Altos 586 firmware versions, syscall interface, and CCP/M-86

[lkundrak]

Hello.

my first post here. Still figuring out how this works, so please be understanding -- eventual breaches of the etiquiette are not intentional.

I got a mainboard and a hard drive board from an Altos 586 computer. Just the bare boards acquired on e-bay some time ago -- no case, no documentation. As the documentation available is scarce, I've been reverse engineering some parts, notably the firmware. I'm also currently investigating a fault on the hard drive board, with an intent of making the machine run its original software.

I'm keeping the notes here: https://github.com/lkundrak/altos586/
And I've got a partial emulation in MAME working, enough to run the SDX diagnostic disk: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/11670

In any case -- I've got to the point I've given running the CCP/M-86 a shot. I got the install disk from bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/Altos/586/
It didn't work. Digging a little bit deeper into it, I've noticed it's issuing an INT 20 (decimal) in an apparent attempt to make a firmware call to print a string.

That is fairly odd. The firmware I doesn't implement INT 20 -- the firmware calls are made with a far jump to FE00:0000. That is also what the 586T documentation (closest available) uses. On the other hand, the 486 (I think that's slightly newer model, 186-based) manual mentions INT 20. Is the install disk for 486, perhaps?

$ strings ./attic/boo/586/CCPM86_V3.10.img |grep 586
CCPM-86 586/986 Bootcopy Utility V1.10
"5" for 586 systems

Looks like the right disk? Are there perhaps newer versions of the firmware that implement system calls via INT 20? I've got version 1.3. There's version a2.2 on bitsavers, but that seems to support a different hard drive board and not to support INT 20 either. Does anybody around here perhaps have a similar machine running a different firmware version? Is there anybody running CCP/M-86 or anything other than XENIX?

Thank you
Lubo

 

[MikeI]

Have been digging through your work posted on github, nice job!!! Am still trying to figure out why I don't get prompts from my two 586's .. I know one of them had MPM and one had Xenix. Those were the only O/S's I ever saw on an Altos, but I think Pick was an option once upon a time.

 

[aplmak]

Mikel MPM ran on the Altos 5 Series and 580 with the Z80 I believe. CCP/M I believe will run on the 586 but I have never used it I have only used Xenix. To get an OS installed it is a bit tricky. First you need the SDX Utilities disk and it varies between the regular 586/986 and the 586T/986T. The main difference is the drive controller board. If you have a regular 586 controller board the image from bitsavers it will work. However if you have the "986T controller board" as it is labeled you would need a different SDX & Xenix installer disk. I have yet to find the 586T/986T Xenix installation disks... they are unobtainable at the moment. I did manage to get the SDX disk for the 586T/986T which will enable you to format the drive. I found through a lot of researching that the regular 586/986 has a different way it writes and maps the hard drive. So they made special disks for the 486/486T, 586T/986T of Xenix.

So what you need to do first is to identify the controller board you have, ,then we can go from there. If it's the regular 586 Controller board that is great news, as the SDX and Xenix install is on bitsavers I believe. Pick was an option but in all these years I have never seen or have been able to find the media or documentation.

I am trying to build an install disk for the 586T/986T using the 486's root disk.. It's been a challenge. Perhaps one of these days I'll get there. I have been successful in modifying the regular Altos 586 Root 3.1a diskette to install an 80mb drive which before the max you could go up to was 40mb and then add a 40mb second, third, and so on drive.

 

[MikeI]

Hello.

my first post here. Still figuring out how this works, so please be understanding -- eventual breaches of the etiquiette are not intentional.

I got a mainboard and a hard drive board from an Altos 586 computer. Just the bare boards acquired on e-bay some time ago -- no case, no documentation. As the documentation available is scarce, I've been reverse engineering some parts, notably the firmware. I'm also currently investigating a fault on the hard drive board, with an intent of making the machine run its original software.

I'm keeping the notes here: https://github.com/lkundrak/altos586/
And I've got a partial emulation in MAME working, enough to run the SDX diagnostic disk: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/11670

In any case -- I've got to the point I've given running the CCP/M-86 a shot. I got the install disk from bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/Altos/586/
It didn't work. Digging a little bit deeper into it, I've noticed it's issuing an INT 20 (decimal) in an apparent attempt to make a firmware call to print a string.

That is fairly odd. The firmware I doesn't implement INT 20 -- the firmware calls are made with a far jump to FE00:0000. That is also what the 586T documentation (closest available) uses. On the other hand, the 486 (I think that's slightly newer model, 186-based) manual mentions INT 20. Is the install disk for 486, perhaps?



Looks like the right disk? Are there perhaps newer versions of the firmware that implement system calls via INT 20? I've got version 1.3. There's version a2.2 on bitsavers, but that seems to support a different hard drive board and not to support INT 20 either. Does anybody around here perhaps have a similar machine running a different firmware version? Is there anybody running CCP/M-86 or anything other than XENIX?

Thank you
Lubo

Hi Lubo, I have version 1.1 of the monitor on two different machines ... the proms are labeled 14268 and 14269 in the G1 and G2 positions. My boards do not that that extra small board in the H9 general area that the board shown in your altos586-main/pics has. Let me know if you want a copy of the 1.1 version, I was able to dump the proms. Also, I tried using that Z80Monitor-586.bin file from the Z80SerialMonitor-586 project ... both of my machines pop up with the initial text and then just sit there waiting at the enter a ? prompt ... the one box will boot up fine in MPM and the other I am still troubleshooting. ( exasperating without any schematics )

 

[MikeI]

Mikel MPM ran on the Altos 5 Series and 580 with the Z80 I believe. CCP/M I believe will run on the 586 but I have never used it I have only used Xenix. To get an OS installed it is a bit tricky. First you need the SDX Utilities disk and it varies between the regular 586/986 and the 586T/986T. The main difference is the drive controller board. If you have a regular 586 controller board the image from bitsavers it will work. However if you have the "986T controller board" as it is labeled you would need a different SDX & Xenix installer disk. I have yet to find the 586T/986T Xenix installation disks... they are unobtainable at the moment. I did manage to get the SDX disk for the 586T/986T which will enable you to format the drive. I found through a lot of researching that the regular 586/986 has a different way it writes and maps the hard drive. So they made special disks for the 486/486T, 586T/986T of Xenix.

So what you need to do first is to identify the controller board you have, ,then we can go from there. If it's the regular 586 Controller board that is great news, as the SDX and Xenix install is on bitsavers I believe. Pick was an option but in all these years I have never seen or have been able to find the media or documentation.

I am trying to build an install disk for the 586T/986T using the 486's root disk.. It's been a challenge. Perhaps one of these days I'll get there. I have been successful in modifying the regular Altos 586 Root 3.1a diskette to install an 80mb drive which before the max you could go up to was 40mb and then add a 40mb second, third, and so on drive.

Well, good news, I got one of the machines up and running, the 40 year old disk boots, has MPM, Wordstar, dBaseII, I just loaded Aztec C on it, compiled some simple C programs! These machines seem really really picky about the terminal setup ... I finally scored a Televideo terminal and the one is happy with that. The other just sits there, going to start testing chips next.