Hi, In fact Mike and I have been discussing an 8088 (or higher) version of the SoftBox for a couple years now. I also have a Softbox (http://www.6502.org/users/sjgray/projects/softbox/index.html) and helped Mike with the CBM-II port (fun fact, the port also runs on the P500 and might be the only P500 hardware add-on!). We also discussed a 6809 Softbox for OS/9 or NitrOS, and a version that could be used on a C64/C128 or other CBM using the parallel port or add-on IEEE interface. We also talked about the possibility of creating a new PCB. Mike is currently pre-occupied with NON-CBM stuff (sorry Mike ;-) ) but with a little encouragement he might be persuaded to continue on the SoftBox. Steve From: "Ruud@Baltissen.org" <Ruud@Baltissen.org> To: cbm-hackers@musoftware.de Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 3:48 AM Subject: PCbox, an add to the MS-DOS 1.25 project Hallo allemaal, Going through my "still to do" projects I ran into the Sofbox: http://mikenaberezny.com/hardware/pet-cbm/sse-softbox-z80-computer/ This is a CP/m 2.2 computer that loads its programs from (at least?) a 8050 and uses the CBM as terminal. The communication between these two goes over the IEEE bus as well. This triggered the idea to see if it is possible to create a DOS equivalent. The hardware shouldn't be a problem: any PC with a bi-directional LPT port and a COM port should do. The needed extra hardware is described on http://www.baltissen.org/newhtm/cbmhd.htm How is this going to add to the MS-DOS 1.25 project? As said before, I'm convinced that the only thing that is needed to do to make any MS-DOS work on the CBM-II with a 8088 card is changing IO.SYS. If that is true, it should work for the PCbox as well. What about the software? The softbox comes with its own terminal software. Thanks to Mike Naberzeny and Doug Staley it has been disassembled and the sources are available. I first thought about to use it as-is but then I remembered Michał's remark about the back slash. I don't know what all is needed to develop the software for the MS-DOS 1.25 project but if it takes 15 minutes to create a disk image to test something, it will be long evenings. In case of the PCbox I can develop things on a PC and write only the changed parts to a boot floppy. Yes, a boot floppy. The greatest advantage of PCbox is that it can boot form its own floppy. So we can start testing things with providing a new INT 10h for the video and new INT 16h for the keyboard. Once this works, we can work on INT 13h. We can change it in such a way that drive A points to a PC drive and drive B points to an IEEE drive. Do I have to start here from scratch as well? No. I have PC-DOS (or MS-DOS ?) 1.1 including it sources. Including that of IO.SYS / IBMIO.SYS. After having prooven that IO.SYS is the only file needed to be changed, it is a matter of writing one for the CBM-II. But I warn you, it will be a completely different one. -- Kind regards / Met vriendelijke groet, Ruud Baltissen www.Baltissen.org Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing listReceived on 2017-10-16 14:00:03
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