28 Aug
2012
28 Aug
'12
2:27 p.m.
PRODOS is Apple (6502) and not Z80 that I know of.
For Z80 there is UZIUnix, basically unix for Z80s and best used with a
memory mapped system with a lot of ram.
CP/M is flexible and can be rommed though it's more flexible if not in rom
as it is over layable. As to native commands there are enough and external
utilities can fill the gaps and since there were also third party
utilities that
list was extensible. Not to leave out CP/M clones such as ZRDOS, SUPRDOS,
and a few others that did add even more flexibility.
Then there are the vendor specific DOSs, Chromix, NS*DOS, HDOS, FDOS, and
Helios, that only ran on vendor specific systems usually most tightly
tied to the disk subsystem. For example NS*DOS was tied the NS* minidisk
controllerass most of the dos it self was the driver for the disk system
(the controller
was very dumb and the CPU did all the lifting save for the high speed data
serialization. As a result it was not easily ported to any other
controller.
CP/M had the advantatge that a program written on a kaypro would run on
ANY Platform that ran a standard flavor of CP/M making for the widest cross
vendor software platform. Added to that that CP/M could be run on any
vendor
specific disk subsystem just by creating an suitable BIOS and many
third party
vendors did. Was it the best, not so much, but it was a common system
on the
8080/z80 world making a lot of software available.
Allison
On 08/28/2012 04:22 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
On 25 August 2012 15:29, Jules Richardson
<jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
On 08/23/2012 04:02 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
That's a really
interesting question, actually, I would say.
[Does a bit of Googling]
There were, it seems, various Torch Z80 addons for the BBC Micro.
The only one I saw or used was a Disk Pack:
http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/docs/Torch/Torch_Z80DiscPack.pdf
There was a time, when I was about 13 or 14, when I thought that this
was about *the* most powerful and desirable computer setup I'd ever
seen or heard of. ;?)
What I had not appreciated until now was that Torch's version of CP/M
was a special one, which ran from ROM. That is apparently why they
called it CPN instead.
There was also a standalone 2nd processor, no disk drives:
http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Torch_Z802ndproc.html
There's a user manual for a CPN system here:
http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/docs/Torch/Torch_ZDPUG.pdf
It contains a little non-technical info:
?
the TORCH CPN operating
system, (a 16K ROM containing a CP/M compatible "look alike")
?
?
INTRODUCTION
The TORCH CPN operating system which is a CP/M "look alike" has
much more flexibility than conventional CP/M. It has more "built in"
commands and is easier to use. The most significant advantage of the
TORCH CPN operating system, is that it is stored in ROM (Read Only
Memory) rather than on disc. This means that on "power up" the TORCH
disc pack and BBC micro are automatically ready to accept instructions
typed in at the keyboard.
?
Another CP/M compatible OS I was aware of was Pro-DOS for the MGT SAM Coup?:
http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/whatisprodos.html
?
What is Pro-DOS?
Pro-DOS could be thought of as a Disk Operating System (DOS), However,
it is more than this, it is a full Operating System that Provides
compatibility with CP/M 2.2.
In simple terms this means that a whole world of software that was
designed to run under CP/M 2.2. will now run on the SAM Coup?. Pro-DOS
uses the same Disk format as the Amstrad PCW 8256 and, as a result, it
can read disks from this machine direct, this also Means that there is
a vast range of software already available from sources such as Public
Domain libraries.
?
I hadn't realised it was by virus writer Chris "The Black Baron" Pile,
who was imprisoned for writing Queeg, SMEG and Pathogen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Pile_(programmer)
It is an admitted reverse-engineered effort as you can find from this
interesting review, complete with an account of nostalgia-destroying
8-bit compatibility problems:
http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/pdreview.html
As for the Tatung, I've found very little info on XTal DOS, apart from
something calling it " a compatible but beefed-up version of CP/M
called Xtal DOS."
http://www.tuicool.com/articles/myEBvq
Anyone got more?
Any more CP/M-compatible Z80 OSs?
Does a non-CP/M box count? The Tatung Einstein?
It runs soemthing called
XtalDOS which is very CP/M-like (I think most of the calls are the same).
I think
that was true of Torch CP/N too, wasn't it? Which makes me wonder
how common "almost CP/M" variants were...