6 Jul
1998
6 Jul
'98
7:29 a.m.
Well, today I got around to testing MS-DOS disk images
from the PDP-8
archive on the DECMAte III. It read the disk, said "Starting MS-DOS...",
but then said, "XPU Board Error". It then entered a configuration menu
for the DECMate (cursor, baud, etc.). What is an XPU board?
The XPU board is an add-in board which contains an 8088. The 8088 is used
to run MS-DOS. Without the XPU board, you can't run MS-DOS.
The APU board is an add-in board which contains a Z80. It's used for
running CP/M. I'm a bit lucky in that I have an APU board for all of my
DECmates (although OS/8 is a fine operating system, CP/M is home sweet home).
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu