Fairlight-CMI

Hi Guys,

I finally managed to get a IIX to talk to a hard disc. I used a Q777 
card, and a NDR 1140 hard disc, both from a series III. It works 
perfectly in OS9 (the operating system from the series III), but I 
now need to put the IIX software on the hard disc. The operating 
system of the IIX is QDOS, which I know very little about.

So question: What is the QDOS command to look at a hard disc ?? For 
instance, in OS9 you type: dir /c20 (for SCSI ID 2). If anyone has an 
old QDOS manual they could loan/sell me that would be a great help.

The hardware works, I just need to crack the software issue. I will 
probaly sell upgrade kits of a Q-777 card, a cable and an external 
drive in a box. None of this requires any other changes in the CMI, 
and the IIX can be quickly and easily restored to its original 
condition. 

While I'm here, I also have a MINT series III, and several MFX2s for 
sale at EXTREMELY low prices. For more information drop me a line at:

horiprod@blueyonder.co.uk  

or check out the website at: www.horizontal.co.uk

Regards,

Peter Wielk

Horizontal Productions London

Hi Guys,
Please could all members please note, a recent email about help with 
the QDOS operating system problem that Peter had was intended for 
Peters use only. Richard Selby wishes that all members delete this 
E-mail from their systems and not to contact him as he states his 
address is a private work address, however he is willing to talk via 
me, so any questions can be answered via me. Apologies to Richard
bye for now
Gerald

Hi everyone,

I'd be grateful if you would not email me directly - thanks (see below).

Re: QDOS

 From what I've read on the web (and seen, from some of the Fairlight 
screen
displays and commands pictured), it *may* be possible that QDOS is 
based on 6800
(or 6809) MDOS. Some of the information available on the web states 
that the 6809
disk operating system is actually OS-9 (the company that marketed this 
OS is
Microware, and they still market this OS on more recent embedded 
processor targets).


MDOS was the Disk Operating System used on the Motorola EXORciser 
Microprocessor
Development System (for 6800 software development). There are lots of 
EXORciser
manuals and books covering the operation of the EXORbug firmware (upon 
which the
Disk OS runs), the Hardware Architecture requirements (to support 
MDOS), and the
various tools (Assemblers, Linking Loaders, Utilities etc). Frankly, 
this is
possibly too much information to be of much relevance for QDOS 
Fairlight users. It
is certainly possible that QDOS could be a very small cut-down version 
of MDOS
(such that QDOS has certain restrictions).

At some point, I will need to catalogue my MDOS books and manuals in my 
collection.

Meanwhile, the QDOS Fairlight users (as a group) need to decide what 
their exact
requirements are. For example, this may be just for information on what 
your QDOS
is capable of (including how to use the full command set). At the other 
end of the
requirement spectrum however, is whether full MDOS can operate on your 
Fairlights
(you may be lucky, but personally, I'd doubt that this would be 
possible due to
Firmware and Hardware Memory Map differences alone).

Hence, I propose the following:

1) Decide amongst yourselves, who the point of contact is to be (this 
person to
solely communicate with me on behalf of all QDOS Fairlight Users).

2) This contact person should then collate all user's 
requirements/wishes into a
prioritised list and send them to me.

Meanwhile, I will contact Motorola to determine if the MDOS information 
is still
available, or can be copied, or placed on the web (there are copyright 
issues here).


That is all for now.

Depending upon (2) and (3) you may then need to appoint a test contact 
among
yourselves (e.g. to try things out). This person would be responsible 
for
coordinating the testing of all MDOS commands on all Fairlight QDOS 
machine
baselines and reporting to the User Group (and myself). For example, 
MDOS commands
may work on some machines but not others (it may depend upon the QDOS 
release
version and the underlying hardware and firmware configuration).

If the MDOS information is not compatible, then this will become 
obvious very soon.
But if the MDOS information is useful, then you will need to agree on 
how and where
any relevant information is to be published for the benefit of the 
community.

I do not have a lot of time to spend on this, but I could drip-feed 
information
when I can (considering copyright issues). I do not have OCR 
capability, but I
could scan a few pages of the various manuals for someone else to do 
this
(copyright issues permitting).

Bye for now

Richard

I think that I can confirm that the Fairlight OS (QDOS) is based on
Motorola's MDOS. The keywords are EXORciser and also EXORdisk. The
EXORciser was a proto-pc system that provided a "surrogate prototype
with which to edit, assemble, and modify programs in real time on the
actual hardware", according to my 'Motorola M6800 Programming Reference
Manual' M68PRM(D), dated Nov 1976, and printed in 3-84. Still in perfect
condition...

Of course, many mods were made, in order to support the dual-CPU nature
of the QASAR/Fairlight, as well as the sound hardware. Custom routines
are in ROM firmware, which could be updated (although mine never was).

The QASAR/Fairlight had/has word processor software (since, at the time,
that was one way to sell boxes and keep the music end going), as well as
various development languages (assembly and BASIC). I strongly suspect
that the IIx (based on 6809) and firmware changes would mean that there
would be different versions of software. Not 'one size fits all'.


-- 
Greg Holmes
mailto:gregh@ghservices.com
GH Services, Ontario, Canada
--
http://www.ghservices.com/
http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/         (Fairlight CMI)


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Hi guys,

From what I've found out some time ago I can confirm all this. I was 
looking for the QDOS assembler myself which is mentioned in the 
service manual but isn't on any of my disks. The point being to start 
experimenting with custom software, for instance for file transfer, 
hard disk, remote operation and a proper filter enveloppe 
implementation. When using the backup disk the system starts up in 
QDOS itself so it should be possible.

For all the sentimental value of page R and such I'd like to get my 
IIx to do what it does best, gimme the sounds!

Anybody got this assembler somewhere?

Cheers,
Patrick

Hi all,

Although I'm usually an optimist, I'm not so sure that a hard disk would
work well on a IIx (or below). Yes, the hardware might be made to work,
but the basis of the IIx (and series I and II) is the floppy disk.

The system boots/loads from the drive 0 (usually the left drive).
Although it would be obvious to replace this with a hard drive, the
extra space might be largely unusable to the CMI OS, thus wasted.

The other choice is to replace drive 1, which holds the data disks. Such
a 'huge' floppy would be hard to navigate on page 2, for example, which
would impact the free space counts, at the least. CMI page 2 can display
60 files at once, with the ability to show more (via a 'next page'
option), but I wonder if there is an internal limit (say 256) which
could block any attempt at a 'huge floppy' approach.

These issues would require a deeper solution, such as implementing a
directory structure (which is completely absent in QDOS/MDOS) or a
'virtual floppy' with some sort of 'floppy-switching controller' page.
Theoretically possible, perhaps.

This is why I earlier mentioned the concept of a black box to emulate
the CMI floppy drives at the hardware level. The black box would only
be  a 'protocol converter' that would buffer small amounts of data (e.g.
128 bytes - the CMI floppy sector size) and pass it through to a PC/Mac
(via USB or serial). The flat ribbon cable from the CMI would attach to
the box, and another would run back to the floppy drives. A third cable
would provide the connection to the PC/Mac.

Virtual floppy switching would be accomplished from the PC/Mac side.
Each 'floppy' would be a separate directory/folder on the PC/Mac, to be
'mounted' at will. Floppy disk capacity limits could be simulated, or
gently enhanced. File transfers from 8" floppy could be easily
accomplished by leaving one real drive enabled in the CMI.

No modifications to any CMI software (or hardware) would be required,
and the audience for such a product would be the entire CMI user base -
series I, II (including myself), and IIx ... maybe even III. This is a
very worthy path to pursue, and could then provide opportunities for
solving the earlier problems. Through cross-compiling, entirely new
operating systems could be created for the CMI.

But, I am a software guy, not so much hardware. I even explored (circa
1986) the other things that Patrick mentioned: file transfer, remote
operation, and filtering. One success was to Fast Fourier Transform
'nite.vc' (or some name like that) to separate the crickets from the
annoying background traffic sound. Thus, one sample was split into two:
a great cricket loop and a deep traffic rumble. I would really like to
resurrect these projects, but need to establish a budget.

Anyway, I am willing to take this further!



pstnotpd wrote:
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> >From what I've found out some time ago I can confirm all this. I was
> looking for the QDOS assembler myself which is mentioned in the
> service manual but isn't on any of my disks. The point being to start
> experimenting with custom software, for instance for file transfer,
> hard disk, remote operation and a proper filter enveloppe
> implementation. When using the backup disk the system starts up in
> QDOS itself so it should be possible.
> 
> For all the sentimental value of page R and such I'd like to get my
> IIx to do what it does best, gimme the sounds!
> 
> Anybody got this assembler somewhere?
> 
> Cheers,
> Patrick


-- 
Greg Holmes
mailto:gregh@ghservices.com
GH Services, Ontario, Canada
Custom Software, Internet Development, Training, and Selected Products
--
http://www.ghservices.com/                        (Business)
http://www.ghservices.com/products/acousticimage/ (Acoustic Image Amps)
http://www.ghservices.com/products/basslab/       (BassLab Instruments)
--
http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/                  (Personal)
http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/clipper/          (CA-Clipper)
http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/         (Fairlight CMI)
Graphite #4799G


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