dcymbal
Member
Does anybody have a Visual 1050 with hard drive setup? I am looking for any doc/pointers on how to get a hard drive configured under CP/M for this system.
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Visual 1050 hard drive setup
- Thread starter dcymbal
- Start date
dcymbal
Member
Here's what I have been able to cull together so far:
(1) The Z80 BOOT PROM code (version 1.2 at least, which is the source listing I have) appears to probe the Winchester, for boot e.g.
- try to read Winchester
- check result
- if error, try floppy
- if ok, check Winchester label
- if bad label, try floppy
- if good label load system and boot??? (this part is unclear to me)
(2) Not all of the v1050 CP/M BIOS versions appear to support the Winchester. Versions up to 1.1 do not appear to contain the WINCH.ASM module which I am assuming is required for support. I do not have access to version 1.2, but I see this module showing up starting in version 1.3.
I would assume that with the 1.2 BOOT PROM and the 1.4 CP/M BIOS I could support the Winchester (barring any bugginess - I believe that at a minimum there is at least a v2.0 of the CP/M BIOS [which I've never been able to obtain images for] and not sure on the BOOT PROM).
It seems that there is likely some additional software to format, partition, install, etc. that I do not currently possess.
(1) The Z80 BOOT PROM code (version 1.2 at least, which is the source listing I have) appears to probe the Winchester, for boot e.g.
- try to read Winchester
- check result
- if error, try floppy
- if ok, check Winchester label
- if bad label, try floppy
- if good label load system and boot??? (this part is unclear to me)
(2) Not all of the v1050 CP/M BIOS versions appear to support the Winchester. Versions up to 1.1 do not appear to contain the WINCH.ASM module which I am assuming is required for support. I do not have access to version 1.2, but I see this module showing up starting in version 1.3.
I would assume that with the 1.2 BOOT PROM and the 1.4 CP/M BIOS I could support the Winchester (barring any bugginess - I believe that at a minimum there is at least a v2.0 of the CP/M BIOS [which I've never been able to obtain images for] and not sure on the BOOT PROM).
It seems that there is likely some additional software to format, partition, install, etc. that I do not currently possess.
billdeg
Technician
HOW many people even have a 1050 and of those with a hard disk drive? They did not sell very many. And then there is the dried up KEYtronics keyboard pad issue. Do you dcymbal have a working base system?
I believe they ran cp/m 3.
I believe they ran cp/m 3.
dcymbal
Member
Yes, I do have a working system. I have not experienced any keyboard issues whatsoever, however, the monitor for this system does seem like it may be on the way out. Yes, it does run CP/M 3.
dcymbal
Member
P.S. There is a gentleman listing 10 of these for sale here http://www.recycler.com/Details/88607?cmpid=email-lead-reg I've spoken to him in the past about these systems since he asked me if I had more information about them that he could use to list but I can't vouch for him past that.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Would you like me to look through my floppy library to see if I have a 1050 boot disk with hard drive support? I definitely have 1050 disks, but I can't recall exactly what they are.
The 1050 was a nice machine; later Visual offerings, not so much. The Commuter PC-compatible was a rat's nest internally (I think you could buy it surplus at one point from DAK or Leading Edge) and the Barrister, for which I have BIOS code, never materialized.
Like a lot of other terminal manufacturers, Visual simply couldn't make the leap to PCs successfully.
The 1050 was a nice machine; later Visual offerings, not so much. The Commuter PC-compatible was a rat's nest internally (I think you could buy it surplus at one point from DAK or Leading Edge) and the Barrister, for which I have BIOS code, never materialized.
Like a lot of other terminal manufacturers, Visual simply couldn't make the leap to PCs successfully.
dcymbal
Member
Hi Chuck, Sure that would be great if you could. Currently I have Visual releases of CP/M 3 with BIOS 1.0, 1.1, 1.3, and 1.4. I know there is at least a minimum of a 2.0 BIOS released based on billdeg's system. I would love to collect and archive any versions of the system disks I don't currently have. It *appears* to me that 1.3 of the BIOS is where Winchester support started showing up - at least that is where WINCH.ASM starts showing up on the "additional files" disk for me (I don't have 1.2 to check against). It also isn't clear if there is an additional Visual disk laying around that is software specific to Winchester install/partition/format. I don't seem to have any of that support in the system disks I have. Anyway, would love to see if you have something I don't that I could get images for. P.S. best apparent way to check the BIOS revision without booting if you just have images is in boot.asm off the additional files disk there is a define like "signon$msg db 13,10,10,'CP/M Version 3.0, BIOS version 1.3 '"