Hallo. I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk?
(MS-)DOS PC on a microcontroller??
Started by ●October 23, 2007
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
On Oct 23, 10:08 pm, Paul Rosen <pr...@lycos.de> wrote:> Hallo. > > I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to > create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a > Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk?You can try FreeDos with 8086 processor. FreeDOS is a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system. Works on old hardware, in DOS emulators, and in embedded systems. FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC compatible systems. FreeDOS is made of up many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project. Visit -> http://www.freedos.org/ Also check this link -> http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/newsitem/130.html 1. Freedos editor: to write assembly programs for microcontrollers. one can see many files at a time comparing things. 2. S51 is a freeware simulator for intel 8x51 series microcontrollers. 3. asm51-assembler for 8x51 it is a freeware 4. Pedit is another free editor to write programs and has many facilities. 5. tavrasm is avr microcontroller assembler that is gnu and runs successfully on freedos. 6. sp12 is a gnu, chip programming software for avr microcontrollers and works very well on freedos. 7. easytrax is a freeware from protel for designing p.c.b. that runs very very effectively on freedos. 8 ceibo 750d - a simulator for Philips microcontroller (commercial software) 9. Chip programmer from Oriole electronics to program chips of 8x51 series.(commercial software) 10. picoscope- a commercial software making the pc an oscilloscope- dos version works fine with freedos. 11. A simple freeware by Charis Volos is "MENUS" and works fine as the desktop. it is simple but effective. 12. Dos navigator can be accessed thro "MENUS" and works wonderfully well as a fantastic file manager with other utils.(a freeware) 13. a wordstar style free wordprocessor with local language support (and english). 14. a spreadsheet instacalc very useful to an electrical engineer for scientific calculations and graphs Karthik Balaguru
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
On Oct 23, 1:08 pm, Paul Rosen <pr...@lycos.de> wrote:> I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to > create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a > Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk?Sure. <http://www.jkmicro.com/products/products.html> (inter alia)
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
karthikbalaguru wrote:>>I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to >>create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a >>Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk? > > > You can try FreeDos with 8086 processor. > > FreeDOS is a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible > operating system.Only the MS DOS is 100% DOS compatible. *All* of the other DOSes do have compatibility problems with some softwares. MS DOS has a lot of undocumented and unobvious features, and it appears that somebody is using that. For example: in the MS DOS, it is perfectly valid to allocate a memory block of zero bytes. In PTS-DOS and some others it results in an error. It appears that surprisingly many programs are actually making the requests of zero bytes, so here is a compatibility problem. Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant http://www.abvolt.com
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:21:24 -0700, karthikbalaguru <karthikbalaguru79@gmail.com> wrote: Thanks for your suggestions.>FreeDOS is a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible >operating system. Works ... in embedded systems.This is the the operative point. One needs a microcontoller at least connected to a floppy, a CD-ROM or a USB-stick to install Freedos and to copy the old MS-DOS programs into the microcontoller. Further one needs a monitor connected to the microcontroller. Where can I find a wiring diagram for this.
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:47:29 +0200, Paul Rosen <proxx@lycos.de> wrote: correction:>Further one >needs a monitor - and a keyboard - connected to the microcontroller.
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
Paul Rosen wrote:> Hallo. > > I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to > create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a > Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk?Do you mean port to another processor, or some (mythical) x86 based Microcontroller with on-chip Flash ?. You would get close with the eZ80Acclaim, or Rabbit, so take a look at the Modules, and operating systems support from those suppliers. In those cases, the Modules tend to include external FLASH, and also Ethernet. -jg
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
On Oct 23, 1:46 pm, Vladimir Vassilevsky <antispam_bo...@hotmail.com> wrote:> For example: in the MS DOS, it is perfectly valid to allocate a memory > block of zero bytes. In PTS-DOS and some others it results in an error. > It appears that surprisingly many programs are actually making the > requests of zero bytes, so here is a compatibility problem.Let me guess... the 0 byte malloc code is in the runtime libraries for Microsoft C, so that no kosher program will run properly on non-kosher DOS clones.
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
larwe wrote:> On Oct 23, 1:08 pm, Paul Rosen <pr...@lycos.de> wrote: > >> I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to >> create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a >> Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk? > > Sure. <http://www.jkmicro.com/products/products.html> (inter alia)Thanks Larwe. We've been making them since 1994. Our products have flown on the Shuttle, the ISS, and several low-earth sats. They've also tracked whales in the Gulf of Mexico and measured shroud tension on manned parachutes. Hardly useless. I'm quite sure that we were the first to do a PC-compatible flash drive on an embedded controller. The motivation was the frustration my wife and I suffered working with the Ampro PC/104 MS/DOS controllers of the time.
Reply by ●October 23, 20072007-10-23
Jim Stewart wrote:> >larwe wrote: > >>Paul Rosen wrote: >> >>> I am wondering, whether anyone made the possibly useless attempt, to >>> create a (MS-)DOS (and its old programs) compatible PC on a >>> Microcontroller by using its flash as harddisk? >> >> Sure. <http://www.jkmicro.com/products/products.html> (inter alia) > >Thanks Larwe. > >We've been making them since 1994. Our products >have flown on the Shuttle, the ISS, and several >low-earth sats. They've also tracked whales in >the Gulf of Mexico and measured shroud tension >on manned parachutes. Hardly useless. > >I'm quite sure that we were the first to do a >PC-compatible flash drive on an embedded controller. >The motivation was the frustration my wife and I >suffered working with the Ampro PC/104 MS/DOS >controllers of the time.I found found the Thin Client T to be ideal for a wide variety of embedded applications. For one-off jobs I really like to use off-the-shelf hardware. I usually reach for: Low end / low performance: BasicX BX-24, [ http://www.basicx.com/Products/BX-24/bx24main.htm Most applications: JK Micros Think Client T [ http://www.jkmicro.com/products/thinclient-t.html ]. High end / high performance: Dell PowerEdge 6850 rack mount server [ http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_6850 ] (I am not affilated with JK Micro, BacicX or Dell, just a satisfied customer.) -- Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com/>
