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LITTLE BOARD/186 UTILITIES USER`S MANUAL

1. FUNCTION Display a Command Mode command summary Typing a lt RETURN gt at the Command Mode prompt causes a brief summary of Command Mode commands to be displayed After using LBCOMM for a while this command summary will probably be the only help needed REMOTE MODE COMMANDS Just as there are many LBCOMM commands in the Command Mode there are also a number of Remote Mode commands However unlike the DOS like command prompt in Command Mode the Remote Modes Terminal Mode Echo Mode and Local Echo Mode neither show a prompt nor accept commands directly Since it is desirable that the Remote Modes pass all keystrokes you make directly to the remote system Remote Mode commands must be given more subtly This is done by means of a lead in character the CTRL N keys that is press the lt CTRL gt key and the simultaneously After you press CTRL N LBCOMM looks for the next key you press as a command indicator The choices are listed in the table of Remote Mode commands below If you forget these commands Remote Mode command help is available by pressing CTRL N then the 7 key The commands which can be executed from the three Remote Modes Terminal Mode Local Echo Mode and Echo Mode are LBCOMM EXE 10 Remote Mode Command Summary lt CTRL gt Lead in sequence followed by one of the following command characters 0 9 Function keys Causes LBCOMM to send the character string associated with the number
2. AAN ARE COMPUTERS INCORPORATED LITTLE BOARD 186 UTILITIES USER S MANUAL P N AT4026 A N67 East Evelyn Ave e Mountain View CA94041 e 415 962 0930 DISCLAIMER AMPRO Computers Incorporated makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents of this manual or of the associated AMPRO software package and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose AMPRO shall under no circumstances be liable for incidental or consequential damages or related expenses resulting from the use of this product even if it has been notified of the possibility of such damages AMPRO reserves the right to revise this publication from time to time without obligation to notify any person of such revisions If errors are found please contact AMPRO at the address listed on the title page of this document TRADEMARKS DBase Ashton Tate IBM International Business Machines Inc Flight Simulator Multiplan Microsoft Inc Little Board and SCSI PLUS AMPRO Computers Inc Lotus 1 2 3 Symphony Lotus Development Corp SuperCalc Sorcim IUS Micro Software Wordstar MicroPro International Corp COPTRIGHT 1985 86 87 AMPRO COMPUTERS INCORPORATED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this document mav be reproduced transmitted transcribed stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language or computer language in any form or by any means electronic mechanical m
3. ECHO Port B restored to 9600 baud with handshaking ECHO nen nen nen au eu an au ae au en au em au vn cee cer en cen anme eee ee ce e ae au cee en cen an ces ces cee ane e a cee eme eee This short batch file first initializes Serial Port B to 1200 baud 1 stop bit 8 data bits and no parity then runs LBCOMM and finally restores Serial Port B to 9600 baud after you exit from LBCOMM LBCOMM EXE 2 LBCOMM Modes While running LBCOMM can be in one of several modes Command Mode You can tell LBCOMM is in Command Mode from the COMMAND gt gt __ prompt on the bottom line of the screen display In Command Mode LBCOMM responds to a number of two or three letter commands followed by a RETURN This is similar to PC DOS s A gt command prompt The Command Mode Commands are described below Command Mode help is obtained from the lt RETURN gt command Remote Modes LBCOMM has three Remote Modes These are used for remote connection and allow you to communicate with an external device connected to the Little Board 186 Communications Port Serial Port B The three Remote Modes are Similar in that they all are used for remote device access but they differ in whether and how they echo input or output characters Three Command Mode commands TM LM and EM are used to enter one of the three Remote Modes from the Command Mode prompt In all three of these Remote Modes the Command Mode prompt and Command Mo
4. Activation of VDISK requires the addition of one or more lines referencing VDISK SYS in the CONFIG SYS file on your boot drive Follow the instructions given in the PC DOS reference manual 3 9 CP M FILE ACCESS Another installation option available through the Little Board 186 Utilities software is the ability to access CP M files on diskettes formatted a number of different 8 bit CP M computers including AMPRO using the first or second floppy drives This requires the use of the following additional command in your CONFIG SYS file DEVICE CPMDRVR SYS Refer to Chapter 4 for further information on the CP M driver and on the SETCPM COM utility which is used to select a particular CP M format 3 10 EXAMPLE CONFIG SYS To summarize the driver installation information presented in this chapter here is a complex system example The hardware configuration represented is 40 track floppy units 0 and 1 1st and 2nd floppy drive 80 track floppy unit 2 3rd floppy drive Drive quantity jumpers set for 3 J7 Wyse WY 50 terminal set for 38 4K baud CP M file access on floppy units O and 1 Assuming you have done everything described in this chapter you might end up with a CONFIG SYS file that looks something like this DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN DEVICE FUNKEY SYS DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS DEVICE TERM SYS T WY50 TRM P1 XO DEVICE VDISK SYS 160 512 64 DEVICE CPMDRVR SYS DRIVPARM D 2 F 2 Here is the function of
5. COM Program development tool DISKCOMP COM Compares entire disks DISKCOPY COM Copies entire disk DRIVER SYS Modifies floppy defaults DOS 3 2 EDLIN COM Text editor EXE2BIN EXE Program development tool FIND EXE Searches files for specific text FORMAT COM Formats floppy disks LINK COM Program development tool MORE COM Displays a screen full of data PROMPT COM Set new prompt RECOVER COM Recovers files from disks RESTORE COM Restores floppy files to hard disk SORT EXE Sorts text data TREE COM Displays all directory paths VDISK SYS RAM disk driver XCOPY EXE Enhanced copy utility DOS 3 2 PC DOS Utilities Drivers With Restrictions The following standard IBM PC DOS Version 2 and 3 programs have known restrictions as indicated Program MODE COM Function Configures printer and display port characteristics Restriction MODE Option 2 NOE supported Program ANSI SYS Function Converts PC video display into an ANSI terminal Restriction Requires use of AMPRO terminal driver TERM SYS Program SYS COM Function Writes operating system to a drive Restrictions Use for floppy disks only PC DOS Utilities Drivers which are Unusable The following standard IBM PC DOS programs or commands do not work at all BREAK GRAPHTABL GRAPHICS KEYBxx BASIC BASICA and the programs associated with the IBM ROM resident Basic the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS does not contain Basic FDISK is replaced by the AMPRO hard di
6. DEVICE TERM SYS etc DEVICE ANSI SYS etc 25 Line Screen Emulation When you are using the TERM SYS driver with a 24 line terminal you will be viewing 24 lines out of a 25 line virtual PC screen The top 24 lines of the virtual PC screen are what are normally displayed Since many programs use the PC s 25th line as a status line you might need to know what is on that line To view the bottom 24 lines of the virtual PC screen press the CTRL key TERM SYS 2 combination that is hold the CTRL key down while you press the key Each time you press CTRL the display will shift up or down by 1 line Terminal Control File Customization You can easily modify existing terminal control files name TRM or create new ones To assist you in doing this a sample source file TRM ASM has been included on your software diskette Modify TRM ASM as required and then reassemble it using the file MAKETRM BAT A text editor MASM LINK and EXE2BIN are the tools you will need Technical Notes TERM SYS maintains four video display pages in memory in a manner compatible with the IBM PC ROM BIOS Whenever a character is written by a program using the Write Character at Cursor Position functions TERM SYS saves a copy of the character sent to the terminal in the memory resident screen data area This allows TERM SYS to support the ROM BIOS Read Character function The memory resident screen data also allows TERM SYS t
7. SETCOM1 COM 2 is ignored and HANDSHAKE OUT is left permanently active NOTE Regardless of whether the automatic hardware handshaking feature is enabled software can utilize the ROM BIOS COM1 port Status call to sense the state of the HANDSHAKE IN status Signal on Serial Port B Therefore automatic hardware handshaking may not be required depending on the specific software application On the other hand in some cases you may need to tie Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE OUT and HANDSHAKE IN Signals to each other Hardware handshaking is often required when using serial printers but seldom used with modems Generally modem communications software must be configured to use Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE IN signal as a Data Carrier Detect DCD input ROM BIOS calls can be used to transfer data and read the state of the HANDSHAKE IN status signal DCD is not directly supported by the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS but must be sensed through the CTS status bit instead which indicates the state of HANDSHAKE IN Refer to the Little Board 186 Technical Manual for further details SETCOM1 COM 3 SETCON SYS Version 1 Description The SETCON SYS device driver is used to initialize the serial data characteristics of the Little Board 186 console port Serial Port A This allows you to match the optimum characteristics of the console device to be used for keyboard and display Without the use of the SETCON SYS driver the System defaults to
8. SYS Version 1 Description The AMPRO CPMDRVR SYS device driver allows your system to directly access files on diskettes which have been written by a variety of CP M computers including those manufactured by AMPRO Kaypro Morrow Osborne and others The desired CP M format must be selected under control of the AMPRO SETCPM COM utility program described elsewhere in this chapter The driver creates two CP M access drive letters corresponding to the first and second floppy drive units NOTE Use of this utility requires that ROM BIOS version 3 1 or later be installed This can be verified using the CHKROM utility Installation To install CPMDRVR SYS add the following line to the CONFIG SYS file on the drive from which your system boots DEVICE CPMDRVR SYS Operation When the system boots with these lines included in the CONFIG SYS file the next two available PC DOS disk drive letters are assigned by the system to floppy units O and 1 as CP M access drive letters As with other PC DOS disk device drivers the two CP M access drives will occupy two sequential drive letters beginning with the next available drive letter beyond those defined by the computer board s drive quantity jumper settings There is one exception when the drive quantity jumpers are set to 1 PC DOS assigns two drive letters to the first floppy drive In this case the single drive is accessed as both A and B and additional drives begin with dri
9. SYS and TERM SYS DEVICE FUNKEY SYS Example DEVICE SETCON SYS B9600 D8 S1 PN DEVICE FUNKEY SYS DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS DEVICE TERM SXS TNTVOXX TRM P1 XO FUNKEY SYS 1 KT7KEY SYS Version 1 Written by Paul Bartholomew and released to AMPRO for distribution with the Little Board 186 Utilities Description KT7KEY SYS is equivalent to the combination of the AMPROKEY SYS and FUNKEY SYS keyboard drivers for the Kimtron KT7 PC terminal It allows you to use the KT7 PC terminal in its IBM Mode to fully emulate the keyboard of a standard PC including all function keys print screen CTRL SCROLL LOCK CTRL BREAK ALT 4 KEXPAD values CTRL ALT DEL etc KT7KEY SYS is meant to be used in combination with the Kimtron KT7 PC display driver KTTTERM SYS described elsewhere in this chapter Operation To install this driver add a line to the CONFIG SYS file on the drive from which your system boots after the line for KT7TERM SYS DEVICE KTTTERM SYS T KT7PC TRM P1 XO DEVICE KTTKEY SYS Be sure to delete lines for TERM SYS AMPROKEY SYS or FUNKEY SYS from the CONFIG SYS file as they confict with KTTKEY SYS and KT7TERM SYS After you have modified CONFIG SYS go into the Setup Mode of the Kimtron terminal using the combination keystroke KALT CAPS LOCK and turn the IBM Mode ON Refer to vour Kimtron terminal manual for instructions on the use of the Setup Mode Then exit Setup Mode and reset vour computer
10. and AMPROKEY SYS This is an example of an order dependent driver 3 3 4 Hardware Handshaking Automatic hardware handshaking is often used to prevent a computer from sending data to a terminal or printer faster than the device can process it It is usually used with serial printers at 1200 baud data rates or faster and often required by terminals at data rates in excess of 9600 baud Each of the two serial ports on the Little Board 186 provides an option of automatic hardware handshaking If required this feature must be enabled by an application program or special utility since it is disabled on by the ROM BIOS on powerup or reset The AMPRO SETCON SYS driver and SETCOM1 COM utility Support this option for the computer s two serial ports see Chapter 4 3 3 Here is a brief technical discussion of how the automatic handshaking option works When the automatic hardware handshaking feature is enabled the Serial controller stops sending data to the external serial device whenever the port s HANDSHAKE IN signal is inactive To make use of this feature the port s HANDSHAKE IN signal must be connected to an appropriate handshake output signal from the external serial device In addition if the external device attempts to transmit data to the respective port faster than the computer s serial port can read it that port s HANDSHAKE OUT signal will be brought to an inactive level For this to be useful the port s HANDSHAKE OUT Signal mu
11. built in support for single drive systems If you jumper the Little Board 186 drive quantity jumpers J7 to one the operating system will automatically assign drive letters A and B to the single floppy drive With this configuration you can copy files between two diskettes as though your system has two drives PC DOS will prompt you to change diskettes when needed 3 6 2 Using DRIVER SYS The PC DOS 3 2 DRIVER SYS device driver allows a number of unique floppy customizations including e 720K byte 80 track mini and micro floppy support e File copying between 2 diskettes on any drive e Allowing additional 40 track drives beyond the setting of your system s drive quantity jumpers J7 When DRIVER SYS is used to alter the system parameters of a floppy drive an additional PC DOS drive letter is assigned by PC DOS to that drive The letter assigned is the next available one and depends on the setting of the computer board s drive quantity jumpers at J7 and on whether other mass storage device drivers e g HARD SYS CPMDRVR SYS and VDISK SYS are also in use An undocumented PC DOS function DRIVPARM discussed in the next section is often preferable for 80 track floppy support Here are two examples of using DRIVER SYS with 80 track drives Example 1 Adding an 80 track drive Assuming that your computer board s drive quantity jumpers J7 are set for 1 floppy drive that your system has a D track drive A and that the
12. kek an 45 TO ee ba NO ao va ei t 343 Terminal Wou tw a r te 8 8600 ee ride SO Si YOn W W DA kte 34341 Baud RALE 3 e a wi mo w vo an D a l 70 fa sat sa 4 8 3 3 2 Display Control Codes gt o 3 3 3 PC Function Key Simulation 3 4 Hardware Handshaking e LACEPS g san ap mi A swe f kai S k 167 s d c1 Using a Parallel Printer 2 Using a Serial Printer ems MN ee ee eee Fa n que Floppy Configurations tee E E 6 8 a 7 Single Floppy Configurations Using DRIVER SYS a a a au a 3 Using the DRIVPARM Option e a a o n Custom Floppy Parameters e ces ard Disk Drives o e w seen WE v n Soe fk 6 6 00 s k 6 6 00 C DOS RAM Disk oo e a a n P M Pile ACCESS e de o sek wo 86 aa Be ace ide Ges men s xample CONFIG SYS s au a a oo r O n i 4 4 d i 6 6 6 6 SEI WJ N C e e e e 3 P 3 3 M U 3 3 3 3 H P C E 10 251 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 14 2 4 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 6 2 7 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 383 3 4 3 4 3 5 3 6 3 6 3 7 3 7 3 8 3 9 3 9 3 3 3 10 3 10 CHAPTER 4 AMPRO DEVICE DRIVERS AND UTILITIES 4 1 Introduction 4 2 Program Descriptions e gt au a a a a au au au a a a a a o AMPROCLK EXE AMPROKEY SYS CHKROM COM CPMDRVR SYS FUNKEY SYS KT7KEY SYS KT7TERM SYS LBCOMM EXE MONITOR EXE SETCOM1 COM SE
13. sure to first set the PC DOS date and time using the standard PC DOS commands DATE TIME Thereafter include an appropriate AMPROCLK command in your AUTOEXEC BAT to have the PC DOS system clock automatically set to the battery backed hardware values on system powerup AMPROCLK 1 AMPROKEY SYS Version 1 Description AMPROKEY SYS is a device driver for the Little Board 186 which allows a serial ASCII keyboard connected to the console port Serial Port A to simulate the function keys of an IBM PC keyboard Once AMPROKEY has been loaded you type a specific keyboard sequence to produce the same result as would be obtained by pressing the desired function key on an IBM PC keyboard AMPROKEY is especially useful when combined with the AMPRO TERM SYS video display driver In addition many terminals now have programmable function keys which can be programmed to provide the required keyboard sequences thereby allowing single key simulation of the IBM function keys Operation To use the AMPROKEY keyboard device driver create a text file called CONFIG SYS on your system boot diskette containing at least one line of the following form DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS Be sure to reboot your system from a drive with the new CONFIG SYS file containing the above line AMPROKEY will indicate its presence by a message on your screen when it loads Once AMPROKEY is loaded you can generate the IBM function keys from the key sequences shown in th
14. the Little Board 186 Technical Manual P N A74011 for further technical information on the hardware 2 3 OPERATING SYSTEM The Little Board 186 ROM BIOS allows the use of IBM PC DOS versions 2 x or 3 x as the board s operating system PC DOS version 3 x is required for hard disk usage while version 3 2 is required for operation with 80 track 720K mini or micro floppy drives When operated under PC DOS the Little Board 186 provides full PC file and data compatibility Diskettes may be copied formatted verified etc on either for the other All of the PC DOS 4 0 track mini floppy formats and the PC DOS Version 3 2 80 track micro floppy formats are supported including Single and double sided and eight and nine sectors per track 2 3 1 Device Assignment In addition to supporting the standard PC DOS functions the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS provides a software interrupt interface which is a subset of that of the standard PC ROM BIOS software interrupt structure Serial Port A is supported as the PC DOS console device CON so that an RS232 ASCII terminal can be used for the required keyboard and monitor functions Serial Port B is supported as the PC DOS COM1 port the parallel printer port is LPT1 The time of day clock and floppy disk I O functions are also supported in the standard manner Hard disk support INT 13H is also provided in the ROM BIOS using the board s SCSI interface The video display interrupt INT 10H
15. the Little Board 186 to a quantity of 2 as de scribed in the board s technical manual Place the following command in the System s CONFIG SYS file DRIVPARM D 1 F 2 Reboot the system based on this CONFIG SYS setup Then use the PC DOS FORMAT utility with the S option to format and transfer PC DOS to a diskette in the 80 track drive A gt FORMAT B S lt RETURN gt This 80 track diskette will be your new 80 track boot diskette Transfer all desired files to the new diskette including a CONFIG SYS file containing the following two DRIVPARM lines DRIVPARM D 0 F 2 DRIVPARM D 1 F 2 F Now change drive A to an 80 track drive and boot from the new 80 track boot diskette Due to the use of the DRIVPARM function PC DOS recognizes the system s two 80 track drives as A and B just as with a normal O track drive system You now have a fully 80 track system You can use all system commands and utilities in their normal manner referencing the drives as PC DOS drive letters A and B You might want to add a 4O track drive C so that you can read and write normal 360K PC DOS floppies as well Don t forget to rejumper the board s drive quantity jumpers to 3 if you do 3 6 4 Custom Floppy Parameters The default floppy drive step rate used by the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS is 6 mS which is the standard step rate required by 40 track 360K byte floppy disk drives Since most 80 track mini and micro floppy drives can ste
16. use DRIVER SYS be sure to read the appropriate material in the PC DOS reference manual 3 6 3 Using the DRIVPARM Option PC DOS version 3 2 has an undocumented function which provides 80 track floppy support without DRIVER SYS This is accomplished by adding a line to your system s CONFIG SYS file as follows DRIVPARM Dsn F 2 where n equals 0 1 2 or 3 to represent the corresponding floppy disk drive selects As you can see this is similar in function to the use of the DRIVER SYS device driver It has two important differences however 1 Defining 80 track drives using the DRIVPARM command does not add additional drive letters and results in the drive being accessed via its normal drive letter i e you can have 80 track drives A and B 2 The board s drive quantity jumpers J7 must be set to allow the number of drives being used In short the DRIVPARM function provides more straight forward 80 track support than does DRIVER SYS However since it is not documented in the IBM PC DOS 3 2 reference manuals there is no guarantee that this function will be supported by future revisions of IBM s PC DOS operating system so use it at your own risk r Here is an example of the use of the DRIVPARM function in a system with only 80 brack drives Example A system with 80 track drives A and B Build a system having a 4Q0 track drive A and an additional 80 track drive B jumpering the drive quantity jumpers J7 on
17. within the board s ROM BIOS supports the Write TTY function only but can be enhanced to provide additional functions such as clear screen cursor positioning and scrolling by installing the Little Board 186 video display driver TERM SYS Keyboard drivers AMPROKEY SYS and FUNKEY SYS can also be installed in the system to enhance the compatibility of a terminal keyboard with that of the standard PC 2 3 2 Internal Commands Most of the internal PC DOS commands may be used without restrictions These include ECHO FOR GOTO IF PAUSE REM CHDIR COPY CTTY DATE DIR DELETE ERASE MKDIR PATH RENAME RMDIR SET TIME TYPE VER VERIFY VOL and PROMPT Version 3 In addition the powerful PC DOS batch processing facility is fully usable 2 3 3 Drivers and Utilities Many of the drivers and utilities included on the IBM PC DOS operating system diskettes may be used with the Little Board 186 Of these most work with no restrictions while a few have some limitations This section indicates which programs provided on the standard distribution PC DOS diskettes may be used with Little Board 186 and what restrictions if any apply 2 2 PC DOS Utilities Drivers With No Restrictions The following standard IBM PC DOS Version 2 and 3 programs have no known restrictions ATTRIB EXE Set or clear file attributes BACKUP COM Copies hard disk files to floppies CHKDSK COM Disk directory COMP COM Compares files DEBUG
18. ASCII file transfer protocol Run any PC DOS command from within LBCOMM Run any other program from within LBCOMM Exit but leave LBCOMM resident Fast operation On line help screens Easily reconfigurable Automatic dialing Programmable function keys These are described in detail in the following pages Operation LBCOMM requires other files for its operation These are FUNCTION KEY MODEM CFG PHONE LIB and COMMAND COM These files need to be located in the Same directory as LBCOMM EXE Although LBCOMM does not directly use the SETCOM1 COM utility it is recommended that SETCOM1 also be placed in the same directory as LBCOMM If you have a hard disk creating a subdirectory and copying these files into it will keep the root directory from becoming cluttered If you are using a floppy only system creating a new diskette with the above mentioned files on it is preferred These files are all discussed in detail in later sections of this document Before running LBCOMM it is necessary to set the required communications parameters using the ane SETCOM 1 EXE utility described elsewhere LBCOMM can be executed two different ways The first method involves Simply entering LBCOMM at the DOS prompt The second method involves entering LBCOMM LBCOMM EXE 1 plus an additional command Examples are Method 1 A gt LBCOMM lt RETURN gt load LBCOMM Method 2 A gt LBCOMM AD A lt RETURND gt D load LBCOMM and auto dial the number associat
19. B SYNTAX TB lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Toggles the ASCII bell character ON OFF The default mode is bell ON IF you type TB lt RETURN gt at the command line any bell characters ASCII 7 will not be sent to your terminal in either Terminal Local Echo or Echo Mode Command line mistakes will still cause the terminal to sound LBCOMM EXE 7 COMMAND TM SYNTAX TM lt RETURND gt D FUNCTION Enter Terminal Mode This is one of the three Remote Modes This Remote Mode might also be called Full Duplex Mode no character input or output echoing is performed in this mode Terminal Mode allows the Little Board 186 to emulate a smart terminal All characters received at the COM1 port are sent to your terminal All characters typed by you are sent out COM1 With a smart terminal attached to the Serial Port A and Serial Port B connected to a host either through a modem or directly the Little Board 186 will act as a Smart buffer No received characters are filtered except maybe the ASCII bell see command TB above Any valid ASCII sequence is transmitted by LBCOMM except lt CTRL gt The CTRL N character is used as a lead in character for commands to be executed while in the Terminal Mode The commands available in Terminal Mode are described in the section on Remote Mode Commands below See also EM and LM COMMAND UL SYNTAX UL FILENAME TXT lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Upload an ASCII file to a remote system LBCOMM searches f
20. COM Port setup for Serial Port B the DOS COM1 port Sets baud rate 110 to 57 6K baud parity data length stop bits and option of automatic hardware handshaking SETCON SYS Port setup for Serial Port A the PC DOS CON device Similar in function to SETCOM1 COM By including this driver as the first entry in the system CONFIG SYS file a console baud rate other than 9600 baud 110 to 38 4K baud can be used SETCPM COM Selects desired CP M format for use with CPMDRVR SYS SETFDC COM Floppy drive parameter initialization utility Used to set step rates for each floppy drive to other than the default value 6 mS TERM SYS Terminal display driver Enhances the INT10H video support 2 6 present in the board s ROM BIOS Converts IBM PC video display functions for cursor position clear screen intensity control scrolling etc into the control codes required by a selection of ASCII terminals Aiiows use of many programs which lack MS DOS Generic terminal installation options but do not use video RAM or bit mapped graphics Terminal customization file source code is included allowing easy addition of user defined terminals 2 5 2 The AMPRO SCSI Utilities Functions available through the AMPRO SCSI Utilities software include Hard disk formatter Hard disk partition editor Hard disk park utility SCSI block copy utility SCSI compare utility SCSI debugger utility The following drivers and utilities are contained on t
21. EXE 3 Command Mode Command Summary Command Syntax Function AD AD lt RETURN gt Display phone library Auto dial DL DM EM EX HE LM MS SD TB TM UL XR XS AD lt A Z 0 9 gt lt RETURN gt DL FILENAME TXT lt RETURN gt DM lt RETURN gt EM lt RETURN gt EX lt RETURN gt HE lt RETURN gt LM lt RETURN gt MS lt DOS Command gt lt RETURN gt MS lt Program gt lt RETURN gt MS COMMAND COMKRETURN SD lt RETURN gt _ TB lt RETURN gt TM lt RETURN gt UL FILENAME TXT lt RETURN gt XR FILENAME TYP lt RETURN gt XS FILENAME TYP lt RETURN gt lt RETURN gt number from phone library Auto dial number indicated Download an ASCII text file from remote system Disconnect the modem Enter Echo Mode Exit LBCOMM to DOS Display full 22527 help Enter Local Echo Mode Run MS DOS Command Run program and return to LBCOMM Load another shell Type EXIT from DOS to return to LBCOMM Set delays used in UL command Toggle bell on off Enter Terminal Mode Upload ASCII text file to remote system Receive file from remote system using XMODEM protocol Send file to remote system using XMODEM protocol Show command summary LBCOMM EXE 4 COMMAND DL SYNTAX DL FILENAME TXT lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Download an ASCII file from a host or remote system Before using the DL command you must setup the remote or host system for a file transfer Most ho
22. FG for a Hayes compatible modem is as follows ATZSO 0T r ATDT r ATHO r The first line tells the Hayes modem to reset and to not auto answer The second line is the Hayes prefix for auto dialing WATDT The third line is the Hayes suffix for auto dialing a lt RETURN gt The last line is the hangup command LBCOMM EXE 13 The PHONE LIB File PHONE LIB contains the phone number library It is also an ASCII file that is created by the user Like FUNCTION KEY and MODEM CFG PHONE LIB is also sensitive to character positions within the text file The first line maps to phone number A the 26th line maps to phone number Z the 27th line maps to phone number 0 and the 36th line maps to phone number 9 Unlike the previous two ASCII files PHONE LIB has a MAXIMUM line length of 32 characters Any characters past the 32nd will confuse LBCOMM When auto dialing LBCOMM will send all numbers after the first letter in the selected line Therefore do not include any numbers in the name field Also do not use any of the MODEM CFG or FUNCTION KEY commands r n etc To allow programmed pauses in dialing commas in the number Sequence are passed on to the modem used by Hayes compatible modems to generate a delay No other non numeric characters are sent to the modem This is especially useful when dialing on phone systems which require you to dial a 9 for access to an outside line A comma following the 9 will pro
23. G SYS on your system boot diskette containing at least one line of the following form DEVICE SETCON SYS lt parameter parameter gt Refer to the IBM PC DOS reference documentation for further information on the use of the PC DOS CONFIG SYS function The parameters which follow SETCON SYS determine the desired baud rate and other characteristics for the console keyboard amp display port An example is provided below The parameter choices are Baud rate B followed by the desired baud rate choose from 38400 19200 9600 4800 2400 1200 600 300 110 Data width D followed by 7 or 8 bits per character SETCON SYS 1 Stop bits S followed by 1 or 2 Parity P followed by O E or N odd even or none NOTE parity is not allowed with 8 bit data width Handshake H if automatic hardware handshaking is desired The order of parameters on the setup line does not matter Letters may be either upper or lower case The SETCON SYS line should always be the first entry in your boot diskette s CONFIG SYS file This guarantees that the console serial port is initialized before PC DOS attempts to send any characters to the display Otherwise garbage characters might be sent which could hang up the terminal etc Example The following CONFIG SYS line is appropriate for a terminal set to 38 4K baud 8 data bits 1 stop bits no parity and automatic hardware handshaking DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 Si
24. ION Use MONITOR EXE s functions with extreme caution as they may destroy valuable disk data etc MONITOR EXE 1 SETCOM1 COM Version 2 Description The AMPRO SETCOM1 utility program is used to initialize your system s Serial Port B the DOS COM1 device for a variety of baud rates between 110 and 57 6K baud data characteristics and optional hardware handshaking SETCOM1 is similar in function and usage to the PC DOS MODE utility Many of the initialization options available with SETCOM1 are also available using MODE however enabling or disabling of the port s automatic hardware handshaking feature requires the use of SETCOM1 rather than MODE Refer to the technical note below for further information on the use of the hardware handshaking option Operation To initialize Serial Port B the DOS COM1 device type the program s name followed by appropriate parameters from the PC DOS command prompt The general form of the command is A gt SETCOM1 lt parameter parameter gt lt RETURN gt The parameters are defined as follows Baud rate B followed by the desired baud rate choose from 57600 38400 19200 9600 4800 2400 1200 600 300 150 or 110 Data width D followed by 7 or 8 bits per character Stop bits S followed by 1 or 2 Parity p followed by O E or N odd even or none NOTE parity is not allowed with 8 bit data width Handshake H if automatic hardware handshaking is desir
25. ND XR SYNTAX XR FILENAME TYP lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Receive file using xmodem or xmodem crc protocol Xmodem file transfers are virtually error free LBCOMM is compatible with either xmodem or xmodem erc protocol The xmodem crc protocol transfers file with a better than 99 9 confidence factor Xmodem crc protocol is used as the default However since some remote systems don t use xmodem crc LBCOMM will automatically attempt xmodem protocol when xmodem crc protocol is not accepted by the remote system A typical xmodem file transfer is shown below EXAMPLE BO gt xmodem s newfile exe lt RETURN gt tell the remote system to send a file using an xmodem protocol XMODEM v104 File Open 12 records 2K l Send time O mins 15 secs at 1200 bps To cancel use CTRL X numerous times lt CTRL gt x exit to Command Mode COMMAND gt gt xr newfile exe lt RETURN gt tell LBCOMM to receive file using an xmodem protocol Creating newfile exe strike any key to abort transfer Rec d Block Errors 0 EOT Received File transfer complete COMMAND XS SYNTAX XS FILENAME TYP lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Send a file using an xmodem protocol The XS is very similar to the XR function except XS sends files via the xmodem or xmodem cre protocols As in the XR command LBCOMM will automatically switch from xmodem crc to Standard xmodem as required by the remote system See also XR LBCOMM EXE 9 COMMAND SYNTAX KRETURN
26. O DEVICE DRIVERS AND UTILITIES 4 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter contains detailed information on each of the driver and utility programs supplied on the AMPRO Little Board 186 Utilities software diskette Each program s description explains what the program does and how it is used Program descriptions are in alphabetical order so this chapter can serve as a handy reference Each program is identified by a version and revision level When the program is run its version number and a revision level generally appear in a sign on meSsage such as the following AMPRO Hard Disk Format Utility Copyright C 1986 AMPRO Computers Inc Version 2 1 In this case the program is version 2 revision 1 Versions of a program which have the same version number operate in the same manner When a change is made to a program which necessitates a new description its version number is changed indicating that the old description is no longer accurate 4 2 PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS The following pages contain the program descriptions of the Little Board 186 Utilities software programs alphabetically arranged NOTE Read the contents of the DOC files on your Little Board 186 Utilities diskette filenames of the form PROGRAM DOC They contain information on recent program revisions enhancements or additions relative to the published user s manual Additional programs and features offered on an on going basis will be available to you through
27. PN H Naturally the terminal device must be set to match these characteristics before you attempt to boot from system disk whose CONFIG SYS file contains this line SETCON SYS 2 SETCPM COM Description The SETCPM COM utility is used to select a CP M format for file transfer under the control of the AMPRO CPMDRVR SYS device driver described elsewhere in this chapter Operation To use the program Simply type its name on the PC DOS command line A gt SETCPM lt RETURN gt The program will display a menu of available CP M formats Press the letter of the format you wish to access After you select tne desired CP M format the program will exit to the PC DOS command line You may prefer to use lines in your AUTOEXEC BAT file to automatically select a particular CP M format on system powerup This is done by creating a tiny text file SETCPM TXT containing a single letter the menu selection desired and then adding the following line to your AUTOEXEC BAT file SETCPM SETCPM TXT For example if you want to pick menu selection A the file SETCPM TXT consists of the letter A menu option A will be selected SETCPM COM 1 SETFDC COM Description The SETFDC COM utility is used to customize certain floppy disk drive parameters including the floppy drive step rate to values different than the board s ROM BIOS defaults At this time only the four drive s step rate is under the control of SETFDC COM This
28. S file as they confict with KT7TERM SYS and KT7TERM SYS After you have modified CONFIG SYS go into the Setup Mode of the Kimtron terminal using the combination keystroke ALT CAPS LOCK and turn the IBM Mode ON Refer to your Kimtron terminal manual for instructions on the use of the Setup Mode Then exit Setup Mode and reset your computer booting from the disk with the new CONFIG SYS file You should now have almost full PC keyboard compatibility You can add the option of software handshaking by using X1 instead of XO in the first of the two CONFIG SYS lines given above Be sure to use the SETCON SYS driver described elsewhere in this chapter if you wish to use a terminal baud rate other than 9600 baud or if you want to enable hardware handshaking KT7TERM SYS 1 LBCOMM EXE Version 1 3 Written by Jerry Haigwood and released to AMPRO for distribution with the Little Board 186 Utilities Software Description LBCOMM is a communications program written for the AMPRO Little Board 186 Single board computer It is one of the first programs written especially for this computer and takes advantage of the power and speed of the Intel 80186 processor on the Little Board 186 LBCOMM has several features that make it very power zu But also easy to use Some of these features are Interrupt driven communications port Interrupt driven timers Buffered I O XMODEM and XMODEM CRC file transfer protocols X ON X OFF
29. Shift F1 Shift F2 Shift F3 Shift Fl Shift F5 Shift F6 Shift F7 Shift F8 Shift F9 Shift F10 Home Up Arrow PgUp Left Arrow Right Arrow End Down Arrow PgDn Kev Sequence Required lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt KCTRL 72 lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt lt CTRL gt KCTRL 72 KCTRL 72 AMPROKEY 2 OO ON NAV EW N gt BA AN D LA R RO Q X NUD 39 8 lt or or or or or or or or Ox NOU 30 or or or or or or or or lt CTRL w gt KCTRL KCTRL r2 KCTRL 82 lt CTRL d gt KCTRL Z lt CTRL x gt lt CTRL c gt CHKROM EXE Version 1 1 Description The Little Board 186 CHKROM utility is provided as a convenient means to verify the contents of your system s ROM BIOS EPROM s This can be helpful in cases of system difficulty or software updates Operation CHKROM is run by typing the following command at the PC DOS prompt A gt CHK ROM lt RETURN gt The program will then perform a checksum calculation on the ROM BIOS EPROM s and will display the checksums along with the version number of the ROM BIOS CHKROM 1 CPMDRVR
30. TCON SYS SETCPM COM SETFDC COM TERM SYS LI e e e e e e e e e e e e o e e e e 4 ui Hardware RTC support ASCII terminal keyboard driver ROM BIOS checksum and version CP M file access driver Keyboard driver enhancement Keyboard driver for Kimtron KT7 Display driver for Kimtron KT7 Communications utility EPROM monitor demonstration Aux serial port initialization Console port initialization CP M format selection Floppy drive parameter initialization ASCII terminal display driver CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1 1 INTRODUCTION This manual is for users and integrators of systems based on the AMPRO Little Board 186 single board computer utilizing the IBM PC DOS operating system It describes the PC DOS support software included on the AMPRO Little Board 186 Utilities software diskette and how to perform typical software installation for a variety of system configurations Additional support software for the board s SCSI interface is contained in the AMPRO SCSI Utilities package and is described in that software s User s Manual AMPRO P N A74027 1 2 MANUAL ORGANIZATION This manual is organized as follows Chapter 1 GENERAL INFORMATION An introduction to the structure of this manual including conventions used in program operation descriptions Chapter 2 OPERATION WITH PC DOS Options available with the PC DOS operating system a discussion of compatibility with standard PC DOS Software and a brief des
31. These strings are defined by the file FUNCTION KEY Transmits a break key while in Remote Mode This allows logging on off of some mini s and mainframes VAX etc The length of the break Signal is controllable by using the SD command from the COMMAND gt gt line The default time is 350 ms Hangup the modem Hangup sequenced defined by MODEM CFG Start capturing received characters into the buffer If the capture file has not be opened LBCOMM will prompt you for a file name If the file exists you will be given a choice to erase the current file or add to it LBCOMM will automatically write the captured characters to the file and close the file at the end of the session or whenever you use the lt CTRL gt s function below Capturing of characters into the buffer can continue even after you exit LBCOMM if you use the Command Mode command MS COMMANDKRETURN In this case LBCOMM stays resident and continues to capture received characters into its 4096 character buffer Note that the capture buffer wraps around when it overflows new characters will over write old ones Stop capturing received characters into the capture buffer Write the contents of the current capture file to disk Allows multiple capture files during a single communication session The lt CTRL gt w function will flush the capture buffer and close the capture file To continue capturing use lt CTRL gt s again You will be prompted for the new file n
32. agnetic optical chemical manual or otherwise without the prior written permission of AMPRO Computers Incorporated TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INFORMATION Ted Introduction w e v n ak 800 ce ey 87 16 eR Je eS 1 2 Manual Organization e a a a au a w os Ves CONVENTIONS 340 Y Sic W A a paw f ai le SO ai 2 e Tat RSTSrences s e wo s a s n Ye 6 del Det a 7 2 6 l ni CHAPTER 2 OPERATION WITH PC DOS 251 INCrodUCLION w a srw 8 18 e L 28 86 ee 8 ak 36 16 f n 3 2 Hardware Considerations o e gt e e 3 Operating System gt a au au au a a a w a o 2 3 1 Device Assignment a au a w a a a 2 3 2 Internal Commands gt au a au a a e n 2 3 3 Drivers and Utilities e a au a au a 6 2 4 Applications Software e gt os e e e e e a o 2 4 1 MS DOS Generic Programs ae ae 2 4 2 Programs Which Make ROM BIOS Calls oe 2 4 3 Programs Which Make Direct Hardware Access 2 4 4 Designing Software for Compatibility 2 5 Configuration Options TERE 2 5 1 The Little Board 186 Utilities T oa S 2 5 2 The AMPRO SCSI Utilities so au n CHAPTER 3 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Sel INCEFOUUCTITON a xc ce 66 si RTR V SS D 6 ai 0 187 s k me AA ye 34 2 TWO Special Files s s a s das da w m yan ai ees 34251 SCONFIGSSYS sen di w sten ct din sin m w te AL 4 3 242 AUTOBAEG BAI ek sod
33. ain the following two lines MODE LPT1 COM1 SETCOM1 B9600 D8 S1 PN H If this file is called PRINTER BAT then you can easily initialize Serial Port B to these characteristics with the command A gt PRINTER lt RETURN gt Example 2 Using a 1200 baud modem In this case automatic hardware handshaking is generally not used The following SETCOM1 command will initialize the COM1 port to 1200 baud 8 data bits 1 Stop bit no parity and automatic hardware handshaking disabled A SETCOM1 B1200 D8 S1 PN lt RETURN gt Placing this command line in a file called MODEM BAT allows easy preparation of Serial Port B for modem operation with the command A gt MODEM lt RETURN gt Technical Note Hardware Handshaking When the handshaking feature is enabled the system stops sending data to the external serial device whenever Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE IN signal is inactive To make use of this feature Serial Port B s input handshake signal must be connected to an appropriate handshake output signal from the external serial device In addition if the external device attempts to transmit data to Serial Port B faster than the CPU can read it Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE OUT Signal will be brought to an inactive level For this to be useful Serial Port B s output handshake signal must be connected to an appropriate handshake input signal on the external serial device When the handshaking feature is disabled Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE IN signal
34. ame Exit the Remote Mode and return to Command Mode Display Remote Mode command help A brief summary of the Remote Mode commands and their functions will be displayed on the terminal Here are some examples of the use of Remote Mode Commands lt CTRL gt x exit to Command Mode lt CTRL gt s eStart capture mode lt CTRL gt h e hangup the modem lt CTRL gt 0 ee function key 0 LBCOMM EXE 11 The FUNCTION KEY File FUNCTION KEY is an text file created by the user This file contains the definitions of the Remote Mode function key commands 0 9 and must be present in the same directory as LBCOMM EXE The FUNCTION KEY file must be very precisely constructed The first line of the file contains the definition of function key 0 the second line defines function key 1 see and the 10th line of the file contains the definition for function key 9 The maximum length of each line is 80 characters FUNCTION KEY can be created by any editor which works with standard ASCII text files WordStar in the non document mode use N from the editing no file menu will be acceptable There are several special character sequences which may be used within a function key line that are interpreted as commands by LBCOMM These are r interpreted as a lt RETURN gt n interpreted as a line feed C a followed by a letter is interpreted as a control character 6 pause for 1 second These commands can be used together with st
35. andard ASCII characters to create complex function key sequences A typical FUNCTION KEY file might look like the following Firstname r Lastname r passwordi r passworde r n First Last Password r DIR UOADNr XMODEM S XMODEM R C 0 ATZ r In the above example Firstname r maps to function key 0 The r will be interpreted as a RETURN Invoking function key O lt CTRL gt 0 would send Firstname lt RETURN gt Also in the above example ATZ r is mapped to function key 9 The symbols are interpreted as 1 second pauses each and the Nr is interpreted as a lt RETURN gt Invoking function key 9 lt CTRL gt 9 would cause lt pause for 2 seconds gt lt pause for 1 second gt ATZ lt RETURN gt to be sent LBCOMM EXE 12 The MODEM CFG File Like FUNCTION KEY MODEM CFG is an ASCII text file It is used to configure LBCOMM for almost any modem It is up to the user to create this file The Same commands that apply to FUNCTION KEY also apply to MODEM CFG i e r n and 6 The maximum length of any line is 80 characters The first line of MODEM CFG must contain the initialization sequence for your modem The second line contains the prefix for auto dialing The third line contains the suffix for the auto dial routine If your modem does not auto dial leave the second and third lines blank The last fourth line of MODEM CFG contains the de initialization sequence for your modem A typical MODEM C
36. ations port Serial Port B are both displayed on your screen and echoed back out the communications port Characters entered at the keyboard are also echoed to the screen Echo Mode is also known as Computer or Host Mode because most hosts operate in Echo Mode The difference between Echo Mode and Local Echo Mode is that in the former your system echoes characters received from the remote system back to the remote system while in the latter your system echoes what you type to your own screen LBCOMM EXE 5 NOTE During a communication session only one system at a time may be in Echo Mode either your system or the one you are communicating with The other system MUST be in Terminal Mode If both systems are in Echo Mode the first character will cause an endless loop to begin Use Echo Mode cautiously For a complete description of all the functions available under Echo Mode see the section on Remote Mode Commands below See also TM COMMAND EX SYNTAX EX lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Exit LBCOMM If MODEM CFG was present when LBCOMM was loaded you will be asked if you wish to disconnect the modem from the phone line A y or Y answer will cause the modem to be disconnected from the phone line any other answer will cause the disconnect sequence to be skipped If you plan to re enter LBCOMM do not answer y or Y If your communications is completed it is best to use a y or Y to insure that your modem has been di
37. booting from the disk with the new CONFIG SYS file You should now have almost full PC kevboard compatibilitv KT7KEY SYS 1 KT7TERM SYS Version 3 Written by Paul Bartholomew and released to AMPRO for distribution with the Little Board 186 Utilities Description KT7TERM SYS is a Special version of the Little Board 186 TERM SYS terminal display driver optimized for use with the Kimtron KT7 PC terminal Like TERM SYS KT7TERM SYS allows the use of some software which uses the IBM PC ROM BIOS function calls The terminal control file which is used with KT7TERM SYS is KT7 TRM In addition KT7TERM SYS is intended to be used along with KT7KEY SYS which provides Kimtron KT7 PC keyboard support Refer to the description of KT7KEY SYS elsewhere in this chapter Refer to the documentation on TERM SYS elsewhere in this chapter for additional information on the ROM BIOS functions provided by this driver and on use of this driver along with the PC DOS ANSI SYS driver Installation KT7TERM SYS is used in the same manner as TERM SYS Simply include the following two lines in the CONFIG SYS file on your system boot drive DEVICE KT7TERM SYS T KT7PC TRM P1 XO DEVICE KT7TERM SYS The first of these two lines loads the Kimtron display driver KT7TERM SYS and terminal control file KT7PC TRM while the second line adds the Kimtron keyboard driver Be sure to delete lines for TERM SYS AMPROKEY SYS or FUNKEY SYS from the CONFIG SY
38. cription of the software utilities supplied by AMPRO with the Little Board 186 _ Chapter 3 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION How to configure system software for use with a wide variety of configurations and peripherals Chapter 4 PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS Detailed descriptions and operating instructions for each of the Little Board 186 device drivers and utility programs Chapter 4 is intended to provide a convenient user reference The program descriptions are arranged alphabetically 1 3 CONVENTIONS In the descriptions of the use of software utilities terminal keyboard inputs which you will make to the system are shown underlined This has been done to make it easy for you to distinguish between the computer s prompts and the operator s keystrokes For example A DIRCRETURN means that you type DIR and then press the lt RETURN gt key on your keyboard Also certain keys on your terminal s keyboard have special uses The control key generally labeled CTRL is meant to be pressed at the same time as another key In this manual such two key combinations are written CTRL C which means hold down the CTRL key while you press the C key 1 1 Two other special keys are the escape key indicated by lt ESC gt and the return key also called the carriage return or enter key indicated by SRETURN In general all commands you enter from the PC DOS command prompt require you to press the RETURN key to begin t
39. d PC the application software must simply confine itself to standard PC DOS and the supported ROM BIOS functions and must not perform direct hardware accesses If you use the standard PC ROM BIOS video functions INT10H for display control cursor position clear screen scrolling and intensity control then the software you write will run on the Little Board 186 regardless of what type of terminal device is used providing that the board s display driver TERM SYS is properly installed In fact your software will also run on a standard PC with any of its standard keyboard video controller devices Refer to the Chapter 4 for details on the INT10 video support provided by the AMPRO TERM SYS display driver 2 5 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS A wide degree of system configurability is available through options provided by 1 the IBM PC DOS operating system and its drivers and utilities 2 the AMPRO Little Board 186 Utilities and 3 the AMPRO SCSI Utilities The configuration options include Terminal selection and setup baud rate etc Parallel and Serial printer port selection and setup Modem interface Additional or different types of floppy disk drives One or more SCSI hard disk drives RAM disk Examples of how a typical system can be configured for each of these options are given in Chapter 3 A brief summary of the features of the AMPRO Little Board 186 Utilities and the AMPRO SCSI Utilities appears in the followin
40. de commands are not available Instead a set of Remote Mode commands may be used to control data capture etc The Remote Mode commands are discussed below COMMAND MODE COMMANDS LBCOMM has a set of commands which can be executed from the Command Mode prompt Some variation of these commands is also permitted The syntax of the commands and variations are discussed in detail below The following page contains a summary of the Command Mode commands Detailed descriptions of each of these commands follow COMMAND AD SYNTAX AD lt RETURN gt AD lt a z 0 9 gt lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Auto dial a number from the phone library In order to use the AD function PHONE LIB and MODEM CFG must have been present when LBCOMM was loaded and of course your modem must support auto dialing AD followed by a lt RETURN gt will cause the phone number library to be displayed You are given a chance to select a number to be dialed by entering a single letter or numeral The phone number associated with the selected letter or numeral will be dialed AD followed by a space then a letter or numeral terminated by a carriage return will cause the number associated with the letter or numeral to be dialed immediately the phone library will not be shown After dialing the number you will be placed in either Terminal Local or Echo Mode whichever mode you were in last On first entry to LBCOMM Terminal Mode is entered following auto dialing LBCOMM
41. development tools have MS DOS Generic versions including Microsoft C Version 3 Basic and MASM Turbo Pascal Palasm Abel the Intel 86 family development tools 2 4 2 Programs Which Make ROM BIOS Calls Many popular programs written for use on the standard PC make direct ROM BIOS calls As long as these programs do not also access hardware directly including video RAM these programs can generally be used providing that the display and keyboard drivers from the Little Board 186 Utilities are properly installed One exception is that ASCII terminals do not generally provide pixel graphics functions so this is not supported by the Little Board 186 terminal driver TERM SYS 2 4 2 4 3 Programs Which Make Direct Hardware Access Programs that talk directly to hardware floppy controller serial ports keyboard port video RAM etc generally do not run on the Little Board 186 Without modification Some examples include e Copy protected programs often use floppy controller serial port or printer port hardware e Communications programs generally access serial port hardware e Programs using graphics generally access display controller hardware e Programs that write to Video RAM Included in this group are many consumer programs including Lotus l 2 3 Symphony DBase III and Flight Simulator 2 4 4 Designing Software for Compatibility To provide full compatibility between the Little Board 186 and the standar
42. e table on the following page The required key sequences consist of a lead in character followed by a second character indicating the desired function key In all cases the lead in character is lt CTRL gt which is formed by pressing the lt CTRL gt key simultaneously with the key For example to generate an F3 input press the lt CTRL gt and keys at the same time then release them then press the 3 key On most terminals you will need to press the SHIFT along with the lt CTRL gt and keys because the key is often the number 6 key shifted On may terminals the HOME key generates a CTRL so pressing HOME then 3 would have the Same result With these terminals when you actually need a home function simply press HOME twice Naturally the process can be greatly simplified if your terminal has programmable function keys In the case of the WY 50 terminal there are function keys which can be easily programmed to generate the appropriate sequences for F1 F10 and SHIFT Fi F10 Refer to your terminal s documentation for information on how to do this The key sequences used to simulate the various PC function keys are given in the table on the following page Note that an additional AMPRO driver FUNKEY SYS may allow your terminals function keys to directly simulate the PC function keys Refer to the information on FUNKEY SYS AMPROKEY 1 AMPROKEY Key Sequences PC Function Key F9 F10
43. e various terminal options are explained a cumulative instal lation example will be generated 3 3 1 Baud Rate SETCON SYS allows you to use a terminal which operates at a choice of baud rates from 110 baud to 38 4K baud In addition SETCON SYS permits 7 or 8 bit data format 1 or 2 stop bits odd even or no parity and the option of automatic hardware handshaking RTS CTS Refer to the instructions for using SETCON SYS in Chapter 4 and to the section on Hardware Handshaking below For example DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN Would initialize the terminal port of your system for operation with a terminal set for 38 4K baud 8 data bits 1 stop bit no parity and no hardware handshaking 3 3 2 Display Control Codes PC software often uses ROM BIOS functions to position the cursor clear the screen etc The AMPRO TERM SXS driver provides mapping of the PC ROM BIOS functions into the control codes required by your specific terminal TERM SYS is supplied with a set of terminal characteristics files of which one is used to customize your system for your terminal Refer to Chapter 4 for details on 3 2 the use of TERM SXS Assuming your terminal is a WYSE WX 50 which is represented by the WY50 TRM terminal characteristics file your CONFIG SYS file might now contain a second line as follows DEVICE DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN TERM SYS TNWY50 TRM P1 XO 3 3 3 PC Function Key Simulation The AMPROKEY SYS driver a
44. each CONFIG SYS line 1 DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN This sets the terminal port baud rate to 38 4K baud 2 DEVICE FUNKEY SYS This installs the preprocessor driver for function keys This line is not really appropriate to the WY 50 terminal since that terminal has programmable function keys 3 DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS This installs the PC function key driver Be sure to program the WY 50 s function keys as required by AMPROKEY SYS see Chapter 4 3 10 4 DEVICE TERM SYS TNWY50 TRM P1 XO This installs the terminal display driver for the WY 50 terminal with 1 video page and no XON XOFF handshaking 5 DEVICE VDISK SYS 160 512 64 This installs a 160K byte RAM disk 6 DEVICE CPMDRVR SYS This allows CP M diskette access on the first and second floppy drives 7 DRIVPARM D 2 F 2 This informs PC DOS that drive C is an 80 track 720K type drive After booting your system with the above CONFIG SYS file your system drive letters will be arranged as follows A 1st floppy drive 360K byte B 2nd floppy drive 360K byte C 3rd floppy drive 720K byte D 160K byte RAM disk ES First floppy drive CP M assignment Fs Second floppy drive CP M assignment Be sure to also include appropriate command lines in your BOOT diskette s AUTOEXEC BAT file to e Set the step rate for the 80 track drive SETFDC COM e Select a desired format for the CP M drives SETCPM COM 3 11 CHAPTER 4 AMPR
45. eans clear entire window BH Attribute of new line s CH Upper row of scroll window CL Left column of scroll window DH Lower row of scroll window DL Right column of scroll window 8 READ ATTRIBUTE CHARACTER AT CURSOR POSITION BH Page number 0 3 AL Character AH Attribute 9 WRITE ATTRIBUTE CHARACTER AT CURRENT CURSOR POSITION BH Page number 0 3 AL Character BL Attribute CX Count of characters to write 10 WRITE CHARACTER AT CURRENT CURSOR POSITION BH Page number 0 3 AL Character CX Count of characters to write 11 SET COLOR PALETTE 12 WRITE DOT 13 READ DOT Not implemented 14 WRITE TTY AL Character 15 CURRENT VIDEO STATE AL Mode currently set See AH 0 for explanation AH Number of character columns on screen BH Current active display page NOTE This function always returns 80 decimal in AH function calls CS SS DS ES BX CX DX preserved during call all other registers are destroyed TERM SYS 4
46. ed The order of parameters on the setup line does not matter Letters may be in either upper or lower case NOTE Use of 150 19200 38400 and 57600 baud rates requires that ROM BIOS version 3 1 or later be installed This can be verified using the CHKROM utility Examples A SETCOM1 command can be placed in your AUTOEXEC BAT file for automatic system initialization You can also create a number of other batch files for easy port B modification One batch file might be used to set the port for 1200 baud modem use with handshaking disabled another might set the port for 9600 SETCOM1 COM 1 baud serial printer use with handshaking enabled They could be called MODEM BAT and PRINTER BAT respectively Here are two examples Example 1 Using a 9600 baud serial printer with automatic hardware handshaking Many serial printers can operate at 9600 baud using automatic hardware handshaking You can use the A in did ke SETCOM1 command to set the COM1 port for such a printer A gt SETCOM1 B9600 D8 S1 PN H lt RETURN gt This results in 9600 baud 8 data bits 1 stop bit no parity and automatic hardware handshaking Be sure that the printer s READY handshake output signal CTS or equivalent is connected to Serial Port B s Handshake In input signal Assuming you wish to mainly use a serial printer for printed output and that these parameters are the ones you need a file called PRINTER BAT or your AUTOEXEC BAT file might cont
47. ed with letter A in the phone library Either method causes LBCOMM to attempt to load three configuration files FUNCTION KEY MODEM CFG and PHONE LIB If any of these files is missing LBCOMM will display an error message but will continue to load the others However some functions will not be available After loading the three configuration files and if you started LBCOMM using Method 1 LBCOMM will ask if you want to initialize your modem If you are connected to a modem and wish to initialize it answer with a y or Y Any other answer will cause the initialization sequence to be skipped Note the initialization parameters are located in MODEM CFG Next LBCOMM displays a Signon message and enters the command mode displaying LBCOMM s command mode prompts COMMAND gt gt __ If you started LBCOMM using Method 2 LBCOMM will execute the indicated command without pausing or displaying any signon message Valid commands are discussed below You may wish to use a PC DOS batch file to initialize your modem port baud rate and then start LBCOMM For example the file MODEM BAT might contain the following text lines ECHO OFF SETCOM1 B1200 D8 S1 PN ECHO a a aa man ae aam omn eco ae e ae ae ae ca ea e ae cas eee ECHO Port B set to 1200 baud ECHO anne en nn mann LBCOMM SETCOM1 B9600 D8 S1 PN H E CHO mea e nee en ene an on a ae ae an a ae a an eee cue en ee aes a ae ae cen a cen ce ee ce cen a en cen ce cn eo cee ce ce em
48. f the driver Chapter 4 specifies what other drivers are required and what order must be used in the CONFIG SYS _ file It is not enough to simply create the CONFIG SYS file You must now reboot your system to have PC DOS actually install DRIVER SYS as part of your System s operating environment Then the function provided by that driver will be available as a system resource 3 1 3 2 2 AUTOEXEC BAT The second special file is called AUTOEXEC BAT This is a file of commands that you would like to have your system run automatically on powerup or reset For example you could have your system display the directory of the boot drive using the following line as the contents of AUTOEXEC BAT DIR In this chapter you will see that there are a number of AMPRO utilities which you might wish to include in your AUTOEXEC BAT file You do not necessarily need an AUTOEXEC BAT file at all You create the AUTOEXEC BAT file in the same manner as the CONFIG SYS file described above 3 3 TERMINAL Nearly any RS232C ASCII terminal can be used with your system The initial terminal characteristics for first time booting must be set as described in your board or system manual 9600 baud 8 data bits etc Once your system is initially booted you can configure a custom system boot diskette for alternate console parameters and add keyboard and video display appropriate to the ASCII terminal you are using by means of several AMPRO drivers As th
49. fault directory When the MS command is invoked LBCOMM acts as a shell A typical use of the MS command is to change the COM1 port parameters by running the SETCOM1 COM utility from inside of LBCOMM Other uses for the MS command are copying files displaying a directory etc EXAMPLES COMMAND gt gt MS dir lt RETURN gt display directory COMMAND gt gt MS ws lt RETURN gt run WordStar Another use of the MS function is loading a second copy of COMMAND COM COMMAND gt gt MS command com lt RETURN gt A gt By running COMMAND COM you temporarily leave the LBCOMM environment and exit to a DOS command environment However LBCOMM stays resident and continues to capture any received characters up to a maximum of 4 096 characters before the buffer wraps around To re enter LBCOMM type A gt EXIT lt RETURN gt COMMAND gt gt _ _ You have left the DOS environment and re entered the LBCOMM Command Mode COMMAND SD SYNTAX SD lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Set up the delays used during an ASCII file upload UL command and the duration of the break key which can be transmitted in Remote Mode The SD command allows you to slow down LBCOMM for remote systems which cannot keep up Delays up to 99 milliseconds for each character and 999 milliseconds for each line are allowed The default delay times are 0 Note LBCOMM responds to X ON X OFF protocol from the remote system so delays are unnecessary in most applications COMMAND T
50. g two sections 2 5 2 5 1 The Little Board 186 Utilities Functions available through the Little Board 186 Utilities software include Hardware initialization utilities PC display and keyboard simulation drivers Modem communications utility CP M diskette file access driver and utility The following drivers and utilities are contained on the Little Board 186 Utilities diskette s at this time Actual utility names and descriptions may vary Refer to Chapter 4 for detailed program descriptions and operating instructions AMPROCLK EXE Sets the PC DOS system clock from one of two optional real time clock devices Expansion 186 or SCSI CLOCK AMPROKEY SYS Allows any ASCII terminal to simulate PC function keys CHKROM COM Reports ROM BIOS checksum and version CPMDRVR SYS Allows file transfer to from CP M formatted diskettes including the AMPRO 8 bit formats FUNKEY SYS Allows the function keys of specific ASCII terminals to directly simulate PC function keys Enhances the operation of the AMPROKEY SYS keyboard driver KTTKEY SYS Keyboard driver for the Kimtron KIT PC terminal KT7TERM SYS Display driver for the Kimtron KT7 PC terminal LBCOMM EXE General purpose communication utility Includes auto dial and both ASCII and XMODEM file transfer protocols MONITOR EXE Little Board 186 EPROM monitor demonstration Although run under PC DOS it is equivalent in function to the optional EPROM monitor SETCOM1
51. he AMPRO SCSI Utilities diskette s at this time Actual utility names and descriptions may vary Refer to the AMPRO SCSI Utilities User s Manual P N A74027 for detailed program descriptions and operating instructions HARD SYS Hard disk device driver Allows addition of one or more hard disk drives or partitions on one or more SCSI hard disk controllers HEDIT EXE Hard disk partition editor Allows partitioning of a hard disk drive up to four PC DOS drive letters 32 megabytes or smaller HFORMAT EXE Formats hard disk drives HPARK EXE Hard disk park Used to position hard disk heads over a defined safety zone to reduce liklihood of head crash on powerdown or during transit SCSICOMP EXE SCSI device block compare utility For technical users SCSICOPT EXE SCSI device block copy utility For technical users SCSITOOL EXE SCSI device exerciser and debugger For technical users TBACKUP EXE Hard disk streaming tape backup Available soon 2 7 CHAPTER 3 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION 3 1 INTRODUCTION Assuming you have successfully booted PC DOS as described in your board or system manual you will probably want to take advantage of the flexibility designed into the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS and Utilities software to create a customized PC DOS based system You can tailor your software configuration to a wide variety of hardware configurations as outlined in Chapter 2 This Chapter provides a discussion of
52. he operation as in the example above 1 4 REFERENCES some familiarity with the IBM PC DOS operating system is assumed Please refer to the appropriate IBM PC DOS reference manuals for further information on the use of the IBM PC DOS operating system and its drivers and utilities In addition reference to the following AMPRO documentation is recommended AMPRO Little Board 186 Technical Manual P N A74011 Information on the operation and capabilities of the Little Board 186 and its configuration and setup AMPRO Little Board 186 Utilities User s Manual P N A74026 You are reading it now AMPRO SCSI Utilities User s Manual P N A74027 Information on the installation and operation of the AMPRO SCSI drivers and utilities software for use with the Little Board 186 and PC DOS operating system CHAPTER 2 OPERATION WITH PC DOS 2 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter provides an overview of the system configuration options and utilities that are available under the PC DOS operating system as well as a discussion of the degree of compatibility that the Little Board 186 offers relative to software written for operation on the IBM PC and compatibles the standard PC A combination of standard IBM PC DOS utilities along with utilities supplied by AMPRO allows you to create a highly customized system based on the Little Board 186 Common system software configurations based on the functions provided by the Little Board 186 Uti
53. is particularly valuable when 80 track mini 5 1 4 or micro 3 1 2 floppy drives are used because they generally can step at 3 mS rather than the ROM BIOS default of 6 mS NOTE Use of this utility requires that ROM BIOS version 3 1 or later be installed This can be verified using the CHKROM utility Operation To initialize a floppy drive s parameters type the program s name followed by appropriate parameters from the PC DOS command prompt The general form of the command is A SETFDC Dd SS lt RETURN gt The parameters are defined as follows Drive number D followed by 0 1 2 or 3 Step rate S followed by 0 1 2 or 3 see table The drive number code D corresponds to how the floppy drive unit number is jumpered on the drive The step rate code S depends on whether the system has a 1770 or 1772 floppy controller device installed according to this table step Rate Code 1770 Rate 1772 Rate A separate command must be given to set or change the parameters for each floppy drive Normally you would include a SETFDC command line in your AUTOEXEC BAT file if customized floppy parameters are required Example A system with an 80 track microfloppy drive with 3 mS step rate jumpered as the 3rd floppy unit In this case include the following line in the AUTOEXEC BAT file on the system boot drive SETFDC D2 83 SETFDC COM 1 TERM SYS Version 3 Description The purpose of the AMPRO TERM SYS device dr
54. iver is to allow the use of some software written to use the IBM PC ROM BIOS video function calls The function calls supported by TERM SYS include cursor positioning screen clearing scrolling and selection of video page Calls to the supported ROM BIOS functions are translated into control sequences for a choice of ASCII terminals as defined by a terminal definition file TERM SYS does not support software which writes directly to Video RAM Refer to the Technical Notes section below for further details on the ROM BIOS function calls supported by the current version of TERM SYS Installation To use the AMPRO PC DOS terminal device driver create a text file called CONFIG SYS on your system boot diskette containing at least one line of the following form DEVICE TERM SYS T name TRM Pn Xm Refer to the IBM PC DOS reference documentation for further information on the use of the PC DOS CONFIG SYS function These are the interpretations of the required parameters Examples follow T name TRM Terminal control filename Must be DIRECTLY after the T Can include drive path Pn Number of screen RAM pages 1 4 If no P parameter is included the default of 1 page is used Xm XON XOFF handshaking option 0 or 1 If X is followed by a 1 then this handshaking is used otherwise not Note that hardware handshaking is also available through the use of the AMPRO SETCON SYS driver If no X parameter is included the defaul
55. lities are covered in Chapter 3 of this manual while Chapter 4 describes that software in detail In addition the AMPRO SCSI Utilities User s Manual P N A74027 covers the procedures and software required for installation and operation of hard disks and other SCSI devices 2 2 HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS The Little Board 186 single board computer is based on an 80186 integrated high performance 16 bit microprocessor which provides a functional superset of the 8 bit 8088 microprocessor used in the standard PC Programs written for an 8088 microprocessor can run on an 80186 without modification but with a performance improvement of up to 400 percent j Many of the hardware devices present on the Little Board 186 and their I O port addresses differ from those of the standard PC This includes the 2681 serial communications controller the 1772 floppy disk controller the hard disk interface SCSI and the DMA interrupt and timing controllers contained within the 80186 microprocessor Furthermore the Little Board 186 utilizes an RS232C ASCII terminal as a user console keyboard and monitor rather than the keyboard and display controllers used in a standard PC As a result programs which make direct access to board hardware including both I O ports and display controller video RAM rather than using the operating system or ROM BIOS functions provided for the same purpose can not be used without I O driver modifications Refer to
56. llows you to simulate the standard PC s function keys from any terminal s keyboard This is generally desired when using TERM SYS Since many programs request PC function key inputs As indicated in Chapter 4 adding the AMPROKEY driver requires an additional CONFIG SYS line DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN DEVICE TERM SYS TNWY50 TRM P1 XO DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS The WYSE WY 50 terminal in this example has function keys on it it would be nice to use them directly In the case of the WY 50 its function are programmable so follow the instructions in the terminal s installation manual to program the keys to generate the keystroke sequences listed in the description of AMPROKEY SYS in Chapter 4 For terminals that do not have programmable function keys you will need to use the keystrokes required by AMPROKEY An additional keyboard driver FUNKEY SYS converts several terminals function keys directly into the keystrokes required by AMPROKEY reducing the PC function keys back to single keystrokes Refer to the instructions for using the FUNKEY driver in Chapter 4 As mentioned above the WY 50 terminal used in this example has programmable function keys so it does not require FUNKEY If it did you would add an additional CONFIG SYS line to the growing list DEVICE SETCON SYS B38400 D8 S1 PN DEVICE FUNKEY SYS DEVICE TERM SYS TNWY50 TRM P1 XO DEVICE AMPROKEY SYS Notice that in this case the driver was added before TERM SYS
57. o emulate the IBM PC s 25 line display on a 24 line terminal Most ASCII terminal sceens are limited to 24 addressable display lines while the IBM PC screen display provides 25 Programs which use ROM BIOS function calls for video display generally assume the availability of 25 display lines To solve this problem TERM SYS allows you to view either the first 24 lines 0 23 or the last 24 lines 1 24 of the current video display page The lt CTRL gt control character is used to toggle between the two display modes Here are the ROM BIOS INT 10H functions supported by TERM SIS AH 0 SET MODE AL 0 40x25 BW default on power up AL 2 80x25 BW AL 7 80x25 BW NOTE The video mode is saved but the driver remains in 80x25 BW 1 SET CURSOR TYPE CH Start line for cursor 0 31 CL End line for cursor 0 31 AH NOTE The cursor mode is saved but the cursor remains the same AH 2 SET CURSOR POSITION BH Page number 0 3 DH Row top row is 0 DL Column left column is 0 AH 3 READ CURSOR POSITION BH Page number 0 3 DH Row top row is 0 DL Column left column is 0 CH Start line for cursor 0 31 TERM SYS 3 AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH For all End line for cursor 0 31 CL 4 READ LIGHT PEN POSITION Not implemented 5 SELECT ACTIVE DISPLAY PAGE AL New page value 0 3 6 SCROLL ACTIVE PAGE UP T SCROLL ACTIVE PAGE DOWN AL Number of lines to scroll O m
58. o the parallel printer A COPY CONFIG SYS LPT1 lt RETURN gt prints contents of CONFIG SYS A DIR gt LPTI lt RETURN gt prints the directory 3 4 In addition the Printer Echo function can be used to cause all characters written to the console to also be written to the LPT1 device The Printer Echo function is enabled with CTRL P Once enabled Printer Echo is disabled when another CTRL P is used 3 4 2 Using a Serial Printer Serial Port B is supported as the PC DOS COM1 device You can copy files to the serial printer port as follows A gt COPY FILENAME EXT COM1 lt RETURN gt You can use the PC DOS MODE utility to reassign COM1 as the default printer port as follows A gt MODE LPT1 COM1 RETURN If you wish to have this done automatically on reset or powerup place the above command line in a text file called AUTOEXEC BAT on your system boot diskette The command lines contained in the AUTOEXEC BAT file are always executed automatically on system startup reset or powerup Later you can restore the default printer port to the parallel interface again with A MODE LPT1 lt RETURN gt Before using Serial Port B the port must be initialized This can either be done with the PC DOS MODE utility or with the AMPRO SETCOM1 utility SETCOM1 see Chapter 4 allows the option of automatic hardware handshaking RTS CTS while MODE does not Here is an example of using SETCOM1 COM to initialize Serial P
59. opriate line of text to invoke the MODE or SETCOM1 utilities setting the parameters as required for your peripherals Most communications programs perform direct serial port I 0 and must be customized before use The AMPRO LBCOMM EXE program Chapter 4 included with the Little Board 186 Utilities is a full featured communications program developed specifically for the Little Board 186 LBCOMM offers remote system access and both XMODEM and ASCII file transfer protocols In addition the following two high quality communications programs are available preconfigured for the Little Board 186 MEX PC NightOwl Software Inc Rt 1 Box 7 Fort Atkinson WI 53538 Phone 800 648 3695 414 563 4013 MICROLINK II by Wordcraft Digital Marketing Corp Phone 415 947 1000 MEX PC is a sophisticated Modem Executive program which allows you to create systems based on the Little Board 186 which can perform communications tasks completely automatically It supports six upload download protocols including XMODEM KERMIT and Compuserve and offers a powerful script programming facility 3 6 UNIQUE FLOPPY CONFIGURATIONS When your system initially boots from a standard PC DOS system diskette the floppy configuration is set for one to four 40 track 48 tpi drives depending on the setting of jumpers at position J7 refer to your board or system manual 3 6 3 6 1 Single Floppy Configurations One handy feature of PC DOS is its
60. or the file named in the command line and sends it out over the communications port Serial Port B You may abort the upload at any time by pressing any key see the example below of a a an ASCII file to a VAX host using the VMS operating system When you use the UL command you will be asked if you want to send both carriage return and line feed characters or only carriage return characters Any answer other than a X will cause only lt CR gt s to be sent That is a lt CR gt lt LF gt sequence will be converted into a CR only This is useful in uploading ASCII files to systems which double space text whose lines terminate in a lt CR gt lt LF gt sequence You will need to experiment to see which format the remote system prefers During the ASCII upload process the remote system can stop and start file transmission at any time during the upload by sending an X OFF character lt CTRL S gt to stop and an X ON character lt CTRL Q gt to resume transmission LBCOMM will also insert character and line delays if the optional SD command prior to the UL command LBCOMM EXE 8 EXAMPLE create newfile txt lt RETURN gt tell the VAX to create a file named newfile txt lt CTRL gt x exit to Command Mode COMMAND gt gt ul newfile txt lt RETURN gt start the upload uploading newfile txt press any key to close file When the upload has been completed close the file on the VAX by typing a lt CTRL Z gt COMMA
61. ort B for use with a 1200 serial printer that requires hardware handshaking A SETCOM1 B1200 D8 S1 PN HKRETURN The following two lines might be included in your system s AUTOEXEC BAT file to automatically initialize your system to use a 1200 baud serial printer as the printer device on powerup or reset MODE LPT1 COM1 SETCOM1 B1200 D8 S1 PN H If you include the H parameter in the SETCOM1 command line be sure the handshake line is connected properly to the printer as described in your board or system documentation or your system may hang up when you attempt to print Refer to the technical notes on above hardware handshaking Section 3 3 4 and to your board or system documentation for additional details on the use of this option 3 5 3 5 MODEMS In addition to its use as a serial printer port Serial Port B can also be used aS a modem interface accessed as the PC DOS COM1 device Serial Port B data characteristics are initialized in the manner described above for serial printer use i e using MODE or the AMPRO SETCOM1 utility In most cases automatic hardware handshaking is not desirable when using modems as the software generally polls for modem status You may wish to keep two batch files on your system disk one called MODEM BAT and one called PRINTER BAT to change between the serial data parameters baud rate handshaking etc required for printer and modem functions Each of these files would contain the appr
62. p at 3 mS an AMPRO utility SETFDC COM has been provided to allow you to customize the floppy step rate on a drive by drive basis Refer to the description and instructions for SETFDC COM in Chapter 4 NOTE Use of SETFDC S 2 or 3 mS step rate option requires that your computer contain a 1772 rather than a 1770 floppy controller and that your ROM BIOS version is 3 1 or later verify with CHKROM Upgrades are available from AMPRO if required Examples A system with two 80 track drives units 0 and 1 Include the following two command lines in your AUTOEXEC BAT file to specify a 3 mS step rate for floppy drive units O and 1 first and second SETFDC DO S3 SETFDC D1 83 3 7 HARD DISK DRIVES Fixed and removable hard disk drives and controllers with SCSI interfaces may be easily added to your system The Little Board 186 ROM BIOS and AMPRO SCSI Utilities support drives of up to 128 megabytes on one or more SCSI disk controllers Software utilities and drivers for SCSI device formatting drive partitioning tape backup and other SCSI functions are provided in the AMPRO SCSI Utilities Refer to the AMPRO SCSI Utilities User s Manual P N A74027 for additional information on the use of SCSI devices with the Little Board 186 3 8 PC DOS RAM DISK PC DOS Version 3 x provides a useful virtual disk device driver called 3 9 VDISK SYS which allows you to configure one or more RAM disk drives based on memory on the Little Board 186
63. ption FUNKEY SYS allows the function keys of certain terminals to directly simulate the PC s function keys As distributed FUNKEY SYS supports just one terminal the Televideo TV925 terminal however source to the driver is included on the PC DOS Support Software diskette in the file FUNKEY ASM so you can modify FUNKEY SYS for use with any terminal s function keys FUNKEY SYS is used along with the AMPRO AMPROKEY SYS keyboard device driver FUNKEY translates the characters generated by terminal s function keys into the codes required by AMPROKEY For example when you press F1 on a Televideo 925 terminal it transmits the following to the computer KCTRL A 6 CRX In this case FUNKEY intercepts these codes and translates them into CTRL 1 which is the code sequence expected by AMPROKEY for F1 FUNKEY can tell the difference between the CTRL A at the beginning of a function key sequence and a CTRL A that you would type It does this by timing how quickly the next character is received from the terminal So you can still use the CTRL A key with programs like WordStar NOTE If your terminal has programmable function keys you do not need to use FUNKEY SYS Instead program the terminal s function keys according to the instructions in the terminal s user s manual Operation To install FUNKEY add the following line to the CONFIG SYS file on the drive from which your system boots before the lines for AMPROKEY
64. re is not a hard disk installed the following CONFIG SYS text line will define a second floppy drive as an 80 track drive DEVICE DRIVER SYS D 1 In this case PC DOS will assign drive letter C to the 80 track drive since the first drive will have two drive letters A and B due to the drive quantity jumper setting of 1 as discussed above Example 2 A system with only 80 track drives Start with a system configuration consisting of a 40 track boot drive and an additional 80 track drive supported by DRIVER SYS as described in Example 1 Then use the DOS FORMAT utility with the S option to format a diskette in the 80 track drive and transfer the operating system to it This 80 track diskette will be your new 80 track boot diskette Transfer all desired files to the new diskette including a CONFIG SYS file containing the lines DEVICE DRIVER SYS D 0 DEVICE DRIVER SYS D 1 Now change drive A to an 80 track drive jumper the computer board s drive quantity jumpers to 2 see board or system manual regarding J7 jumpering and boot from the new 80 track boot diskette Due to the use of DRIVER SYS 3 7 PC DOS recognizes two drive letter designations for each drive unit 0 is A and C and unit l is B and D Be sure to call the drives C and D to have proper 80 track 720K functionality including the use of FORMAT DISKCOPY DISKCOMP etc As you can see DRIVER SYS can do funny things with drive letters If you
65. sconnected from the phone line COMMAND HE SYNTAX HE lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Display full screen help Several screens of Command Mode help are presented After each screen is displayed press any key to continue program or display operation liega COMMAND LM SYNTAX LMCRETURN2 FUNCTION Enter Local Echo Mode This is one of the three Remote Modes Local Echo Mode is very similar to Terminal Mode with one major exception in Local Echo Mode all characters that you type are echoed to your screen as well as passed out the communications port Serial Port B Local Echo Mode might therefore be called Half Duplex Mode You can use this mode when you communicate with remote systems which do not echo the characters you send so that you can see what you type The difference between Local Echo Mode and Echo Mode is that in the former your system echoes what you type to your own screen while in the latter your system echoes characters received from the remote system back to the remote system For a complete description of all the functions available under Local Echo Mode see the section on Remote Mode Commands below See also TM LBCOMM EXE 6 COMMAND MS SYNTAX MS lt DOS command gt lt RETURN gt MS lt program gt lt RETURN gt MS COMMAND COM lt RETURN gt FUNCTION The MS command allows you to run any program or DOS command from inside of LBCOMM Use of the MS command requires that COMMAND COM be present in the de
66. sk partition editor which is supplied in the AMPRO SCSI Utilities software 2 3 2 4 APPLICATION SOFTWARE Programs written for use on PC s can be categorized in three groups 1 Programs which confine themselves to operating system calls 2 Programs which make ROM BIOS calls 3 Programs which make direct hardware access Of these nearly all of group 1 are usable some of group 2 are uSable and none of group 3 are usable without modification The following sections explain this in more detail 2 4 1 MS DOS Generic Programs Programs and utilities written for operation on any MS DOS system are called MS DOS Generic These programs restrict their system access exclusively to functions provided by the operating system MS DOS Generic programs are hardware independent they can be used on a variety of hardware implementations including systems such as the Little Board 186 that use RS232C ASCII terminals as the system console Such well behaved programs nearly always run without modification on the Little Board 186 MS DOS Generic programs generally have a terminal installation utility which allows you to specify the terminal to be used as the system console device usually from a menu Here are a few popular application programs known to be available in MS DOS Generic versions Multiplan Version 1 Wordstar Version 3 DBase II SuperCalc2 the T Maker Integrated Software package In addition most languages and software
67. software updates at a nominal charge You are encouraged to use the AMPRO customer support electronic bulletin board system which provides a 24 hour software update service answers to user questions public domain PC DOS software etc AMPRO Customer Support BBS 415 962 9023 300 1200 baud AMPROCLK EXE Version 1 Description AMPROCLK EXE supports both the AMPRO Expansion 186 and the AMPRO SCSI IOP battery backed real time clock hardware options The utility is a dual purpose program allowing you to e Set the PC DOS system date and time values from the hardware values e Set the hardware values from the PC DOS system date and time values Operation To use the AMPROCLK utility enter the program s name from the PC DOS prompt followed by one or more options For example A gt AMPROCLK options RETURN If no options are included a help screen such as the following is displayed A gt AMPROCLK lt RETURN gt AMPRO clock set utility Version 1 1 Copyright C 1986 AMPRO Computers Inc ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Usage AMPROCLK E In D E Select Expansion board clock In Select IOP clock n SCSI ID 0 7 D Set selected clock from DOS clock Examples AMPROCLK E Sets DOS clock from Expansion board clock AMPROCLK I2 Sets DOS clock from IOP clock at SCSI ID 2 AMPROCLK E D Sets Expansion board clock from DOS clock AMPROCLK I2 D Sets IOP clock at SCSI ID 2 from DOS clock Before using the D option be
68. some common configuration options including examples of typical installations 3 2 TWO SPECIAL FILES Before reading about the various options available for customizing your system you should understand the use of two special PC DOS files CONFIG SYS and AUTOEXEC BAT These are discussed in detail in the PC DOS reference manual but will now be discussed briefly as an introduction to this chapter 3 2 1 CONFIG SYS CONFIG SYS is a text file which you must create It is used to instruct the operating system to install one or more drivers or system extensions Each driver is a program which will be loaded by PC DOS from floppy or hard disk For each driver program that you want included in your system s operating System configuration you simply include its name in a text file called CONFIG SYS which is on your boot drive floppy or hard disk Here is a Simple example of a CONFIG SYS file DEVICE DRIVER SYS This is a single text line which can be entered using the EDLIN editor using a word processing editor in non document mode or using the COPY command like this A COPY CON CONFIG SYS lt RETURN gt DEVICE DRIVER SYS lt CTRL Z gt lt RETURN gt A gt When you want to include more than one driver in your system environment you simply enter more lines beginning with DEVICE to this file In a few cases drivers work with each other and must be installed in a specific order When this is the case the description o
69. st be connected to an appropriate handshake input signal on the external serial device When the automatic hardware handshaking feature is disabled for a port the port s HANDSHAKE IN signal is ignored and it s HANDSHAKE OUT signal is left permanently active Regardless of whether the automatic hardware handshaking feature is enabled software can utilize the ROM BIOS COM1 port status call to sense the state of the HANDSHAKE IN status Signal on Serial Port B Refer to the Little Board 186 Technical Manual for details Whether automatic hardware handshaking is or is not required depends on the specific software application _ On the other hand in some cases you may need to tie Serial Port B s HANDSHAKE OUT and HANDSHAKE IN signals to each other due to the monitoring of handshake signal status by software In the system installation example based on the WYSE WY 50 terminal no hardware handshaking for the terminal is required 3 4 PRINTERS The system can be used with both Centronics type parallel printers and with RS232C ASCII serial printers 3 4 1 Using a Parallel Printer No special configuration is required for using the system with a Centronics type parallel printer Simply reference the parallel printer as the DOS LPT1 device Most application software uses LPT1 as the default printer port so printing to the parallel printer interface is automatic For example the following PC DOS commands will result in printing t
70. st systems have a TYPE command Use the type or similar command to display the file you wish to download However DO NOT enter the lt RETURND The DL function will automatically issue a lt RETURN gt character before it initiates the file transfer The following example of a transfer on a VAX using the VMS operating system assumes you are in Terminal Mode EXAMPLE type vaxfile txt 1 lt CTRL gt x Note No lt RETURN gt is pressed lt CTRL gt x returns you to command mode COMMAND gt gt dl bsvaxfile txt lt RETURN gt Note the DL command supplies the required lt RETURN gt to the remote system Creating b vaxfile txt Downloading press any key to close file LBCOMM issues a lt RETURN gt causing the VAX to recognnize the TYPE command and thus send the file When the download is complete you may press any key to close the file and return to command mode If the file you are downloading is already on your disk LBCOMM will ask if you want to erase the file or add to it Answer with an e or a COMMAND DM SYNTAX DM lt RETURN gt FUNCTION Disconnect the modem DM causes the de initialization sequence line 4 of the MODEM CFG file to be sent to the modem causing your modem to hangup COMMAND EM SYNTAX EMCRETURN FUNCTION Enter Echo Mode This is one of the three Remote Modes Echo Mode is very similar to Terminal Mode with one major exception in Echo Mode all characters received over the communic
71. t of no handshaking is used TERM SYS 1 At this time the following terminals are supported through the indicated terminal control files File Name Terminal Supported ADDSVP TRM Adds Viewpoint VT101 TRM DEC VT101 HAZ ESC TRM Hazeltine 1500 Escape mode HAZ TILD TRM Hazeltine 1500 Tilde mode HZ19 TRM Heath Zenith H19 Z19 TVOXX TRM Televideo 900 series WY50 TRM Wyse WY50 Examples Example 1 To use a Televideo 920 terminal with one page of screen RAM and no XON XOFF handshaking DEVICE TERM SYS TNTV9XX TRM Example 2 A VT101 terminal with 2 pages of screen RAM and XON OFF handshaking enabled The terminal control file is in the UTILS directory DEVICE TERM SYS TNUTILSNVT101 TRM P2 X1 Using TERM SYS with ANSI SYS The IBM PC DOS ANSI SYS driver performs almost the opposite function to that _ of TERM SYS When the ANSI SYS driver is installed through a line in CONFIG SYS terminal control sequences intended for an ANSI compatible terminal are transformed into ROM BIOS function calls compatible with an IBM PC video controller TERM SYS does the inverse it transforms ROM BIOS function calls into terminal control sequences When software requires the use of ANSI SYS on an IBM PC use TERM SYS in addition to ANSI SYS This will re map the ANSI control sequences into sequences compatible with your specific terminal When you use ANSI SYS in combination with TERM SYS be sure to observe the following order
72. the board s ROM BIOS settings of 9600 baud 8 data bits 1 Stop no parity and disabled hardware handshaking on powerup or reset When SETCON SYS is invoked from the CONFIG SYS file on the system boot drive it automatically initializes the system console interface to the values specified in the CONFIG SYS line SETCON SYS allows use of terminals with any of the following baud rates 110 300 600 1200 2400 4800 9600 19200 38400 In addition SETCON SYS permits 7 or 8 bit data length 1 or 2 stop bits odd even or no parity and the option of automatic hardware handshaking RTS CTS Automatic hardware handshaking is often required for terminal baud rates of 19 2K and 38 4K baud When the automatic hardware handshaking feature is enabled the system will Stop sending data to the terminal when Serial Port A s HANDSHAKE IN signal is inactive If required this should be connected to the terminal s Clear to Send CTS output signal In addition if the terminal attempts to transmit data to Serial Port A faster than the Little Board 186 can handle it the port s HANDSHAKE OUT signal will be brought to an inactive level If desired that signal can be connected to a terminal s Request to Send RTS input Signal When the automatic hardware handshaking feature is disabled HANDSHAKE IN is ignored and HANDSHAKE OUT is left permanently active Operation To use the SETCON SYS console initialization device driver create a text file called CONFI
73. ve letter C Also the Little Board 186 ROM BIOS version 2 or later recognizes the first hard disk drive automatically without the use of HARD SYS once it has been properly formatted resulting in an additional occupied drive letter CPMDRVR SYS 1 Example Two floppy drives and a bootable hard disk floppy drive quantity jumpers J7 on the computer board set to 2 Using the two CONFIG SYS lines given above the system drive letters following boot will be First floppy drive Second floppy drive Hard disk drive First floppy drive CP M assignment Second floppy drive CP M assignment moO OW gt NOTE Before you access the CP M drives you must select a CP M computer format with the AMPRO SETCPM COM utility described elsewhere in this chapter Once the driver is installed and a CP M format is selected you can use the CP M diskettes as though they are PC DOS diskettes providing you access them under the specially assigned drive letters This includes copying to and from the CP M diskettes and use of PC DOS commands and application programs When you want to access normal PC DOS diskettes simply use the ordinary floppy drive letters In this manner you can transfer files freely between PC DOS floppy or hard disk drives and CP M floppy diskettes CPMDRVR SYS 2 FUNKEY SYS Version 1 Written by Paul Bartholomew and released to AMPRO for distribution with the Little Board 186 Utilities Software Descri
74. vide a short delay allowing the outside line to connect before the remainder of the number is dialed Here is an example of a PHONE LIB file AzJoe SM LGN vesouseusens 325 2238 B Dale Thatcher eeesese 823 1527 Z Harry Sl0an 0 0 0 387 9249 O AMPRO bbs 415 962 9023 1 AMPRO ONE 408 258 8128 9 AMPRO voice 415 962 0230 Even if you don t need 36 phone numbers on line it is recommended you still fill in the lines with periods or some other appropriate character to present a pleasant looking phone number library LBCOMM EXE 14 MONITOR EXE Version 1 Description MONITOR EXE provides a demonstration of the AMPRO Monitor EPROM option which is intended for use by engineers in specialized applications which do not require the use of PC DOS The Monitor includes commands for memory I O port and CPU register access as well as floppy disk read and write functions MONITOR EXE is not intended to be used as a PC DOS debugging program but is supplied for demonstration purposes only Contact AMPRO for information on the optional Monitor EPROM set Operation The EPROM Monitor demonstration program is run by typing the following command at the PC DOS command prompt A gt MONITOR lt RETURN gt The EPROM Monitor is a menu based program The various EPROM Monitor functions are listed in either the main menu or the sub menus An EPROM Monitor User s Manual may be purchased from AMPRO CAUT

LITTLE BOARD/186 UTILITIES USER`S MANUAL

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