SCP/Microsoft 20HAL uploader

[Richard Cini]

Thanks Dwight. I call it "digital archaeology". Doing a little more work on it today, trying to see what responses it might expect from the remote system. I did find specific text strings that have "CPM" in it, so my theory about the origination is probably right.

I'm hoping to use some "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" here...maybe someone knows someone who knows. I may post the edited listing file at some point.


Rich



On 9/27/20, 1:35 PM, "cctalk on behalf of dwight via cctalk" <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

    This is great work, Rich. It is like looking at dinosaur bones and trying to figure what it was eating.
    Dwight
    
    ________________________________
    From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Richard Cini via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
    Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2020 7:07 AM
    To: Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only <cctech at classiccmp.org>
    Subject: SCP/Microsoft 20HAL uploader
    
    All –
    
    
    
                    I’ve done a quite a bit of work with my Seattle Gazelle, and I just did some work on 86DOS.SYS (not released in source form, as far as I know) and its comparison to PC DOS 1.0 (at the code level, a very high correlation as you can imagine). Partially related to that is a program called “20HAL” which was a code uploader Microsoft used in the late stages to get code from Microsoft in Bellevue to IBM in Boca Raton, FL. I did a little write-up on it here (http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/hal.htm)
    
    
    
                    There are some holes in the analysis – I think it’s pretty close, though -- but I’d really like to get some more details on it. Unfortunately, it’s 40-year-old code at this point, and how many people remember how they used a file transfer utility that long ago?
    
    
    
                    Anyway, enjoy the read. If anyone sees any corrections that need to be made, let me know. Thanks!
    
    
    
    Rich
    
    
    
    --
    
    Rich Cini
    
    http://www.classiccmp.org/cini
    
    http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32