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281 lines
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Plaintext
281 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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Last edit: 2002-05-24 MPAUL
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Digital Research Personal CP/M-86 2.1/1 (1987)
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==============================================
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for
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===
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Siemens Simatic S5 / PG685
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==========================
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Summary
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-------
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This archive represents a German issue of Digital Research's
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Personal CP/M-86 2.1/1 for the Siemens Simatic S5 programming
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device PG685.
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This release of PCP/M-86 is dated 1987-01-11 (or 1987-11-01?),
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and contains Digital Research copyright strings going back to
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1981, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986.
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Many of the .CMD files contain "CP/M-86 Plus" strings, leading
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to the assumption that Personal CP/M-86 1.x and 2.x represent
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nothing but this rumored product CP/M-86 Plus or that they are
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at least very close relatives, with Personal CP/M-86 being derived
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from CP/M-86 Plus. There are also hints that the single-user
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Personal CP/M-86 1.x and 2.x issues in some way correspond with
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the multi-user Concurrent CP/M-86 3.1.
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License
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-------
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Since 1999-07, Lineo, Inc., Utah, USA, is the copyright owner of all
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original Digital Research CP/M operating system technology by way of
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Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. (since mid 1998), Caldera, Inc. (since
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1996-07), Novell, Inc. (since 1991-07) and Digital Research, Inc.
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On 2001-10-19, Lineo's (then-times) Chairman and CEO Bryan Sparks
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issued a public CP/M distribution and usage license as detailed
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in the file LICENSE.TXT accompaning this distribution archive.
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This historic issue of CP/M is expressively made available "AS IS"
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under the terms of this license, and without warranties or support
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of any kind. Use the files and information solely at your own risk.
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However, while the meaning is pretty clear in "human language",
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the actual wording is in another sense so vague that I suggest you
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still better check with Lineo in case you plan to utilize this
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stuff for anything beyond the sole purpose of studying the CP/M
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and DOS history or personal non-commercial use.
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(Disclaimer: I am no spokesperson of Lineo, and I have no direct
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affiliation with Lineo at the time of this writing.)
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Features
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--------
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According to the documentation on the disk, this issue of PCP/M-86
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supports one 96 tpi floppy disk drive and one hard disk drive (at
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least up to 85 Mb), apparently up to 512 Kb RAM, and up to three
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background processes.
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It can read and write these floppy formats:
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PG695 / PC16-11 : 80 track floppies formatted under CCP/M-86 version 2.0/3
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or PCP/M-86.
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PG675 : 40 track floppies formatted under CP/M-86 version 1.1/2
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and PCP/M-86.
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PC16-20 : 40 and 80 track floppies formatted with PCP/M-86,
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CCP/M-86 and CDOS-86 if written with single- or
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dual-sides CP/M formats.
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(The list has changed compared to the READ.ME found in the earlier
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PCP/M-86 1.0/5b issue, in particular there is no longer a mentioning
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of a PC-XT 40 track format, although I assume this is now covered by
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the new PC16-20 entry. Note, that the earlier PCP/M-86 1.0/5b did not
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came with a SYSTRAN.CMD CP/M <-> MS-DOS file transfer utility.)
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I have no idea what kind of machine this "Siemens Simatic S5
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Programmierger<65>t PG685" was, but I assume it was some sort of
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programmable industrial control. It must have been small enough
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to be portable (whatever this means). The documentation mentions
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an optional external graphics monitor "BMG" in addition to the
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internal display, and an "upgrade kit". The video was capable of
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both, text and graphics mode and the documentation mentions GSX-86.
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Documentation
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-------------
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All this information provided here was leaked from reading the READ.ME
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file on the floppy disk and some examination of the binaries.
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Apparently there was a small German Siemens publication:
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"Simatic S5 - Personal CP/M-86 Betriebssystem - Tabellenheft",
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93 pages, Order No. C79000-B8500-C352-01
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And there was a comprehensive manual for Personal CP/M-86 as well,
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but I have no further info about it, unfortunately.
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File versions
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-------------
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File name: File size: CRC: Date strings: Version strings:
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BACK.CMD 15.232 3DBB 1983-11-16
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CCP.CMD 7.168 FB7C 1983-11-11
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DATE.CMD 3.840 AEAF 1983-11-16
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DDT86.CMD 14.336 9DB9* 1981 1.2
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DEVICE.CMD 13.312! 5A10 1983-11-16
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DIR.CMD 11.648 C723 1983-11-16
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DSKMAINT.CMD 31.232! 6FA8 1983-01-26 3.0 for PG685 on PCP/M-86 1.0
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or 2.0, or CCP/M-86 3.1
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with CCP/M-86 XIOS 3.1
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DUMP86.CMD 2.944 88E9 1983-10-03 3.0,3.1
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ED.CMD 9.728 6313 1983-11-16
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ERASE.CMD 3.968 7598 1983-11-16
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EXTERN.CMD 640 9BC7* N/A
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GENRSX.CMD 18.688 92ED 1983-10-04,1983-11-16
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GET.CMD 9.088 D771 1983-11-16
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GETRSX.RSX 3.328 3A82 N/A
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HDPARK.CMD 3.328 257C* N/A 1.0 for PG685
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HDPARTY.CMD 31.232! 950A 1983-01-26 2.5/4c on PCP/M-86 1.0 or
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CCP/M-86 3.1
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HELP.CMD 7.680 BE7A 1983-11-16 1.1
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HELP.HLP 54.016 4448* (1982-08-14)
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INITDIR.CMD 35.840 BEA9* N/A
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INTERN.CMD 640 1BC7* N/A
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PATCH86.CMD 3.328 C4CB 1983-10-03 3.1
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PCPM.SYS 56.320! FD85 1983-11-11,1985,"08-05-1986"
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PIP.CMD 9.472 F147 1983-11-16,1983-09-02 3.1
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PUT.CMD 8.832 9412 1983-11-16
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PUTRSX.RSX 3.584 8C7B N/A
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READ.ME 3.328! D8A0 N/A
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RENAME.CMD 3.200 C645 1983-11-16
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SET.CMD 9.344 E6E3 1982,1983-11-16
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SETDEF.CMD 5.120 BD60 1983-11-16
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SHOW.CMD 8.704 F1F5 1983-11-16
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STOP.CMD 2.304 72F8 1983-11-16
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SUBMIT.CMD 11.008 9EE2 1983-11-16
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SYSTRAN.CMD 28.416 676D N/A 1.10 on PCP/M-86, CCP/M 2.0, or
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CCP/M-86 3.1 with XIOS 3.1
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TYPE.CMD 4.096 3775 1983-11-16
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The CRC checksums were calculated with DR-DOS XDIR /C.
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Those files marked with * are binary identical to the files found in
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earlier PCP/M-86 1.0/5b, many other files also have the same file sizes
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but different checksums, most probably because of different serial numbers.
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Only those files marked with ! have changed in file size compared to 1.0/5b.
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The date strings found in the binaries do not necessarily match with
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the file date stamps (which might be stored on the PCP/M-86 floppy image -
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I simply don't know, as Sydex 22DISK has no options to read them).
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To avoid further confusion all dates were converted to the international
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date format as per ISO 8601 ("ccyy-mm-dd") unless it was not possible
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for me to track down the actual date due to the ambiguity between the
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US ("mmddccyy") and the (old) European date format ("ddmmccyy"), which
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were for sure both used on the floppy. These two uncertain dates are
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given in quotes. (Please note that all three possible separators '/',
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'.', and '-' are in use for both the US and the European format, only
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the ISO 8601 format makes the '-' mandantory in case a separator is used.)
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A little attempt in Personal CP/M-86 geneology
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----------------------------------------------
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Within this file, PCP/M-86 and Personal CP/M-86 are used as synonyms,
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just like CCP/M-86 is used as an abbreviation to Concurrent CP/M-86.
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This issue of PCP/M-86 2.1/1 contains these date stamps:
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"01/26/83" -> 1983-01-26
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"09/02/83" -> 1983-09-02
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"031083" -> 1983-10-03
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"10/4/83" -> 1983-10-04
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"111183" -> 1983-11-11
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"161183" -> 1983-11-16
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"08-05-86" -> 1986 (either in US or European format)
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"11.01.87" -> 1987-01-11? (most probably in European format)
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Most probably the date 1982-08-14 was also some special date in the
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CP/M-86 history since the HELP DATE text uses this date as an example.
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Mentionings of a Digital Research product named CP/M-86 Plus can
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be found in Usenet discussions like news:comp.os.cpm and various
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private discussions, as well as in the literature, for example:
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Herwig Feichtinger "Arbeitsbuch Mikrocomputer", 2nd edition, 1987,
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Franzis Verlag, ISBN 3-7723-8022-0 (presumably the first edition
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was published in 1986 or earlier):
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On page 466 the author mentions that CP/M-86 would featurewise
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correspond with CP/M(-80) 2.2, while a newer CP/M(-80) 3.0 alias
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CP/M Plus existed for the 8080/8085/Z80 CPU family, but not for
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the x86 family. He states that while the book went to press
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(1st or 2nd edition?), Digital Research was working on a new
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product named CP/M-86 Plus which would overcome most of the
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limitations of a CP/M(-80) 2.2 style implementation, presumably
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raising the compatibility level to a 3.0 implementation (just
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like for the CP/M-80 series).
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However, so far (2002) noone seems to have found an "offical"
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copy of CP/M-86 Plus, leading to the assumption that Personal
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CP/M-86 1.x and 2.x, which contain many "CP/M-86 Plus" strings
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in the binaries, either are in fact CP/M-86 Plus or at least
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a further derivation of it.
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The author also mentions that Concurrent CP/M-86 (CCP/M) was
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developed out of CP/M-86 (not as I assumed the other way around),
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and that CCP/M-86 would support up to four processes (what a
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coincidence with Personal CP/M-86, which supports three background
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processes, while MP/M-86 supports many more!), but that these
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processes can be utilized by a single user as well as getting
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assigned to different users on up to four serial terminals (not
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possible with Personal CP/M-86). He further states that CCP/M-86
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supports multiple screen windows, and that the system files
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XIOS.SYS, CCP/M.SYS and BDOSPC.COM together would consume 140 Kb.
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Unfortunately he does not mention the exact CCP/M-86 version number
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he is talking about in his book.
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Taking into account that Personal CP/M-86 1.0/5b DSKMAINT.CMD
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2.3 contains strings that it requires "Personal CP/M 1.0" or
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"Concurrent CP/M 3.1" and "Concurrent CP/M XIOS 3.1",
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Personal CP/M-86 1.x looks much like some kind of a single-user
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edition of Concurrent CP/M-86 3.1 to me... (If CP/M-86 Plus
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actually existed, it could have been a single user version
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of CCP/M-86 3.0 then, but this is only guesswork on my part.)
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More interesting is that he states CCP/M-86 3.1 would be able
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to emulate MS-DOS and that it would automatically determine the
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floppy disk format (CP/M or DOS), and that CCP/M-86 3.1 would
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be 30% faster than MS-DOS 1.0 when writing to floppy disks,
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but that CCP/M-86 3.1 would only support the old MS-DOS 1.0
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8 sectors/track floppies, not the newer 9 sectors/track floppies
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introduced with MS-DOS 2.0+, and that support for sub-directories
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was still lacking as well.
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Well, neither Personal CP/M-86 1.0/5b nor 2.1/1 do support
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any kind of DOS emulation, and I cannot make any statement
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in regard to CCP/M-86 3.1 (which I have never seen), but knowing
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that Digital Research's successor DOS Plus 1.2 (as, for example,
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found on the Amstrad PC1512 and - judging from its internal
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strings "CPCDOS 4.1" - corresponding with Concurrent PC-DOS 4.1)
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or DOS Plus 2.1 (as used on the Acorn BBC Master 512) do both
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come with a MS-DOS 2.11 emulation layer, there is some coincidence
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here as well.
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The only contradiction is the version number 3.1 or 4.1;
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if CCP/M-86 3.1 already supported an early form of DOS emulation,
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than PCP/M-86 1.x is *less* than a single-user edition of CCP/M-86 3.1.
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On the other hand, it could well be, that, what Herwig Feichtinger
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still called CCP/M-86, was already marketted as Concurrent PC-DOS 3.1
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(I know that at least a Concurrent PC-DOS 3.2 existed), so there
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is sort of coincidence again... Another unverified little theory is
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that Concurrent CP/M-86 3.x and Concurrent PC-DOS 3.x were in fact
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two flavours of basically the same product, with the latter having
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added an (optional) DOS emulation layer. Does someone know for sure?
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If you have corrections, additions, or can shed some better light on
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these earliest pre-decessors of the later single user DR DOS and
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Multiuser DOS families (with their latest representants at the time
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of this writing being Lineo DR-DOS 7.03 and OEM DR-DOS 7.05 and
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ITERA/IMS REAL/32 7.93 and ITERA/IMS REAL NG now), I would very
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much appreciate your feedback.
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Thanks and Enjoy!
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Matthias Paul <mpaul@drdos.org>
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EOF
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