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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

100 years of IBM - that's worth to mention.

Without IBM, many inventions were missing, you can see a short overview at Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNUGgmd4
You can also see a longer film about IBMs last 100 years here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhDaAmn5Uw

There is also a famous TV spot shown in the Eighties, do you still remember their own version of Charlie Chaplin ?


It started all with two companies:
C-T-R Computer Tabulating Recording Company
and
Powers Accounting Machine Co.
in 1911.
Interesting, the company "IBM" (International Business Machines) was founded 13 years later, in 1924.

I issued an entry named "Looking for a real Fortran-66 compatible PC compiler ..." in four newsgroups:

https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.cpm/browse_thread/thread/6004b19ad544d124 (comp.os.cpm)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folk ... 4eed64d776 (alt.folklore.computers)
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.com ... 62d3df55c1 (comp.compilers)
http://groups.google.com/group/de.alt.f ... c2d5?hl=de (de.alt.folklore.computer)

So far, I got over 100 answers (whow!).

So I extended my Fortran page meanwhile also a bit ;-)
See also http://www.z80.eu/for-compiler.html ...

My (former) dream machine:

Working with an Alpha 21164 64Bit CPU at 433MHz, it sounds not really amazing compared to current PCs (e.g. with an Phenom 6 core processor).
But it can run VMS. That's a very old operating system, well known for DEC-10, VAX or similar devices. But it's running also on Alpha based machine since years, and it's known for a high degree of security.
And, perhaps, the Digital Command Language (DCL) is one of the origins of CP/M and MS-DOS command processors.

At the moment, it's running Windows 2000 Beta 3 (for Alpha of course, not Intel), which is quite stable running. It can run also x86 code with the help of FX!32 (see related link).

To obtain VMS, you have to go to openvmshobbyist. At the moment I am waiting for more time, also because the license is limited and getting it without working with it sounds crazy.
Also, with a PWS 433a you have to add a SCSI CD-ROM and harddisk first, otherwise you can't run OpenVMS. May be I try OpenBSD first instead for that reason.

A very interesting link for Alpha users is also a blog - virtuallyfun.blogspot.com.

It was not easy.
I tried to use INTERLNK/INTERSVR several times, but it fails every time:
As you know, I set up a virtual machine with Windows 98 SE ... INTERSERVER was running.
But the connection between the two computer can't be established. May be it was not only related with the Nullmodem-cable but also with missing handshake signals. I don't know.

But I remembered my SRAM PCMCIA card which I used in my Amstrad NC100... I inserted a fresh lithium battery and then inserted the card into my Highscreen organizer.
I was able to format the "IC Card" (the memory card) and also was able to copy files onto it.

What a surprise when I plugged the card into my Notebook....
I had to search for a driver first.
I got one at the transcend website ( http://www.transcend.nl/support/dlcente ... _Win2k.exe ).
The drive itself was mounted, but the format of the media was not recognized.
So I had to use Cardware Software to get a raw image from the PCMCIA memory card.
A trial version can be downloaded at http://www.tssc.de/download/prods/cw2k.exe .

After having a raw image of the pcmcia SRAM card, I was able to use WinImage to read (and write) files from (or to) it.
I also inspected the boot sector of the image, yes it was FAT12:


It was not possible to read or write the card with Windows XP only.
May be it's related with FAT12. You can't even FORMAT FAT12 media via Windows XP.
Strange.

Ok, anyway, I managed to get 22NICE (1.42) to the Pocket PC, but also Turbo PASCAL 3.0 and BASIC for CP/M-80. With the 22NICE utility "GENCOM" I was able to generate appropriate loader .COM files for the CP/M-programs, so finally I was able to run CP/M-80 programs on the device.

And the speed is at least similar to a Kaypro IV, means enough for serious work.

BASIC-80 running on it:


Added later: There is also a Windows Vista/7 (trial) version of Cardware Software which can be downloaded at http://www.tssc.de/download/prods/cwvi.exe ...

I was very surprised when I saw the Highscreen Handy Organizer the first time.
It has a full work "AT" compatible keyboard, 80x25 character LCD screen, a parallel and a serial interface, and 2 IC card (PCMCIA SRAM memory card) slots.
It has also a 7,15 MHz NEC V30 CPU, which is very fast for a calculator alike device, running with DOS 5.0 (ROM based). Another highlight is MS WORKS 2.0 for DOS, which can be found in ROM also.
In the U.S., it was called Zeos Pocket PC.


Unfortunately I didn't manage it so far using INTERSVR on that device.

I installed Windows 98 in a VMWare Player, and it runs almost perfect... until I integrate INTERLNK.EXE in CONFIG.SYS of that Windows 98 installation.
But even if I start Windows 98 in Command Line mode (no GUI, press F8 at the beginning), I was not able to use INTERLNK.EXE with the serial port.
At the moment, I have my doubt about the used serial null modem cable, because it does not offer hardware handshake.
And I am not sure VMWare Player does not make a mistake when emulating the serial interface.
Have to test it with my Kaypro IV, this worked already with Windows XP for example.


My idea at the moment: Using this device with a CP/M emulator which supports the V20/V30 CPU.
As a result, this would be the smallest CP/M portable ever made if it works ;-)