18 Apr
2007
18 Apr
'07
6:51 p.m.
On 18 Apr 2007 at 12:28, Jules Richardson wrote:
I doubt there's any shortage of CP/M capable
hardware owned by people on the
list - there's just a shortage of CP/M "hardcore" knowledge, because the
systems don't get used often enough for people to remember the real nuts and
bolts.
...and how many of us could assemble a CP/M capable machine from
what's in our junkbox? Really, for a functional system, you'd need a
x80-capable processor, some RAM, a UART (if it's not already on the
processor chip) and an FDC (a WD1770/1772 will do just fine)--and a
bit of PROM to get it booted.
At least that would be the case for CP/M 2.2. CP/M 3.0 (aka CP/M
Plus) is a bit more of a problem, as it involves support for things
such as time-of-day and bank-switching. The same goes for MP/M,
which also requires a timer interrupt.
What there's not a lot of knowledge for are the CP/M "add-ons" such
as Display Manager and Access Manager and the networking (was it
CP/Net or something like that?).
I once redid a ROM set for an IBM PC so it would boot CP/M 80 when
equipped with a V20 CPU. I/O was handled in x88 mode. Since the V20
supported the 8080 instruction set, did this qualify as a emulator or
not?
Cheers,
Chuck