time machine...

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Wed Nov 17 16:28:00 2004

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004, Joe R. wrote:

> >* Comark is a company in Woburn MA I ported CP/M-80 for (to their
> >Multibuss machine) then later -- bargain of bargains for them --
> >I did a full port of MSDOS 2.x or 3.x to their 8086 multibuss
> >system, in exchange for one. THat machine was in the hands of
> >Don Kulha, FidoNet #125 I think, recently deceased, Napa area,
> >no idea what happened to it.

> Do you have any idea if this version of MS-DOS will work on the Intel Multibus machines? If it does, I'd love to get a copy.

Well if it did it wouldn't help much since no one on earth
detectably has a copy. But writing MSDOS BIOS's is as
easy as CP/M's. I can't believe that docu isn't on the web
somewhere. It's just a jump table with that stupid datablock of
parms for the linked IO list (that never got implemented in my
'lifetime').

Is no one writing BIOSs for the piles of S100 (cpm) and multibuss
(dos) hardware out there? I no longer have my microsoft MSDOS
OEM kit (...) but you could take any MSDOS (not PCDOS) pre 4
and make your own. The MSDOS.SYS links to IO.SYS with a jump
table ala CP/M!

I wish I had my MSDOS stuff, towards the end I used to port
MSDOSs to virgin hardware in three (3) days including the EPROM
bootstrap and proprietary formatter, DMA and all.


The Comark machine had, if I recall, an Intel SBC 8/16, but
their own flop, hard disk, etc controller. I forget who's memory.

I would like that machine back too but fat chance of finding THAT
thing. It was big and ugly and unlovable to those who didn't
know it. The Comark chassis had an "IO" subchassis above the
horizontally-mounted M'buss chassis. The cardcage had a puller
and a pusher XL fan, the IO section had its own two (2) XL fans,
and I added an automotive aircleaner assembly (!) hanging off
the side to avoid dust bunnies on the chips. It sounded like
a jet plane and almost created lift, but it's mass at some 75
lbs would have been hard to overcome even with more XL fans.
Received on Wed Nov 17 2004 - 16:28:00 GMT