9 Jan
2007
9 Jan
'07
8:12 p.m.
On 9 Jan 2007 at 15:32, Chris M wrote:
*went out to the shed. Yes there is present in the
BIOS a service to format tracks. Not all clones comply
in this way though (but where would the routine to do
this be if not in the bios?). I noticed in the docs
for my NEC APC III that DOS function calls were more
or less the same as a vanilla pc, but I don't recall
seeing mention of the equivalent BIOS calls. Anyone know?*
I believe that the APC follows the NEC 9801 convention, but I'm not
certain. The BIOS calls are very diffierent from the PC version. A
Google should turn something up; I know the calls are mentioned in
Ralf Brown's interrupt list--and there was a rundown in one of the PC
rags--maybe DOS/Windows Developer? I probably also have a list in my
files.
Cheers,
Chuck
9 Jan
9 Jan
8:22 p.m.
--- Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
I believe that the APC follows the NEC 9801
convention, but I'm not
certain. The BIOS calls are very diffierent from
the PC version.
Was the 9801 sold in this country? It appears not.
There's 2 issues of Byte probably '83ish that
highlight some of the Japanese pc's, if you want to
call them that. Totally freaky gorgeous stuff. Like
the Mitsubishi MyBrain. I'm not sure about that one
offhand, but there were several that had 8086's and
68000's. Anyone pay any attention to ePay Japan?
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9:35 p.m.
On 9 Jan 2007 at 17:22, Chris M wrote:
Was the 9801 sold in this country? It appears not.
Not as such, although it was embedded in plenty of Japanese machine
tools and lab and medical equipment that wound up in the US. During
the late 80's and early 90's, there was a NEC "outreach" effort
operating out of (IIRC) San Diego, where one could get information
and equipment. Not at a good price, however--I was quoted something
like $350 for a floppy drive. I don't know when they ceased
operation. At one time, the NEC 98xx PCs had more than 70 percent of
the Japanese market. You'll sometimes see the term "DOS-V" for the
NEC flavor of MS-DOS. Windows was offered in the same NEC-type
flavor right up to XP.
As far as floppy drives went, one remarkable thing was that the 8",
5.25" and 3.5" models wrote disks in exactly the same format--
1024x8x2 (1.3MB).
Cheers,
Chuck
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