QVP/PC286 - Amiga Hardware Database
Contents
1. 8 Optional If you have a 80C287 math coprocessor install it at this time WARNING The 80C287 12 math coprocessor is a CMOS device and highly susceptible to damage from static electricity Do not handle or attempt to install this chip without first grounding yourself 8a Refer to Figure 5 6 for the 80C287 chip location SOSO 18 GVP PC286 80C287 math chip socket 80C286 CPU Clock Crystal SESS Custom Interface chip Mini Slot Connector Figure 5 6 Component Locations on GVP PC286 board 8b If the 80C287 chip is brand new you may have to bend the pins prior to installation If the pins are not perfectly vertical rest one whole row of pins against the table surface and gently bend the chip case to vertical see Figure 5 7 Repeat the procedure for the other row of pins Apply gentle pressure Chip ready for installation Figure 5 7 Straightening pins GVP PC286 19 8c Locate the 80C287 coprocessor pins into the socket holes Make sure the chip is correctly oriented The key notch on the chip should match that of Figure 5 8 8d Taking care that no pins are bent or misaligned press the chip firmly into the socket It should seat securely 8e Inspect the chip and socket arrangement for broken or bent pins Orientation notch Figure 5 8 80C287 Chip Installed Now the GVP PC286 board is ready to install into your A500 HD 9 If there is an adhesive anti static mat applied to2. it Country Most of the GVP PC286 program display elements draw on text file resources that can be localized or rendered in different languages The current version of PC286 supports both English and German language displays help screens etc Future versions will extend this flexibility to include many other languages Operation The Operation menu provides control over how much of your Amiga the GVP PC286 gets These selections disable the AmigaDOS functions to varying degrees Stop Amiga Boot Normally PC286 boots into MS DOS as soon as it is enabled While this is happening the Amiga also continues to boot into AmigaDOS usually in a screen hidden behind the DOS screen When you select Stop Amiga Boot the Amiga s normal s startup sequence script file is terminated The Amiga will come up but it will remain in an elementary stage Workbench will not be loaded and memory will not be allocated for disk buffers and resident control structures The principal reason for using this menu option is to maximize the amount of memory and system resources available to the PC286 emulation GVP PC286 55 56 PC 286 only An even more extreme way to improve DOS performance is to select PC 286 only This menu selection actually prevents the Amiga from booting at all The GVP PC286 gets all of the system s resources and does not have to contend with display or I O operations happening in AmigaDOS at all
3. Exiting Configure When ready select Project Quit from the Configure menu bar or click the close box in the main window If no changes have been made the program will exit peacefully to the Workbench screen If even one configuration option has been modified you will be presented with a requester asking if you want to save the new settings into your configuration file Indicating Yes will cause the file to be written If you choose not to save the file click No and the program will exit cleanly GVP PC286 7 Getting Started Hard Drive Case Studies Rickie has an Amiga 500 equipped with an A500 HD and has just installed the GVP PC286 board into his system He has an 80 Megabyte hard drive and four Megabytes of memory Karen has a similar setup but she has two external hard drives one of them a Ricoh removable cartridge drive Tom has recently upgraded his A500 with an 8 Megabyte A530 combo system and the PC286 He has one large 450 Megabyte drive in addition to his 40 Megabyte internal drive Each of our case studies has different needs and different resources By studying how they set up and run their systems we should gain some appreciation of the flexibility of the GVP PC286 system We should also it is hoped understand enough to construct our own optimum A500 PC286 system Rickie After performing the hardware installation test and determining that his system works Rickie resets his machine and lets it boot i
4. e COMI Displays the current assignment of COMI This defaults to Microsoft serial mouse e COM2 Displays the current assignment of COM2 This defaults to RS232 e LPTI1 Displays the current assignment of the Parallel port e Video Displays the assigned video emulation as contained in the Configuration file e BIOS Version Current version number of the emulator BIOS GVP PC286 69 70 t E i ii i e MEMMODE Current video display arrangement PAL or NTSC e Emulator Displays current setting of Mode menu in Configuration file Using PC286 with Memory Expansions It is important for all memory expansion products used in conjunction with PC286 to be fully reliable GVP s Faaast Prep disk comes with a utility called MemTest This should be run before attempting to use PC286 in DOS emulation In addition to the standard 640 kilobyte base memory GVP PC286 can use up to 6 Megabytes of Extended or Expanded memory This is much more than a typical DOS machine can support without expensive add in cards All RAM available to an Amiga should be transparently useable by PC286 PC286 and Windows 3 0 Windows 3 0 is a new graphical user interface for PC systems that allow them to work similarly to a real Amiga Unlike earlier versions of Windows 3 0 is able to run the 80286 processor in Protected mode Windows Standard Mode Protected mode for an 80286 chip allows it to directly address
5. up to 16 Megabytes of RAM This greatly increases its utility for complex operations like graphics manipulation In an Amiga that has 5 Megabytes of total RAM installed for example up to 4 Megabytes of that memory is available for use GVP PC286 by Windows 3 0 running in Standard mode This memory is not used merely as data storage the normal function of Extended memory but as real application space where programs can be loaded and run To use Windows 3 0 in Standard Mode on the PC286 you will need the following e An Amiga with more than 1 Megabyte of RAM e At least 10 Megabytes of free hard disk space Use Configure to assign some or all of your additional memory to Extended memory Save this setting and start PC286 emulation Install Windows 3 0 on your system It s installation and set up program will automatically insert the necessary drivers into your CONFIG SYS file Note Any time you change your system configuration be sure to include the Windows HIMEM SYS driver Users of Windows 3 0 will probably want to select VGA Monochrome 640x480 emulation when building their Configuration file Otherwise before starting Windows be sure to run the utility program VGA EXE included on the GVP PC286 Dos Utilities disk Once these preparations are made you can configure and run Windows 3 0 just as its own documentation describes GVP PC286 71 72 Notes on Windows 3 0 and Display modes Certain prog
6. GVP PC286 distribution disk The other disk DOS Utilities is in MS DOS format and will be unreadable by your Amiga until the GVP PC286 is running As soon as you can make a backup copy of it Keep the original disks in a safe place The manual that comes with an Amiga will describe how to make disk copies under AmigaDOS A standard MS DOS reference will describe the process of copying disks under that operating system If your A500 HD has been in service as a SCSI controller and you already have one or more partitions of data on a hard disk it is strongly advised that you do a complete system backup before proceeding to install the GVP PC286 board The GVP PC286 board provides two different ways to use your hard disk resources under MS DOS emulation They are detailed fully in Chapter 3 Configuration Options We recommend you read this discussion and decide before installation how you wish to build your Amiga AT system ee GVP PC286 5 al ER 3 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS MS DOS and Amiga systems have different configuration require ments Generally combining hardware on a PC requires setting battery maintained memory tables through the use of diagnostic or system setup software provided by the manufacturer and adding software drivers to the PC s startup routine CONFIG SYS Amiga users are spared much of this confusion because of the Amiga s auto configuring architecture The following informatio
7. Note The Configure program will create a default configuration file If you have copied your GVP PC286 software to hard disk run the Configure program from the GVP_PC286 directory on your hard disk Running Configure from the floppy will save the configuration file on the floppy disk only 6 Configure opens its own screen with a number of entries in the menu bar Y 1 08 GYP PC286 c 1991 GVP Inc Figure 6 3 GVP PC286 Configuration screen 7 Hold down the right mouse button and examine the menu headings e Info Displays the current version of Configure e Project Quits the Configure program e Options Configures the GVP PC286 emulator to your system 30 GVP PC286 e Country Sets all screen display elements to use English or German languages for text future versions will support additional languages e Operation Allows configuration of the A500 to maximize resources for PC286 emulation and even to disable AmigaDOS altogether A complete descriptions of these menu entries follows Info Info Configure PC286 512 A508 The Info menu selection exists solely to determine the current version of the Configure program As new versions of the software are released they may be shipped with a newer Configure program With this distribution the current version is the only version Figure 6 4 Configure Info display Project a a REI CRIT UE O IESO te GVP PC286 31 Project Choose Quit to
8. PC286 emulator will always prompt you for a MS DOS system floppy regardless of the number or configuration of hard drives attached Help Clicking the Help button opens a text screen describing the various options available to this requester Reset Clicking the Reset button undoes any modifications made since the last saved Default Default Clicking the Default button resets all Options selections to the factory defaults This choice overrides any previously saved user defaults GVP PC286 4 OK Clicking OK indicates your acceptance of the modified settings The requester will be exited but the defaults will not be saved to a configuration file until you exit the Configure program Quit Clicking Quit aborts the present operation The requester disappears without registering any changes to the options it controls Choosing Quit from this requester does not quit the Configure program however Graphics Adapter The GVP PC286 provides a number of different graphics emulations These are selected through the Options Graphics Adapter menu item Making this selection calls up the following requester Figure 6 9 Graphics Adapter requester GVP PC286 em Graphics Adapter The GVP PC286 supports the following PC graphic display emulations e CGA text and graphics e Olivetti text and graphics e Hercules text and graphics e Toshiba T3100 text and graphics e EGA monochrome graphics e VGA monoch
9. Started Y 8 DOS operation 65 Appendix A Keyboard Equivalents 79 Appendix B Video Reference 81 Appendix C PC286 Error Codes 87 O GVP PC286 III IV GVP PC286 1 INTRODUCTION GVP PC286 is a high performance AT PC compatible hardware emulation designed specifically for use with the GVP Series II A500 HD and A530 Combo expansions Both of these GVP expansion products provide high performance enhancement to the standard Amiga 500 in an easy to install warranty safe package Central to the design of both GVP A500 HD and A530 Combo expansions is a bus direct Mini Slot that provides additional expansion possibilities The GVP PC286 emulator board is the first peripheral designed to use this Mini Slot The GVP PC286 board converts your Amiga 500 into a fully compatible IBM AT clone which runs concurrently as a process under AmigaDOS This means that the same multitasking Amiga can perform both AmigaDOS and MS DOS operations simultaneously AT Performance The GVP PC286 emulator employs a 16 bit CMOS 80286 Central Processing Unit running at 16 MHz The board comes equipped with 512 kBytes of its own RAM and a socket for the addition of an optional 80C287 12 math coprocessor These features combine to give the GVP PC286 board an impressive system performance rating The popular Norton s Utilities evaluation of computing performance SysInfo SJ which co
10. a DOS reset pressing the Control Alternate and Delete keys the configuration set using these programs is srestored a ss 82 GVP PC286 Note When CGA EXE EGA EXE VGA EXE and V400 EXE are started the number of colors for the 80 25 text mode can be selected CGA 4 lt ENTER gt If you leave out this parameter the previously installed number of colors is used Command Function CGA lt ENTER gt selects the CGA adapter with the previously installed number of colors or with the setting that was saved with the Configure program CGA 4 lt ENTER gt selects the CGA adapter with 4 colors CGA 8 lt ENTER gt selects the CGA adapter with 8 colors CGA 16 lt ENTER gt selects the CGA adapter with 16 colors The same applies to V400 EXE EGA EXE and VGA EXE ED yg 5 nee A A A a GVP PC286 83 FA IN mer em T e e a Switching the Hercules emulation Command Function MDA lt ENTER gt selects the Hercules emulation with the previously installed font or with the setting that was saved with the Configure program MDA 8 lt ENTER gt selects the Hercules emulation with a 8x8 font flicker free MDA 16 lt ENTER gt selects the Hercules emulation with a 8x16 font Important The selected graphics adapter and the number of colors are not affected by a DOS Reset eg CTRL ALT DEL A NN NN NN 4 GVP PC286 The Programs VHIGH VLOW SSCR and HSCR Certain programs synchronize their video memory
11. e 9 EMM SYS to make use of Expanded Memory The DOS format utilities disk included with GVP PC286 includes such an Expanded Memory Manager Note Users are again instructed to read the README TXT file on the GVP_PC286 distribution disk This file contains a list of all the DOS programs included with the DOS Utilities disk By the release of DOS 5 0 and Digital Research s DR DOS 5 0 the capability had been added to directly convert Extended Memory into something called High Memory through the use of the utility program HIMEM SYS on systems equipped with a 286 or higher CPU High Memory provides a way for DOS and certain other correctly written software to effectively use Extended RAM Similarly Windows 3 0 by Microsoft in its Standard Mode includes the ability to use Extended memory for real work It achieves this by running the 80286 chip in its Protected Mode Protected Mode allows the processor to function as a 32 bit machine capable of addressing up to 16 Megabytes When using the GVP PC286 Configure program you will be able to specify how much of your Amiga s memory will be recognized as Extended and how much as Expanded RAM Those planning to use Windows 3 0 will probably want to assign all their RAM as Extended memory Those who specify Expanded memory will have to make sure they run EMM SYS or some other Expanded Memory Manager in order for this RAM to become available to LIM compatible programs g Lotus 1 2 3
12. exit the configure program If you modified any of the Options settings a requester will appear asking if you wish to save your new defaults to the configuration file Options The options menu provides the means by which you can customize the PC286 emulation to your liking Settings made here can always be modified at some future date by simply running the Configure program again In addition graphic emulation modes can be changed while running under MS DOS by executing the various programs supplied with the DOS Utilities disk The Options settings include Graphics adapter Henopy Nouse R 232 LPTi 16 48x25 x 4 88x25 Colors TEXT 8 88x25 Colors graphics Keyboard The Keyboard option presents a requester which controls how the Amiga s keyboard is interpreted under MS DOS GVP PC286 Figure 6 5 Keyboard Options Keyboard Type Choose between ASCII or European German keyboard mapping Users interested in preserving their Amiga keyboard map under MS DOS should choose the ASCII Keyboard Type Those familiar with DOS computers should note that the GVP PC286 board does not require the MS DOS file KEYBOARD SYS Repeat Rate Adjusts the speed at which a key repeats when held down The menu includes a slider gadget This can be adjusted by grabbing it with the mouse and moving it left or right Adjusting the slider to the left reduces the repeat rate of the keys Adjusting the slider to the right
13. increases the repeat rate of the keys GVP PC286 33 34 I I L i il nj ul j ETA Delay Rate Adjusts the length of time a key must be held before it begins repeating This option also includes a slider control Adjusting the slider to the left decreases the repeat delay making the keyboard less sensitive Adjusting the slider to the right increases the delay making the keyboard more sensitive Help Clicking the Help button opens a text screen describing the various options available to this requester Reset Clicking the Reset button undoes any modifications made since the last saved Default Default Clicking the Default button resets all Options selections to the factory defaults This choice overrides any previously saved user defaults OK Clicking OK indicates your acceptance of the modified settings The requester will be exited but the defaults will not be saved to a configuration file until you exit the Configure program GVP PC286 Quit Clicking Quit aborts the present operation The requester disappears without registering any changes to the options it controls Choosing Quit from this requester does not quit the Configure program however Floppy Amigas can have up to four floppy drives attached DFO through DF3 MS DOS recognizes just two floppy drives A and B This menu option allows you to assign any two of your Amiga s floppy drives as DOS drives Note Sin
14. inspected and validated as soon as you switch back to AmigaDOS operation Help Clicking the Help button opens a text screen describing the various options available to this requester He A E 36 GVP PC286 Reset Clicking the Reset button undoes any modifications made since the last saved Default Default Clicking the Default button resets all Options selections to the factory defaults This choice overrides any previously saved user defaults OK Clicking OK indicates your acceptance of the modified settings The requester will be exited but the defaults will not be saved to a configuration file until you exit the Configure program Quit Clicking Quit aborts the present operation The requester disappears without registering any changes to the options it controls Choosing Quit from this requester does not quit the Configure program however a E O ee TY GVP PC286 37 Hard Disk The GVP PC286 board provides three methods for using hard disk resources These are described in Chapter 3 Configura tion Options The choices involve either dedicating a hard drive partition to be formatted under MS DOS or the creation of a large multi Megabyte AmigaDOS file on an existing AmigaDOS partition for use under DOS emulation Specific case studies of these methods will be provided in Chapter 7 Getting Started Whichever method is chosen the device assignments are made using the Options Hard Disk menu selection It
15. possible causes e Either the Amiga 500 or A500 HD is not connected to its power supply e The monitor is not connected or turned on e The A500 HD is not correctly seated into the Amiga s expansion bay e The installation was not successful Examine the Mini Expansion slot and the GVP PC286 board for broken or bent pins or other signs of damage O O SD 26 GVP PC286 mm E e CO o a 6 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION This section describes installing the GVP PC286 emulation software onto a GVP hard disk It is assumed that a SCSI hard disk is available to this system Most purchasers will already have a functioning hard disk as part of the A500 HD expansion It should also be noted that the GVP PC286 board can be operated on a floppy only machine and there may be some who use the A500 HD as a RAM expansion only Experienced Amiga users may freely explore the GVP PC286 in their own ways this discussion will lead the newcomer in the most direct path to Lotus 1 2 3 1 If you haven t already done so install the GVP PC286 board into your A500 HD or A530 according to the procedures in Chapter 5 Be sure to follow the instructions exactly 2 If you haven t already done so insert the GVP PC286 distribution disk into DFO and power up your machine 3 After Workbench loads open the icon representing the GVP_PC286 disk and then open the GVP_ PC286 drawer Inside you will see an icon for the PC286 emulation program
16. the range of configuration possibilities available to users of GVP PC286 Your own choices should be motivated by the kinds of work you need to do and the resources at your disposal When your system is configured to your liking double click on the PC286 icon to launch the PC emulator GVP PC286 Compatibility Notes DOS 3 3 and Extended Partitions Versions of MS DOS older than 3 3 were able to mount and use only two hard disk partitions C and D PC286 allows you to use additional hard drive partitions through its Configure program Users of DOS 3 3 or later however may choose to use that operating system s support of Extended Partitions instead In this case only C and D need be assigned under Configure The other partitions however many there may be can be added using FDISK COM under MS DOS A A A E E GVP PC286 63 PAP AAA A NA a A A 64 GVP PC286 man rr 8 DOS Operation DOS Version Compatibility The GVP PC286 emulator will work with versions of MS DOS 3 2 or later Earlier versions will work but they do not support 80 track floppy disks which creates a problem when used with the Amiga drives Unless the user has a 5 25 floppy drive a 3 5 MS DOS system disk 720k format is required Configuration The GVP PC286 leaves the factory with the following default configuration file Users will want to run the Configure program to alter these defaults e Amiga DFO DOS
17. trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Norton s Utilities Sysinfo and SI are registered trademarks of Symantec Inc Lotus 1 2 3 dBase AutoCAD Framework are all registered trademarks and properties of their respective companies Portions of the GVP PC286 board design employ patented technologies under license from Vortex Computersysteme GmbH Other titles and registered trademarks mentioned in this manual are the properties of their respective companies GVP guarantees that on leaving the premises the product is in a working condition and meets all manufacturing and performance specifications No further guarantee is expressed or implied GVP assumes no responsibility as to the fitness or suitability of this product for any commercial or non commercial application GVP assumes no liability for the loss or destruction of data and programs used in connection with this product GVP does not guarantee that this product will work with any other product from another manufacturer unless explicitly stated in this manual The GVP PC286 board has been designed to mount inside and work with the GVP A500 HD and A530 Combo expansion products only ES E EEE a O PS II GVP PC286 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Product Identification 3 3 Configuration OptionsS 6 4 Customer Support 11 5 Hardware Installation O 13 6 Software Installation 27 7 Getting
18. Figure 5 4 This is where you will be installing the GVP PC286 board O O O l GVP PC286 Figure 5 4 Mini Expansion Slot WARNING Be sure to use an anti static wrist strap and to properly ground yourself while performing the remaining steps Failure to do so may result in irreparable damage to the GVP PC286 board 7 After grounding youself break the seal on the anti static envelope that contains the GVP PC286 board Carefully remove the board and lay it flat on the envelope NN NN GVP PC286 17 peters ss s ee e R S RR s ERIR ete e re oe ee Pe no fae DE dg OS oe pare Soe X ee pet TO RAS do Rd o o ee ne es ce po ee es e 2 des Ps Figure 5 5 The GVP PC286 board The following steps describe how to add a math coprocessor to the GVP PC286 prior to installing the board Software that has been designed to work with one will show tremendous performance improvements in the presence of a math chip Excel 1 2 3 dBase AutoCAD and Framework are examples of programs that look for a math coprocessor If you do not intend to use a math coprocessor skip to step 9 Note Pay strict attention to the designator when purchasing a math coprocessor chip The only supported chip is a 80C287 12 The C in the designator indicates a CMOS chip Non CMOS chips require much more power and will not work with the GVP PC286 board The trailing 12 indicates the coprocessor s rated clock speed
19. GVP PC286 Powerful 286 PC Emulator for the Amiga 500 E mes ro ADDENDUM The fellowing points were either not mentioned in the manual or were not stressed strongly enough and bear repeating 1 During the installation of the PC286 board check to make sure that all 100 pins of the mini slot are correctly inserted into the connector on the PC286 unit Misalignment can cause serious damage to both the PC286 unit and the A500HD or A530 sub systems 2 When reconnecting the case of the ASOOHD or the A530 it is essential that you correctly connect the power wires for the fan If you connect the wires and power on the unit but the fan does not spin then merely reverse the connectian for the fan wires The heat generated by the hard drive inside the plastic case can build up without the fan running causing the other components inside the case to fail 3 When assigning RAM to the PC286 emulator be sure to reserve a minimum of 256 kilobytes for the Amiga s use under AmigaDOS Failure to do so may result in a total lockup of both machines XXXXXX XX May 1992 GVP PC286 4 When assigning RAM to the PC286 emulator be sure to use increments of 16 bytes MS DOS makes certain assumtions about paragraphs of RAM 16 byte chunks but the configuration software allows any increment of RAM to be added Setting the MS DOS memory size to an unusual amount such as 537kb will most likely result in hav
20. RAPHICS 4 320 200 pixel CGA Mode 6 GRAPHICS 2 640 200 pixel MDA TEXT 2 80 25 characters Hercules GRAPHICS 2 720 348 pixel Toshiba 3100 GRAPHICS 2 640 400 pixel Olivetti GRAPHICS 2 640 400 pixel EGA mono GRAPHICS 2 640 350 pixel VGA mono GRAPHICS 2 640 480 pixel Notes 1 16 different colors in CGA textmode can be assigned to 4 8 or 16 MS DOS colors The number of colors chosen directly affects the video output performance of the PC286 GVP PC286 81 2 In Hercules Mode the screen can be scrolled left and right through the 720 pixel resolution by using the left Amiga keypad 1 and left Amiga keypad 3 3 Only important for NTSC operation In VGA monochrome mode the screen can be scrolled up and down through the 480 pixel resolution by using the left Amiga keypad 1 and left Amiga keypad 3 keys Switching the video emulation under MS DOS Using the Configure program the video emulation and number of colors can be set Independent of these settings the following programs can be used under MS DOS to switch the emulation mode CGA EXE for CGA emulation with 4 8 and 16 colors MDA EXE for Hercules emulation EGA EXE for EGA monochrome emulation VGA EXE for VGA monochrome emulation V400 EXE for T3100 Olivetti emulation Using the INVERS EXE program the screen can be switched between normal and inverse mode These programs can be found on the PC286 DOS Utilities disk Also after
21. access to the vertical flyback VBL from the video controller to produce a flicker free picture Here they await a pulse of a certain length from the VBL As the PC286 video emulation is software based it is not possible to produce a natural copy of the VBL pulse The standard configuration is VLOW i e a short VBL Pulse If a program simply hangs after starting it could be that it is in an endless loop waiting for a long VBL pulse In this case reset the PC286 and before restarting the program start the VHIGH program An example of such a program is the editor from Norton s utilities NE COM VHIGH if selected does not stay installed after a system reset After a reset the video emulation is once again in VLOW mode Scrolling SSCR EXE switch on the Softscroll function in text mode Default HSCR EXE switch on the Hardscroll function in text mode With Softscroll enabled soft smooth the scroll is performed with the Blitter This achieves a smooth scrolling screen at the expense of system overhead With Hardscroll enabled the scroll is managed indirectly by the video emulations s screen update GVP PC286 85 86 im e a _ Ex zam norr e e GVP PC286 APPENDIX C PC286 ERROR CODES If during the operation of PC286 an error occurs the following alert message will be displayed PC286 Fatal Loader Error xx Press any mousebutton The following error codes are possible Code Re
22. al Karen s roommate creates her own configuration file that specifies a German keyboard and German language text prompts Tom Tom is a maker of multimedia software He needs DOS compatibility to move picture and sound files from one platform to the other Since he deals with huge amounts of data he chooses to use the DOSfile method for his partitions This choice is motivated by the fact that backing up a 450 Megabyte hard drive can take a very long time If he uses the DOSfile method he can take advantage of GVP s Tapestore tape backup system to do periodic disk image backups ts most efficient mode GVP PC286 61 After backing up his existing data Tom uses Configure to create a 200 Megabyte DOSfile on his main drive He also creates a much smaller DOSfile on his internal hard disk to act as a boot partition His entries in the Options Hard Disk requester look like this DOS C DHO BootrFile 0 75 DOS D DHO BootFile 76 2076 Note Recall that only one DOSFile may be used but that it may contain as many as 24 separate DOS partitions The first cylinder must always be 0 Because Tom is running an A530 accelerator he can expect to experience much less of the system performance degradation that using DOSfiles forces on standard A500 systems For this same reason his is also able to run Windows 3 0 in 16 color mode with only modest slowdowns Go Pc286 These examples are presented purely to illustrate
23. an icon labeled HD Install and one called Configure AAA GVP PC286 27 IPUR PENGOY Figure 6 1 GVP PC286 disk contents 4 To move the GVP PC286 emulator software onto your hard disk double click on the HD_Install Icon The following message will be displayed on your screen Figure 6 2 HD Install script O HR aaa 28 GVP PC286 Type EXECUTE HD_INSTALL device lt RETURN gt where device is the designator for the hard drive partition where you wish GVP PC286 to reside Remember to include the colon after the device name Example EXECUTE HD_INSTALL DH1 lt RETURN gt This tells the program to install the files onto hard drive DH The installation program will check to see if a drawer called PC286 exists on the specified device If it does not a drawer and drawer icon will be created and the PC286 files copied into it The installation requires at least 450k of free disk space If you do not wish to proceed at this time cancel the installation by typing ENDCLI lt RETURN gt PC286 purchasers who prefer to use the CLI should note that the complete contents of the GVP_PC286 drawer are copied from the distribution disk to the destination drive In addition the file rct library must be copied from the libs directory of the distribution disk to your System libs directory 5 To prepare the GVP PC286 emulator for operation double click on the Configure icon GVP PC286 29
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25. ason Solution 0 dos library not found Switch off and restart A500 1 icon library not found Copy icon library into libs 2 PC286 cfg not found Copy PC286 cfg to correct directory or run Configure 3 PC286 cfg is corrupt Copy PC286 cfg to correct directory or run Configure 4 Insufficient memory Finish other tasks or switch the A500 off and restart the whole system GVP PC286 87 6 7 10 11 12 PC286 dsg not found PC286 dsg corrupt Hardware test failure Insufficient memory PC286 bin not found PC286 bin corrupt PC286 checksum error PC286 already running Incompatible memory model Floppy DF1 not found Copy PC286 dsg from the distribution disk to the correct directory Copy PC286 dsg from the distribution disk to the correct directory Switch off and restart A500 Finish other tasks or switch off the A500 and restart the whole system Copy PC286 bin from the distribution disk to the correct directory Copy Pc286 bin from the distribution disk to the correct directory Copy PC286 from the distribution disk to the correct directory There Is only one PC286 task possible Try another memory model Deselect DF1 with Configure 88 GVP PC286 90161 Vd VISSNEd JO DNI 3NN3 AV AEV19 009 S LIMOOEA AITIVA IWS 000606600 0 6 6 4 6 COODOOO OOO O E GVP GREAT VALLEY PRODUCTS LIMITED WARRANTY REGISTRATION Please fill out this car
26. ce the GVP PC286 board multitasks with AmigaDOS any drives identified as A and B will still be available to AmigaDOS when working in that environment Upon selection of the Floppy menu a requester appears Figure 6 6 Floppy Drive Interpretation requester O GVP PC286 35 The Floppy Option menu entry also allows you to specify 40 track 360k or 80 track 720k densities for floppy disk operation While the GVP PC286 board is fully capable of recognizing and addressing high density 1 2 Megabyte 5 25 or 1 44 Megabyte 3 5 drives these devices are currently not available on the Amiga Auto Diskchange The Amiga s multitasking nature requires it to closely monitor every time a floppy disk is inserted or ejected This prevents one program from corrupting data that might be in use by another simultaneously running program Users of DOS machines on the other hand are quite accustomed to removing and inserting floppy disks at will If the Auto Diskchange button is set to ON the Amiga will continue to monitor floppy drive activity and check or validate any disk whether MS DOS or AmigaDOS as soon as it is inserted The drive light will come on for several seconds and no activity will be permitted until the disk has been validated This can introduce annoying interruptions into a DOS work session Selecting Auto Diskchange OFF disables the AmigaDOS disk checking while working in MS DOS In any case disks will always be
27. ch off the power immediately and recheck all your work GVP PC286 Figure 5 12 Correctly installed A500 HD subsystem MBE O a a a a O O a a a 24 GVP PC286 ii 11 iW i il pit iH installation Test 1 Insert a copy of the GVP PC286 distribution ak into DFO and power up the machine 2 You will be presented with a series of messages and then a Workbench screen will open 3 Open the GVP_PC286 drawer and double click the PC286 icon There will be a brief pause and then the machine will reset itself This is expected 4 The Amiga will then ask you to insert an MS DOS System disk into DFO 5 When you see the request for MS DOS you have just demonstrated that the GVP PC286 board works You may now proceed to load a DOS disk as prompted or to reset your computer and proceed with the next chapter Software Installation Note When you reset AmigaDOS Ctrl Left Amiga Right Amiga the PC286 if active will remain active during the reboot It will be reset along with AmigaDOS but you do not have to reload the PC286 program Under PC286 emulation MS DOS can be reset using the standard Chi Alt Del key combination PC286 emulation can be removed from the sytem by pressing Left Amiga Right Amiga Q Neither of these reset operations will affect a simultaneously running AmigaDOS session DO GVP PC286 25 Hardware Troubleshooting If the machine fails to boot investigate the following
28. d and return it immediately It allows us to let you know about new developments as well as more easily support you Name Address City State Zip or City Country Postal Code Date of purchase Purchased from Purchased from O Dealer O Distributor O Catalog O Mail Order O End User O Other Unit Serial vV vV y What features do you like best Unit Serial IT What features aspects do you like least OPS NASA Suggestions for improvements Other GVP products owned Phone Occupation Primary user x O Male O Female O Family ge ATI E Uses check all that apply O Corporate O Small business O Home business O Personal EPS NASA NS Check all that you own O camcorder O VCR O MIDI synthesizer O PC O C64 O A500 O A2000 O A3000 O COTV O Toaster O Other ADIOS How would you rate the following 1 excellent 5 poor Packaging__________ Ease of use Documentation Value Overall quality _ AR SA d Influences O Product Features O Quality O Salesperson O Dealer O User Group O Educational Discount O Trade Show O Advertising O Amiga World O Amazing Computing Eterna AA vv Y Trade Shows you plan to attend O World of Commodore O COMDEX O Ami Expo O CES O NAB O Other GREAT VALLEY PRODUCTS INC 600 Clark Avenue King of Prussia PA 19406 Phone 215 337 8770 FAX 215 337 9922 Ws NA GVP PC286 and Series Il are trademarks of Great Valley Products Inc All other product names and tradem
29. dentical for an A530 Combo expansion and users of that product should follow the same steps exactly WARNING Before proceeding make sure that all power to the Amiga and A500 HD is shut off Remove any peripheral and power cables 1 If your A500 HD is already attached to the Amiga s expansion bus spearate them and move the A500 HD to a clear workspace Figure 5 1 The A500 HD Expansion Unit S a 14 GVP PC286 2 Turn the A500 HD unit upside down Refer to Figure 5 2 and using the crosspoint screwdriver remove three screws as indicated Remove 3 Screws Figure 5 2 Underside of A500 HD 3 With the screws removed turn the A500 HD right side up and carefully lift the plastic cover CAUTION The A500 HD cooling fan and Game Switch are mounted on the plastic cover and wired to the A500 HD circuit board Use care when lifting off the cover not to break these wires 4 Note the connection points for the cooling fan and Game Switch wires They are attached with press fit connectors to terminal posts on the main circuit board eee GVP PC286 I5 5 Pull to free the connecting wires and then set aside the top cover Note the polarity of each connection as well as its position ge aie COPS CORN A Bare cove ae ee eed Lorca Sant Sateen apos no DOS NPT Sate tg a Figure 5 3 A500 HD with cover removed 6 Note the position near the A500 HD bus connector of the GVP Mini Expansion slot see
30. display emulation has a 2 4 8 or 16 color palette associated with it These palettes can be adjusted and saved so that any change in display mode will also load the default palette for that mode Select each configuration separately from the Options menu e GVP PC286 49 olors TEXT 16 40x25 CGA Olivetti and T3100 display emulations can display on a 40 column by 25 line character based screen using 16 colors This mode if chosen can be expected to produce moderate performance degradation The colors for this resolution are adjusted by sliding the Red R Green G and Blue B sliders Figure 6 11 CGA 40x25 16 color palette adjustment GVP PC286 T PE DE a DU DO IO E VS E TS an E ens Le L A u oe See Sr e e TI ia om Samm A 5 n os Colors TEXT 16 80x25 CGA Olivetti and T3100 display emulations can display on a 80 column by 25 line character based screen using 16 colors This mode if chosen can be expected to produce severe erformance degradation The colors for this resolution are adjusted by sliding the Red R Green G and Blue sliders Figure 6 12 CGA 80x25 16 color palette adjustment GVP PC286 Colors TEXT 8 80x25 CGA Olivetti and T3100 display emulations can display on a 80 column by 25 line character based screen using 8 colors This mode if chosen can be expected to produce moderate performance degradation The colors for this resolution are adj
31. drive A e AmigaDOS disk change recognition OFF e No hard disk assignments e Hercules Text emulation 2 colors 8x8 font e 640k base memory e Ok Extended memory e Ok Expanded memory e Amiga mouse COMI a Microsoft compatible mouse driver must be supplied e RS232 serial port COM2 e Parallel port LPT1 GVP PC286 65 66 Disk Changes under MS DOS The Amiga s multitasking nature requires it to closely monitor every time a floppy disk is inserted or ejected This prevents one program from corrupting data that might be in use by another simultaneously running program Users of DOS machines on the other hand are quite accustomed to removing and inserting floppy disks at will If the Auto Diskchange button is set to ON the Amiga will continue to monitor floppy drive activity and check or validate any disk whether MS DOS or AmigaDOS as soon as it is inserted The drive light will come on for several seconds and no activity will be permitted until the disk has been validated This can introduce annoying interruptions into a DOS work session Selecting Auto Diskchange OFF disables the AmigaDOS disk checking while working in MS DOS In any case disks will always be inspected and validated as soon as you switch back to AmigaDOS operation When running under MS DOS you can enable or disable the Auto Diskchange detection by holding down the left Amiga key and typing the Keypad 2 key Memory Test Whenever a DOS
32. e Workbench Preferences program see your Amiga user manual File transfers To copy files from an AmigaDOS partition to a MS DOS partition and vice versa the DOS Utility Disk contains the two small programs P2A EXE and A2P EXE e P2A EXE PC TO AMIGA copies a file from a MS DOS partition into an AmigaDOS partition e A2P EXE AMIGA TO PC copies a file from an AmigaDOS partition into a MS DOS partition Both utilities are used under MS DOS with the following format C gt P2A PCNAME AMIGANAME lt ENTER gt C gt A2P AMIGANAME PCNAME lt ENTER gt The PCNAME is the name of the MS DOS file The AMIGANAME is the name of the AmigaDOS file GVP PC286 PCNAME DRIVE SUBDIR1 SUBDIRn FILENAME AMIGANAME DEVICE PATH1 PATHn FILENAME Examples PCNAMES C TEST BIG TXT A FUN ASC AMIGANAME DHO ASCFILES PC286 TRANSF TXT For the PCNAME DRIVE and SUBDIRs can be omitted if the file that should be transferred is located in the same directory as P2A or A2P For the AMIGANAME the complete path must always be used Wildcards are not supported When the transfer is in progress each 64kb of data transferred will be represented by a dot on the display screen GVP PC286 77 mta O mna a Ta es ee et ees oe e LSO i E 78 GVP PC286 ee E A ZII a ewes 5 SI TZ A 8 Appendix A Keyboard Equivalents PC286 emulates an 84 key IBM AT keyboard The nu
33. ed to the mouse will be mapped onto the Amiga s serial port It is also possible to switch off the RS232 serial port under MS DOS if for instance the Amiga is already using its serial port to run a BBS or laser printer Users should be aware that PC286 will take over the serial port if RS232 is selected in this requester Access from the Amiga will be blocked Parallel The Amiga s parallel port can be assigned as LPTI to either DOS port address 278 or 378 It can also be disabled Users should be aware that PC286 will take over the parallel port if LPTI is assigned in this requester Access from the Amiga will be blocked Help Clicking the Help button opens a text screen describing the various options available to this requester Reset Clicking the Reset button undoes any modifications made since the last saved Default GVP PC286 Default Clicking the Default button resets all Options selections to the factory defaults This choice overrides any previously saved user defaults OK Clicking OK indicates your acceptance of the modified settings The requester will be exited but the defaults will not be saved to a configuration file until you exit the Configure program Quit Clicking Quit aborts the present operation The requester disappears without registering any changes to the options it controls Choosing Quit from this requester does not quit the Configure program however Display Colors Each
34. erlays etc GVP PC286 67 Ee a E Any time you decide to move these files around it is important to keep them all together in the same directory Similarly if you receive an update disk from GVP be sure to replace the old file with new ones Users should note that they may have to recreate their configuration settings after copying update files to their system Running PC286 When PC286 is started the emulation software automatically detects the memory configuration specified in the configuration file and initializes itself accordingly Shortly after reset the following display appears GYP PC286 912k Emulator for the Amiga c 1991 Great Valley Products CPU B8286 BIOS Version 2 08 NPU 88287 NTSC M8 22 FAST RAM EP PC286 BASE MEMORY EXT MEMORY c Copyright 1991 EXP MEMORY Great Valley Products Figure 8 1 PC286 DOS boot screen The various entries in this display can be interpreted as follows GVP PC286 Ds 7 O E ee O ME DR e Ly CPU80286 16 MHz standard for GVP PC286 NPU 80287 reads Installed only if one is present e FAST RAM displays the amount of RAM on the PC286 board e Base Memory 640kb Maximum standard value This can be reduced using the Configure program e Ext Memory Assigned Extended memory Determined by the settings in Configuration file e Exp Memory Assigned Expanded memory Determined by the settings in Configuration file
35. es Text mode two different fonts can be selected H stands for High intensity and L stands for Low Intensity The HerL selection provides both Users should be cautioned that selecting both High and Low intensity text will appreciably degrade video performance since it introduces an additional level of character by character software interpretation 44 GVP PC286 Font Size Two font sizes are supported 8x16 and 8x8 Choose a text font size that matches the display resolution selected above 40 columns vs 80 columns Click on the button that corresponds with the chosen size Screen Choosing Inverse will provide inverted text rendering modes white text on a black field becomes black text on a white field Choosing Blinking enables blinking text rendering mode characters flash on and off As with High and Low intensity modes choosing either Inverse or Blinking characters will add interpretation overhead to the display slowing performance Choosing both will compound the performance degradation Help Clicking the Help button opens a text screen describing the various options available to this requester Reset Clicking the Reset button undoes any modifications made since the last saved Default Default Clicking the Default button resets all Options selections to the factory defaults This choice overrides any previously saved user defaults GVP PC286 45 46 OK Clicking OK indicates your acceptance o
36. f the modified settings The requester will be exited but the defaults will not be saved to a configuration file until you exit the Configure program Quit Clicking Quit aborts the present operation The requester disappears without registering any changes to the options it controls Choosing Quit from this requester does not quit the Configure program however GVP PC286 Doe e ET Memory Mouse RS232 LPT1 Selecting Options Memory Mouse RS232 LPT1 produces a requester that allows for the configuration of both memory resources and Input Output ports Figure 6 10 Memory and I O requester Memory Chapter 3 discussed the different memory models available under MS DOS base extended and expanded This requester provides the means for determining how much of your Amiga s system RAM will be allocated to each Use the set of increment and decrement arrows to add or remove memory from each memory type display Use the chunky increment and decrement arrows in coordination with the Step button to add or remove memory by the tens hundreds or thousands of kilobytes GVP PC286 47 48 Mouse and Serial The Amiga has only one serial port and a separate port for mouse input On a PC there are usually two assignable serial devices COMI and COM2 The Amiga s mouse is recognized by the GVP PC286 as a Microsoft Serial mouse It can be assigned to either COMI or COM2 Whichever serial port is not assign
37. ine To create a DOSfile of a given size divide 108 000 into the total desired MS DOS partition size For instance a 20 Megabyte partition divided by 108kb per cylinder yields 180 cylinders we are willing in this case to round figures down in order to simplify our calculations Using this technique a 60 Megabyte DOSfile on the Amiga can be made to contain three 20 Megabyte MS DOS partitions They would be specified as follows DHO MYDOSFILE 0 180 DHO MYDOSFILE 181 361 DHO MYDOSFILE 362 543 How many partitions DOS versions 3 3 and later can directly employ up to 24 hard drive partitions Once mounted under AmigaDOS they may be configured using the FDISK COM DOS utility Versions of 1 Gvp s A500 HD and A530 SCSI controllers use Auto mount technology In most cases as soon as you power up your system all hard drives whether AmigaDOS or MS DOS formatted will be mounted by the SCSI controller and ready to use GVP PC286 be configured using the FDISK COM DOS utility Versions of MS DOS earlier than 3 3 provided support for a maximum of two hard drive partitions C and D If you are using such a version of DOS and would still like to use additional partitions the GVP PC286 can assign them using this requester In addition to selecting hard disk partition assignments this menu option allows you to specify whether to boot into MS DOS from the C hard drive partition or from floppy If you select Floppy The GVP
38. ing MS DOS programs fail or freeze when trying to load or allocate memory 5 The GVP PC286 emulator utilizes an actual 80C286 processor in almost exactly the same way as a standard PC clone Ifa software compatibility issue arises the vendor of the software package should be contacted first to see if there are any special requirements for running their software on a clone more often than not this is the case rather than a problem with the PC286 itself 6 When using the PC286 with a GVP A530 Turbo accelerator for the Amiga 500 it is important to have the 68030 s data caches turned off until after the PC286 is up and running Turning the cache on while the P286 is not running and then attempting to start the PC286 will most likely cause the PC286 to freeze and crash GVP PC286 CAAT ili pi AE GVP PC 286 Emulator 16 MHz 80286 PC Compatibility for the GVP A500 HD and A530 Combo Expansion Chassis GVP PC286 I Copyright 1991 by Great Valley Products Inc GVP All rights reserved The GVP PC286 board emulation software utilities and manual are protected under international copyright laws and agreements No part of this package may be reproduced in any form physical electronic photographic or otherwise without the expressed written consent of GVP AT XT and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation Microsoft MS DOS Windows 3 0 are registered
39. inuing with the installation ee an 2 GVP PC286 2 PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION III NN Fully compatible 16 MHz PC AT emulator CMOS 80C286 16 CPU chip 512 kBytes onboard RAM Norton Sl index of 15 Socket for optional 80C287 12 math coprocessor Compact Surface Mounted Technology SMT circuit board for high integration low power consumption and reduced cost Custom Very Large Scale Integration VLSI support chips for lower component count Fully AT compatible ROM BIOS Full 640 kByte base memory as minimum standard configuration Ability to address additional FAST RAM as either Extended or Expanded Memory Runs unrestricted in 286 Protected Mode Supports Microsoft Windows 3 0 Emulates EGA and VGA monochrome graphics CGA 16 color graphics Hercules Olivetti and Toshiba 3100 display standards Works transparently with A500 based flicker eliminators GVP PC286 e Runsasa concurrent process within the AmigaDOS operating system e Reads and writes MS DOS file system on any standard Amiga floppy drive e Full support for MS DOS partitions on GVP Series II SCSI hard disks e Recognizes the Amiga mouse as a Microsoft Serial mouse on COM 1 or COM 2 e Recognizes the Amiga s Parallel port as LPT1 e Recognizes the Amiga s Serial port as either COM 2 or COM 1 depending on mouse setting Emulates the PC AT alert beep through Amiga audio hardware e Recognizes and uses the Amiga s Real Time clock Com
40. is important to note that both methods of hard drive storage can be used simultaneously on a single GVP PC286 Amiga system Upon selection a requester appears Figure 6 7 Hard Drive selection requester rT EE 38 GVP PC286 When assigning DOS partitions to an Amiga hard drive partition methods A and B as described in Chapter 3 simply supply the appropriate drive identifier under the DOS partition name refer to Figure 6 6 DOS C DOS D or DOS E If you choose to employ the DOSfile method method C as described in Chapter 3 a little more calculation is required Initially you will type the drive identifier and your choice of filename in the appropriate slot In order for the Amiga to know how much dataspace to reserve we must specify a size expressed in terms of logical starting and ending cylinders on an imaginary DOS hard drive The Amiga may put the file anywhere it chooses but the cylinder values will persuade DOS that it is talking to a known device Dnive Cylinders Hard Drives record data in concentric rings on round platters sort of like a phonograph record or audio CD Each ring is called a cylinder Figure 6 8 Hard drive cylinder arrangement GVP PC286 39 40 For its purposes the PC286 assumes a cylinder to contain approximately 108kb That s the product of 8 heads x 27 blocks per track x 512 bytes per block a more or less typical arrangement for hard drives on a DOS mach
41. machine starts up it runs through a self test diagnostic Normally this test checks all of your memory chips before proceeding If you have a lot of memory assigned to Extended or Expanded RAM you may wish to bypass this part of the self test GVP PC286 Pressing the Escape ESC key immediately after booting into DOS will skip past the memory test MS DOS System Reset The GVP PC286 can be reset just as any PC or AT system simultaneously press the Control Ctrl Alternate Alt and Delete Del keys Resetting MS DOS will mot reset the Amiga Moving between AmigaDOS and MS DOS As with most other AmigaDOS applications the PC286 emulator runs as a separate process under AmigaDOS and maintains its own screen Unless you tell it otherwise AmigaDOS will continue to run in its own screen behind the DOS screen You can swap screens using the Left Amiga key in combination with either the ms or nm keys It is possible to be viewing one screen while your input devices keyboard and mouse are active in the other Clicking the left mouse button while viewing a particular screen will activate the input devices for that screen PC286 Emulation software When you run the HD_Install utility on the GVP PC286 distribution disk all the necessary files will be copied together into your chosen destination directory These include the program binary and the various support files such as configuration settings multi language ov
42. meric keypad on the Amiga keyboard is available in the same definition as when used in AmigaDOS The following special key combinations are available during the operation of the PC286 Note on older A500 keyboards the left Amiga key may carry the Commodore ogo instead of the AmigaJogo Keys Function Left Amiga Invert screen White text on black Keypad 0 screen changes to black on white Left Amiga Scroll Hercules graphic screen Left or Keypad 1 Scroll VGA graphic screen up NTSC Left Amiga Disk change recognition under DOS Keypad 2 enabled disabled left Amiga Scroll Hercules graphic screen Right Keypad 3 or VGA graphic screen Down NTSC Left Amiga Hardware Reset of GVP PC286 Right Amiga S Left Amiga Quit PC286 and clear program from Right Amiga Q memory Restore AmigaDOS Ctrl Alt Del Software Reset of MS DOS HPA a A A ey GVP PC286 79 Keys Function Left Amiga N Swap screens between MS DOS and Left Amiga M AmigaDOS Left Amiga Scroll through all available screens Left Amiga under AmigaDOS forward backward a II NN 80 GVP PC286 APPENDIX B VIDEO REFERENCE The programs CGA MDA V400 EGA VGA and INVERS PC286 supports the following video emulations Mode Type Colors Format CGA Mode O TEXT 160 40 25 characters CGA Mode 1 TEXT 16 40 25 characters CGA Mode 2 TEXT 16 80 25 characters CGA Mode 3 TEXT 16 80 25 characters CGA Mode 4 GRAPHICS 4 320 200 pixel CGA Mode 5 G
43. mpares the machine under test with the theoretical limits of an original IBM PC XT rates the GVP PC286 board as equivalent to 15 XTs That s performance comparable to many 386 machines currently on the market m GVP PC286 I The GVP PC286 board s use of low power CMOS chips and advanced Very Large Scale Integration VLSI custom circuitry allow for an extremely compact and efficient layout and the GVP licensed AT ROM BIOS ensures full compatibility with virtually all existing AT applications System Configuration With its 512 kilobytes of onboard memory the GVP PC286 board allows A500 systems with just 512k of original memory to function as a complete 640k MS DOS system The GVP PC286 board can also recognize any additional FAST RAM and access it in either Extended or Expanded Memory models The GVP PC286 support software allows for the partitioning and use of any SCSI hard drive connected to the A500 HD or A530 Combo SCSI controller as a DOS partition This enables the board to boot directly into MS DOS from hard disk and provides for almost unlimited storage of MS DOS applications and data The GVP PC286 emulation provides two different ways of working with hard drive resources These will be detailed in Chapter 3 Configuration Options Each method has its own benefits and it is possible to use both simultaneously on different partitions Users will want to study this section and make some basic hard drive decisions before cont
44. n is not intended to be a DOS system configuration reference Refer to your MS DOS or application manuals for more complete information on what DOS expects Extended vs Expanded Memory Before the advent of the Intel 80286 all DOS applications and the DOS operating system were limited to a maximum of 640 kilobytes of memory This 640k represented the entire RAM space available to DOS applications Under DOS program code and data had to be small enough to be contained in this space along with the DOS itself More memory so called Extended Memory could be added to systems equipped with a 286 or higher but as it lay beyond the addressing capabilities of DOS it was good for little more than disk caches and RAM disks As program functionality and data structure requirements tested the limits of the base 640k machines three major DOS companies Lotus Intel and Microsoft LIM developed a technology stand ard for increasing memory resources beyond a single Megabyte The LIM standard for Expanded Memory greatly extends the functionality of a DOS machine by making this RAM useful to correctly written applications Data can be stored there and operated upon by these applications Programs can also be loaded into it and executed eE EG GVP PC286 But whereas the Amiga automatically finds and uses any memory that s installed a DOS system requires the use of a software driver an Expanded Memory Manager
45. nto AmigaDOS Taking the time to be careful Rickie completely backs up the contents of his hard drive GVP PC286 57 58 Rickie s hard drive is about one third full He doesn t have many DOS programs that he needs to run but he has inherited a mailing list database containing about 20 Megabytes of model airplane hobbyists addresses and telephone numbers Rickie concludes that he can devote 30 megabytes of his hard drive to a DOS partition That leaves approximately 25 Megabytes for future growth Upon completion of his backup Rickie restarts FaaastPrep and subdivides his single partition hard drive into one 50 Megabyte partition for AmigaDOS DHO0 and one 30 Megabyte partition for MS DOS DHI He proceeds to format the AmigaDOS side and then restore his data to the DHO partition With his newly constituted system back in operation Rickie opens the GVP_PC286 drawer on his AmigaDOS partition and starts the Configure program Since his mailing list application will work perfectly well in a 4 color screen Rickie selects the CGA 80x25 Text mode in 4 colors As for memory Rickie decides to allocate two megabytes to Expanded Memory He makes a note to himself to remember to install EMM SYS on his DOS drive and to add it to his CONFIG SYS file as well Rickie calls up the Options Hard Drive requester Under DOS C he enters DH1 Until the hard drive is formatted and has DOS installed Rickie must leave PC286 configu
46. o install Expanded memory the file EMM SYS found on the PC286 DOS Utilities Disk can be used The following command must be entered into the CONFIG SYS file DEVICE EMM SYS Also the EMM SYS driver must be copied from the DOS Utility Disk onto the hard disk partition C After MS DOS is booted the Expanded memory is installed according to the settings used in the Configure program EMM SYS does not support the LIM 4 0 Standard If you need Expanded memory according to LIM 4 0 you need an LIM4 0 emulator such as Turbo EMS of Merrill amp Bryan GVP PC286 73 Not enough memory Every mounted partition needs RAM some need more some less PC286 reserves all its working RAM during start up long before the hard disk partitions are mounted Therefore it is possible that the whole machine may hang up without display ing an error message because there is not enough memory left to mount the hard disk partitions There are 3 possible solutions e Upgrade your Amiga with more memory e Reduce the number or size of the hard disk partitions e Reduce the size of MS DOS base memory to 512k Supported Floppy Disk Drives and their Formats With MS DOS version equal or larger than 3 2 the PC286 emulates the following disk formats Capacity Sides Tracks Side Format 720KB 2 80 3 5 5 25 360KB 2 40 3 5 5 25 360KB 1 80 3 5 5 25 Using the Configure program Amiga floppy disk drives DFO DF1 etc can be assigned to MS DOS d
47. partition under DOS Both methods A and B allow for hard drive performance up to the limits of the specific hardware and DOS software Method C carries some additional overhead but provides for a slight increase in data security This method involves permanently allocating some large chunk of an AmigaDOS partition as a MS DOS file The PC286 emulator will treat this single file as a physical hard drive partition and write data into it The data format used within the file wiil be one that DOS understands but the file itself will look like any other AmigaDOS file to the A500 filing system One benefit to this method is that standard Amiga backup utilities e g Quarterback from Central Coast Software or GVP s own TapeStore are able to archive your MS DOS partitions Explicit descriptions of how to build each of these hard disk systems is provided in the Getting Started section Chapter 7 It would be wise however to decide at this time which method you intend to use T_T 10 GVP PC286 aem A 4 CUSTOMER SUPPORT Customer Service for the GVP PC286 board is provided by Great Valley Products Inc Our service lines are open 9 15 a m to 6 00 p m Eastern Time in the United States at 215 337 8770 Additionally GVP maintains a 24 hour Bulletin Board Service at 215 337 5815 and a FAX line at 215 337 9922 In order to be eligible for telephone support purchasers of the GVP PC286 board must complete and mail in the Produc
48. patible with all versions of MS DOS from 3 2 through 5 0 as well as DR DOS 5 0 amp 6 0 e Comes complete with GVP PC286 board User manual AmigaDOS format System disk and PC format Utilities disk e Customer support and periodic software updates through GVP s Technical Support service Please read the file README TXT on your GVP PC286 distribution disk for any last minute changes or addenda to this document This file can be read using the More utility under AmigaDOS or output to your chosen Preferences printer E O E O E A 4 GVP PC286 This manual describes the installation and operation of the GVP PC286 board only If you are not already familiar with the basic functionality of the Amiga 500 including use of the mouse to make menu selections and control screen operations duplication of disks etc please read the manuals that came with your computer For information on the formatting and partitioning of SCSI hard disks refer to the GVP manuals that accompanied your A500 HD or A530 Combo expansion Note This product is intended to be used with either the A500 HD or A530 Combo expansion products manufactured and sold by Great Valley Products No other use is supported This product does not include the MS DOS operating system documentation on MS DOS or any DOS applications The purchaser assumes full responsiblity for the legal acquisition and use of these properties Data Security Before proceeding make a copy of the
49. rams cannot run together with Windows 3 0 in Standard Mode e g EXCEL 2 01 or WORD 5 0 To use these programs with the Extended memory program updates from Microsoft are required They are normally reasonably priced after sending in the original disks Otherwise these products can be used with Windows in Real mode If you operate an NTSC Amiga 500 USA standard we recommend choosing Olivetti AT amp T PVC display 640 400 instead of the VGA monochrome display The reason is that on an NTSC Amiga the VGA monochrome screen with its 640 480 resolution does not fit completely into your Amiga screen you normally have to scroll it up and down with special key combinations described below If you choose to use the Olivetti emulation substitute V400 for VGA in the above Windows Installation procedure Using a RAM Disk with RAMDRIVE SYS To install a RAM Disk using RAMDRIVE SYS the following command must be entered into the CONFIG SYS file using a text editor like EDLIN DEVICE RAMDRIVE SYS 1234 e GVP PC286 The Microsoft RAM Disk driver must be copied from the MS DOS system disk onto the hard disk C The parameter 1234 above is your choice for the size of the RAM Disk eg 3072 for 3MB Any RAM specified must of course be present in the system Note The RAM Disk loses its contents as soon as the computer is elther switched off or it is reset using the CTRL ALT DEL keys Expanded Memory T
50. red to boot from floppy Later he will change this to make his machine hard disk bootable GVP PC286 The rest of the default settings look pretty good to Rickie mouse LPT etc He selects Project Quit and indicates for the settings to be saved into his Configuration file When he starts up the PC286 program Rickie is prompted for a DOS system disk He inserts a version of MS DOS and proceeds to install it according to the instructions in his DOS manual The first thing he must do is to prepare the MS DOS partition C He uses the DOS program FDISK COM to prepare the partition and upon returning to DOS issues the following command FORMAT C S lt ENTER gt The parameter s tells the DOS floppy to copy its system files to the new partition making it bootable When complete Rickie types COPY C lt ENTER gt This copies all the files on the DOS floppy to the hard disk partition He then performs the same operation to copy all the files from his GVP PC286 DOS Utilities disk to the hard drive as well Finally Rickie uses the DOS command EDLIN to edit his DOS startup script CONFIG SYS He adds the command for EMM SYS that will enable his Expanded memory GVP PC286 59 60 When finished Rickie switches off his machine After a minute or so he powers up and returns to the Configure program After modifying his configuration file to boot from hard drive he is all set to try out the new 286 sub
51. rive with 2 MS DOS Partitions and 1 AmigaDOS Partition PA oe Z DHO So DHO DOSFILE pesca OS 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 070 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 A 97 9 06 9700 6 6 0 6 Ys omo es Ey Sas OSS C Single Hard Drive with AmigaDOS Partition containing 2 MS DOS format files Figure 3 2 Hard Drive Configurations supported by GVP PC286 GVP PC286 9 t Ll HO Il Ny 1 C Creation of a MS DOS partition as a fixed size file on an AmigaDOS partition Since hard drive configuration for the GVP PC286 requires the more or less permanent allocation of hardware resources it is a good idea to consider these several methods before proceeding In many ways method A employing separate hard drives for AmigaDOS and MS DOS partitions is the most satisfying Maintaining separate disk drives effectively isolates each type of data into its own subsystem Each MS DOS drive must first be prepped and mounted by AmigaDOS It can then be formatted under MS DOS using FDISK COM Not everyone has access to more than one hard drive however Method B requires that a new partition be created on your AmigaDOS hard drive This is accomplished using the FaaastPrep utility that came with your A500 HD The Partition is specified and recorded in FaaastPrep just as any ordinary AmigaDOS partition but it is not formatted under the AmigaDOS system Instead the PC286 emulator is started and the DOS utility FDISK COM is used to format the
52. rives A and B 74 GVP PC286 TE m a When the PC286 is loaded the standard floppy format setting is 3 5 with 720kb If you have selected an external 360kb floppy drive a 40 track unit as floppy drive B you must be sure to use the DRIVPARM command to ensure that the disk will be correctly formatted to 360kb Note The Amiga 500 does not allow the operation of MS DOS high density disks 5 25 1 2Mb or 3 5 1 44Mb In spite of this restriction the PC286 emulator BIOS already contains all relevant functions to handle high density disks As soon as a usable HD floppy kif Is available we will support it with an upgrade Amiga mouse Microsoft Mouse To install the Amiga mouse as a Microsoft compatible mouse the driver MOUSE SYS or a compatible driver must be supplied The following command must be entered into the CONFIG SYS file DEVICE MOUSE SYS Many programs e g WORD 5 5 require their own mouse drivers Such drivers are delivered with the program In some cases the mouse driver is already integrated in the main program e g Windows 3 0 PC286 interprets the original Amiga Mouse as a serial Microsoft Mouse on either COM1 or COM2 All Mouse drivers that use a Microsoft serial mouse are automatically compatible GVP PC286 75 The Realtime Clock If there is an Amiga compatible realtime clock available it is interpreted by PC286 as an AT realtime clock under MS DOS The time and date can be set using th
53. rome graphics Click the button for the display adapter you wish to emulate Number of CGA text colors Each mode has a different number of colors available 16 8 4 or monochrome In monochrome two colors black and white usually are used and the screen is dithered to approximate shades of gray It is important to note that your system s performance will be greatly affected by the number of colors you choose Since the PC286 must share its memory and display resources with an otherwise fully functioning Amiga 500 both sysbystems will be significantly slowed The more colors you ask for the more resources the PC286 must borrow from the Amiga Click the button that corresponds with the number of colors you wish to use Clicking Aswto will automatically choose the maximum number of colors the chosen emulation will support GVP PC286 43 Mi jil Graphics emulation modes can also be changed while running under MS DOS The following utilities are provided on the DOS Utilities disk for this purpose e CGA EXE V400 EXE MDA EXE EGA EXE VGA EXE Note The following table describes the graphic displays that produce optimum performance Display Emulation Colors DOS command CGA 80x25 CGA 4 lt ENTER gt OLIVETTI 80X25 V400 4 lt ENTER gt HERCULES 80X25 MDA 8 lt ENTER gt VGA EGA 80X25 VGA 4 lt ENTER gt EGA 4 lt ENTER gt Table 6 1 Optimum display modes Hercules Text Font In Hercul
54. system Rickie double clicks the PC286 program icon In a few seconds his system resets and when it comes back up the PC emulator begins to boot directly off the C partition Karen Karen s roommate is an exchange student from Frankfurt Germany They are both studying medicine at college and must share the same computer for all their schoolwork It is Karen s intention to prepare separate Ricoh cartridges for herself and her roommate Like Rickie Karen backs up her entire system before installing the GVP PC286 She uses FaaastPrep to prepare and mount each of her Ricoh cartridges RHO and RH1 Then she prepares a 10 Megabyte partition on her other fixed hard drive This will become the DOS machine s boot disk The Ricoh cartridges will then become data storage devices for herself and her roommate When that is done she installs the board and software onto her AmigaDOS boot drive GVP PC286 Following a similar procedure to that described above Karen chooses graphics modes memory configuration and I O preferences Under Hard Drives Karen enters DH1 as the DOS boot drive C For herself she assigns RHO to DOS D and for her roommate RH as DOS E She must use FDISK COM to prepare each partition and then format each one using the DOS command FORMAT When finished she is able to copy all the DOS system files to DH and make it the bootable drive in her configuration file Once the system is operation
55. t Registration card that accompanies this manual Doing so will ensure that you receive all forthcoming product information and updates The mailing address for GVP is Great Valley Products Inc 600 Clark Avenue King of Prussia PA 19406 USA A GVP PC286 11 a 12 GVP PC286 5 HARDWARE INSTALLATION Package Contents e GVP PC236 board in antistatic envelope e One AmigaDOS format 3 5 disk containing PC286 emulation software and installation utilities e One MS DOS format 3 5 disk containing GVP PC286 DOS utilities e This manual and User Registration card What You Need The following required items are not provided in this package and must be supplied by the user e Amiga 500 computer system e GVP Series I A500 HD expansion or e A530 Combo expansion e Anti static wrist strap available from Radio Shack MS DOS 3 2 or later e DOS application software Optional items e 80C287 12 math coprocessor T a A GVP PC286 13 WARNING The GVP PC286 board achieves its small size and high performance through the use of CMOS VLSI chip technology These chips are extremely sensitive to damage from static electricity Observe completely the following cautions and instructions during installation GVP assumes no responsibility for damage to PC286 board components resulting from improper handling The following instructions refer specifically to an A500 HD expansion product The installation process is i
56. the non component side of the GVP PC286 board peel this off 10 Match the socket on the lower edge of the GVP PC286 board with the pins of the A500 HD Mini Expansion slot There is only one way that this can be done ee 20 GVP PC286 Figure 5 9 Locating the GVP PC286 board onto Mint Expansion slot 11 Taking care to correctly align all the pins push the GVP PC286 board straight down until firmly seated The A500 HD and PC286 board assembly should now look like that pictured in Figure 5 10 A A ne GVP PC286 21 Figure 5 10 Correctly installed GVP PC286 board 12 Reconnect the A500 HD cooling fan and Game Switch leads and replace the cover Be sure to check the polarity of these connections If the fan fails to operate or the Game Switch works in reverse the polarity of the connectors is wrong 13 Secure the cover onto the A500 HD using the screws removed earlier 14 Align the A500 HD edge connector with the expansion bus of the Amiga 500 _ _ gt ro II IEC KIKO AAA ee 22 GVP PC286 Figure 5 11 Align A500HD bus connector with Amiga expansion port 15 Taking care to properly mate the connectors slide the A500 HD expansion module into the Amiga s chassis expansion bus There should be a snug positive fit 16 Reconnect any removed power and peripheral cables Apply power and boot the Amiga using your normal system disk If you experience any unusual symptoms swit
57. usted by sliding the Red R Green G and Blue B sliders e e e e o y gt Se e e o e e o y e o a el o o gt A a a e o Se 5 D y e o sa 2 Figure 6 13 CGA 80x25 8 color palette adjustment GVP PC286 A a 2S o am ls M cam fam e a DER _ es ee ee se qemu a Colors TEXT 4 80x25 CGA Olivetti and T3100 display emulations can display on a 80 column by 25 line character based screen using 4 colors This mode permits the most efficient graphics display performance for non monochrome emulations The colors for this resolution are adjusted by sliding the Red R Green G and Blue B sliders Figure 6 14 CGA 80x25 4 color palette adjustment GVP PC286 Color graphics This palette allows you to set the colors for CGA Low resolution palettes 1 amp 2 3 colors It also determines the foreground and background colors for Hercules graphics EGA monochrome and VGA monochrome emulations and the High resolution 2 color modes for CGA Olivetti and T3100 Note Both Olivetti and T3100 emulations support a 640x400 high resolution graphics display using 2 colors Users of monochrome should beware of assigning the same colors to both foreground and background palette entries his will result in an invisible display 2000 000 6 0d no Figure 6 15 Color graphics palette adjustment GVP PC286
58. version 2 2 under MS DOS Hard Drives and Partitions Hard drives are physical data storage devices with a fixed capacity Parti tons are logical devices also called volumes that are created on a hard drive A hard drive can contain one or several partitions m GVP PC286 7 Ea eS E ELN Hard Drive 1 with 1 Partition a MN Hard Drive 2 with 3 different sized Partitions AS N Figure 3 1 Hard drives and Partitions On a MS DOS machine the first hard drive partition is always drive C Versions of DOS earlier than 3 3 provided support for C and D partitions only Later versions allow for many more partitions DOS Partitions and AmigaDOS Normally a hard drive that the Amiga can read cannot be read by DOS and one that is formatted under MS DOS will be unreadable by AmigaDOS GVP supports the creation of MS DOS partitions in the following ways illustrated in Figure 3 2 A Separate AmigaDOS and MS DOS partitions on different physical drives B Separate AmigaDOS and MS DOS partitions on the same physical drive Hn aa 8 GVP PC286 A Separate Hard Drives for AmigaDOS and MS DOS YA Hard Drive 1 with AmigaDOS Partition Y AmigaDOS format MS DOS format Sa Hard Drive 2 with MS DOS Partition POIS 5 AI ARAS AAA AAAA ME ERINN A Hard Drive 3 i ras ad AMA AAA gt with AmigaDOS Partition BO Pana ORO A LG BSS B Single Hard D
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