Fwd: Fairlight posting from Righard Selby to Greg Holmes
2003-11-19 by Gerald Vance
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> >> From: Greg Holmes <yahoo200308@ghservices.com> >> Date: Thu Nov 13, 2003 5:25:06 am Europe/Dublin >> To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com >> Subject: Re: [Fairlight-CMI] Message from Richard Selby - QDOS >> Reply-To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com >> >> 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... > > Snap ;-) see manual inventory attached. > >> 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). > > Perhaps a starting point to determine whether QDOS is based upon > MDOS would be to confirm the firmware and memory map organisation > in all QDOS fairlight models? > > If we can ascertain that the firmware in QDOS fairlights provides the > same > entry points (for routines to input/output characters from/to > keyboard/screen > etc) and is located at the same memory addresses needed to support MDOS > (in effect, mirroring the EXORciser memory map) then this could be > useful. > > Anyway the documents I have, may, or may not, be useful to you. Please > let > me know. > > Perhaps you could put the PDF inventory on your web-site (for > visibility)? It > may help the community to decide upon what they actually want to find > out > about ... > > Regards > > Richard > > > > > ******************************************************************** > This email and any attachments are confidential to the intended > recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended > recipient please delete it from your system and notify the sender. > You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or > distribute its contents to any other person. > ********************************************************************