30 May
2000
30 May
'00
10:57 a.m.
Nice find! Wow, that weighs more than my Dynabyte 5100
system!
Are those 8" hard drives?
Naw... They are smaller that that. I guess they are 5"?
Could that be renamed MP/M or a variant of MP/M?
The DOCs are far from complete but, it looks almost like a "shell" of some
sort for CPM. The syntax for the very limited set of commands is similar to
CP/M although not quite the same. Most of the commands seem to be associated
with file & data security and device allocation.
I'm got some MP/M docs here (promised to Joe Rigdon next time I see him) so
I can compare the syntax of the two OSs... Although, I suspect that "MLX" is
just a security and multitasking layer for CPM?
I tried to load CPM using a variety of other BOOT images but, so far no
luck. I'll have to drag out some more disks and see any of them will work.
Before I got it, the owner had told me that it was running PC-MOS and I
posted an inquiry about that OS to the group. Either he was mistaken about
the OS or the system can run that OS as well.
When the OS loads, it indicates "SYSTEM RESIDENT", then "BASIC
RESIDENT",
then the password prompt. I have tried to stop the boot process by pressing
^C, ESC, and every other trick that I know. But, so far no luck. When the
process is interrupted, the system just halts... Dang it!
What's needed is a good, inexpensive, portable
"clean room box." A
while back, I saw one of these somewhere, but it wasn't something
marketed to hobbyists and I doubt that it was inexpensive.
I could tell the platters weren't spinning so, figured I really didn't have
anything to loose. In a situation like this, I think the greatest risk is
when the heads are "ripped" away from the surface rather than contamination.
It took a considerable tug to get the thing loosened up again and I'm kinda
supprised a chunk of the surface didn't come off.
Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>