drive
too, but I don't. In fact you can
simply ignore multiple directories
i f you like.
Another reason for using SK*DOS
it has more software. RBASIC from
Bob Jones in Canada runs very
well. The "c" compiler available
from Computer Systems Consultants
in Georga works well, as does ASM,
their assembler. ASH is a necessary part of the "c n compiler.
Dan
Farnsworth
has
SK*DOS
versions of
EDDI,
SPELLB,
his
assembler ASHK, and the catalog
program SUBCAT. I have my edi tor
PAT and a simple text formatter
called JUST. There are several
other utility programs written by
users, available through STAR-K's
bull etin board. I have several I
can supply to anyone who wants
them. More about that in a later
issue of this newsletter. (Most
all of them will also be available
for REX.)
I ought to mention batch files.
In SK*DOS the first filename on
the command line is assumed to be

68xxx Machines

April 1991

a command (.COM) file. If that
file is not found, SK*DOS searches
the system drive for a file of the
same name with the extension .BAT.
If one is found, it is used as
an input command file. That is, it
substitutes input from that file
for command lines entered on the
terminal. The switch from command
file to batch file is mode automaticlly. Long ago, I wrote a batch
file called FORMAT3.BAT. I t calls
the format utility. Prompts for
format are answered by redirecting
the input to a file that has all
the
correct
response
answers.
SK*DOS input files have the extension .PIP so my input file is
FMT3.PIP and the batch file is a
single
line
that
looks
like:
FORMAT 3 <0.FORMAT3.PIP
FORMAT3.PIP contains:

40

dddblank
1
y

These are the necessary answers to
the prompts, being careful to have
CRs only where they are needed. I
use a default disk name of BLANK
and a defaul t number of 1. Later
you can use DISKNAME to rename the
disk, give it a number and date.
SK*DOS is a more grown up

version of the FLEX style operating system then REX. There are
more features available, it is
more modular and more flexible.
This
should
allow
for
easier
updates and improvements. On the
other hand, the sourse code for
SK*DOS is not
available.
Also
SK*DOS has slower floppy disk read
/ write operations.

»> A LOOK AT OS-K «<
I have used OS-K on a 68020
system, a 68008 system and very
briefly on a CoCo (6809). It is a
high capability operating system
from
Microware
that
supports
multiple users and multi-tasking.
Its I/O is interrupt driven. As an
example, printing can be done (not
via
a
spooler)
while
editing
another
file,
and
a
compiler
running in the background.
I found the 68020 system to be
so fast it wasn't practical to try
to do multiple tasks on it other
than printing a file or a listing
while doing something else.
I
would start the C compiler and go
to edit something else only to
find the compi I er done before I
had written three or four words.
of course it shines with two or
three users on the same computer.

68000 Single Board Computers
\\lTI-16

Bllse 16MIIZ Kil wilh boartland pariS
$189.00
for RS232 operation. hlcludes REX/MONK.

l'r68K4-16

16MIIZ lCii wilh S 12K DRAM, 1 RS232 +
2 parallel Ports, lID Floppy Controller,

pC inlerface,

$399.00

MONK/IlEX operaling syslem.

BARE IJONES 16MIIZ Syslem Board wilh 1MB DRAM,
Cabinet, power Supply, Choice of lligh
Kit
Pellsily Floppy, Professional OS9 wilh C.

$849.00

REX/MONK Operalillg system for rT68K2 and PT681C4
$19.95
SK·OOS
Operatillg system illcluding HUMBUG
$100.00
059/68000
ProCessional OS9, Includes C Compiler
$299.09
Addilional kits are available. VISA, MC, MO accepled.
- personal checks allow 10 days. Shipping charge $1 fur kils.
See Ihe DELMAR AD for syslemsl

Peripheral Technology
H80 T\!ff\!\1 Mill Rd. Suite 870
Marlella, GA 30067

(404) 984-0742

April 1991

68xxx Machines

Page 13

From one or more users, the requests cause the requested programs to load into memory. Each
user runs them from there from his
own variable space. In the event a
user attempts to load a program
that is already in memory because
a prior user is running it (MultipI e users) the os notes the program is already in memory and just
sets up a variable for the new
user. Both users use the same
program, which is in memory only
one time.
I found I coul d load PAT and
run two different terminals as two
users with no problems. Each user
has his own variable space so when
my time slice comes, all my variabl es are in use, and when yours
time slice comes, all your vari:'
abIes are in use (including the
variables from the two different
terminal configuration files). The
result, your terminal can work
with different commands than mine.
. Essentially we each have our own
program counter during our time
slice, which makes my running of
the program independent of your
running of the program.
(Note,
this is totally different then
what MS-DOS machines call networking, but appears to the user to be
much the same as is done on UNIX
systems. Ed)
OS-K has many features that
make it a mini UNIX system. It has
multiple directories and sub-directories with file path specifications equivalent to those in UNI~; .
simil ar to MS-DOS. I t uses device
descriptors and drivers that are'
completely modular.
OS-K
is
easily
adapted
to
different hardware configurations.
Some time ago there was a 6809
version that ran on everything
from the SWTPc to the Radio Shack
Co I or Computer. (OS-K is very I/O
and/or memory intensive. As such a
hard disk is manitory for any
serious work.)
It is well supported by its
creator, Microware. There are many
competing software packages available for it including PLuS, a
compiled language from Windrush
Micro
Systems
in
England;
Microware's BASIC-09, a mix of
BASIC and Pascal; a very complete
C compiler from Microware; a very
complete (and expensive) Pascal
from
OmegaSoft,
several
word
processors and editors,
a
4th
generation databas, an assembler,

Page 14

and
other
language
compilers
including (I think) Fortran.
Granite Software Systems supplies software to do directories,
and read and write text files back
and forth between OS-K and MS-DOS
formatted disks.
OS-K has a couple of drawbacks.
First it is EXPENSIVE. Second i t
is not easy to configure for any
given system. I found I had to
read instructions long and carefull y to get i t set up for my
system. By the time I needed to do
that operation again, I had forgotten how and had to go through
the same learning process once
again.
Few people have mastered writing device descriptors and drivers
for it. The documentation is large
and fairly complete, but not well
organized; therefore difficult to
follow.
(I
once
had
to
skim
through about 80 pages of the
manual to figure out how to write
the header for an assembler program). In my opinion, if you want
a full blown operating system in
which to get deeply involved you
would like (Love. Ed) OS-K.
However, if you are a computer
USER . (not interested in programming) and want a wide variety of
anyone application like desktop
publishing,
spreadsheets,
word
processors wi th on-line spe 11 ing
checker, on-line thesaurus, etc.
you don't want any of these operating systems. In fact, you don't
want one of these 68000 computers;
not at least for the present.
None of the software presently
available for any of these applications is equal to the high level
capabilities you can get for a
Mac, an IBM desktop or clone.
However, if you want to learn
about computers and how they run,
operating
systems,
developing
useful
software
utilities,
or
maybe even more ambitious projects
in the realm of graphics programming or word processing, you will
like one (or maybe even all three)
of the above OSes.
If anyone is interested, I have
written some utilities to interchange text fi 1 es between SK*DOS
and OS-K disks.
Running under
SK-DOS, these a 11 ow you to do a
directory of an OS-K disk and then
to copy files from one format to
the other. I may well soon have
REX versions too.

68xxx Machines

April 1991

»> ALL OF THE ABOVE? «<
It would be nice to be able to
run any or all of the above operating systems on the same computer. Unfortunately presently you
need to change monitor ROMs to do
so. Monk is included with the PT
hardware to allow the booting of
REX
or OS-K.
STAR-K' s
HUMBUG
monitor can boot SK*DOS or OS-K.
I've been asking Dan Farnsworth to
add the capability to MONK to boot
SK*DOS too. I don't think SK*DOS
uses much code from Humbug, if
any.
Dan is presently working on the
same capabilities for REX. Its not
much fun to change the ROMS to
switch back and forth .between
systems. 1 sweat. over damaging
pins and making a set of ROMs
unusable. Maybe Peripheral Tech
could do an adaptor board to hold
both sets of ROMs. They could be
installed at the same address with
an enable voltage supplied by a
physical switch. That way,
the
user coul d swi tch ROMs and run
either operating system.
Unfortunately the three systems
require different hard disk formats.
SK*DOS wi 11 I et you partition the hard disk so you can run
OS-K on one part and SK*DOS on the
other. Either can be booted from
the
SK*DOS
power-up
monitor
prompt. Right now your
"main"
system can be run from the hard

disk and a couple of secondary
systems from floppies. As the old
saying goes, "ya pays yer money
and ya takes yer choice".
could I make one last point?
If you are thinking of one of
these systems at least consider a
hard disk. I f you look hard you
can find an ST-225 drive without
controller for around $185. The
controller from PT is $79 for a
total of $264.
I f you go with a floppy drive
you wi 11 soon find you need at
least 2 floppy drives and those
will cost you just about $200. of
course with the hard disk you will
still need one floppy dri ve to
transfer disk supplied files to
your hard disk.
You caul d use a floppy and a
RAMDISK. Of course RAMDISK needs
more memory then without one. One
megabyte of RAM can be gotten for
under $100. (I remember when 1
paid $129 for 16 Kbytes of memory). However, 1 am rather wary of
RAMDISK. Maybe I'm getting too old
and absent minded but 1 tend to
turn
the
computer
off
having
forgot ten to copy any new f i1 es
from RAMDISK to a physical disk. I
am also afraid of power failures.
Again, it is a persona 1 pref erence.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy using
one or more of these operating
systems. Happy computing!

Advertisers
This SpaceIs Waiting For Your Ad
The Cost? As little as $10 per month for a half page ad.
Provide us with your camera ready copy or we can help
you design and produce your ad.
Call (302) 492-8511 for more information.

April 1991

68xxx Machines

Page 15

--_-------...

---~.-~~!W.<.,

-The 68xxx MachinesThe Chatham House Company
RDN1 Box 375
Wyominq, DE
19934U~

-

Address Correction Requested -

First Class -



---

Source Exif Data:

File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.3
Linearized                      : No
XMP Toolkit                     : Adobe XMP Core 4.2.1-c043 52.372728, 2009/01/18-15:56:37
Create Date                     : 2014:09:20 19:40:30-08:00
Modify Date                     : 2014:09:20 18:55:11-07:00
Metadata Date                   : 2014:09:20 18:55:11-07:00
Producer                        : Adobe Acrobat 9.55 Paper Capture Plug-in
Format                          : application/pdf
Document ID                     : uuid:46e5c3b0-361c-3e44-ac7c-395652064979
Instance ID                     : uuid:ee0f4729-b8cc-3548-95bf-91a1d9d40649
Page Layout                     : SinglePage
Page Mode                       : UseNone
Page Count                      : 16

EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools