[Coco] early OS-9 ads/articles compilation

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 12:56 PM, Joel Ewy <jcewy at swbell.net> wrote:
> Frank Swygert wrote:
>>
>> TAPE BASED OS-9?? Come on now! Tape was barely usable with ECB.
>
> Now, I never suggested running a non-disk OS-9 system in 1980-81 would be
> comfortable.  But I was speculating about why the people who brought us
> ROM-based EDTASM didn't adapt an existing concept:  running OS-9 from ROM,
> using the cassette for mass-storage.  This was actually done on other
> systems, it isn't hypothetical.
>

Indeed, OS-9 with "tape file manager" was sold for other systems three
years before it was available for the CoCo.

> I'm not talking about booting OS-9 from tape, but booting from a ROM PAK.
>  The limiting factor there may have been the size of affordable ROM chips at
> the time.  But in a non-disk system you wouldn't need RBF, the floppy
> driver, or any floppy descriptors.  You wouldn't need the pipe file manager
> and its accompanying modules.  You would need an SCF manager, a tape driver,
> and a /c cassette device descriptor, as well as the VDG driver and term.
>  You would need a shell, load, save, and maybe mdir.  I'm not sure if all
> that would fit in an 8K ROM or not.  Maybe it's an occasion to boot Level 1
> and add up the module sizes.

The same ad listing OS-9 for tape system says it comes on 2716's or
2708's, seemingly indicating that it took up more than one of these.
Not sure how much was actually required, but I'd imagine to have any
sort of workable system you would want as much in rom as possible.

The very earliest announcements for OS9 level 1 claim it requires only
4k of ram (but I think by the time it actually became available this
requirement was raised).  Just image a 4k CoCo 1 running OS-9 from rom
and using tape for storage.  Would have been quite a different
computer.

>
> What about 2 8K ROMs in the PAK and a bit of TTL to switch them?  The first
> ROM autostarts a boot module that puts the CoCo into all-RAM mode and loads
> the ROMed bootfile.  It then switches to the other ROM and loads the shell
> and a few utilities from it.  You'd be in a shell nearly instantly.  (These
> days of course I've got piles of 64K EPROMs and even bigger flash ROMs
> salvaged out of old PC motherboards, but we're talking about '80-81...)
>
> Now you can load other utilities from cassette and save your data files on
> tape.  Slow, yes.  And sequential access is a pain.  But I don't see why it
> would have been any worse than ECB.
> I think that mainly OS-9 on the CoCo 1/2 was an afterthought for Tandy, and
> they just didn't move on OS-9 until farther into the floppy disk era.  And
> it was aimed at (what they perceived to be) a different audience than the
> Quasar Commander crowd, though I've certainly enjoyed both.
>
> JCE
>>
>> Anyone doing much serious with the CoCo definitely got disk as soon as
>> they could. I did some word processing working with tape for a bit over a
>> year before I could afford to build a budget disk system (new third party
>> disk controller, 360K drives that were pulls, built a case and bought a
>> surplus power supply). I was an E-4 in the USAF in 1987 when I did that,
>> with a wife and kid.
>> OS-9 in a disk controller ROM makes a lot more sense. The only problem I
>> see if that configurations varied. It would still have been a viable option.
>> Have the ROM version boot then look for a configuration file/script that
>> would load any additional drivers/modules needed. You'd just need some kind
>> of configuration program to create the config file. Well, it wouldn't really
>> be NEEDED, but that would be the way to go for a system for the masses.
>> So why hasn't someone done something like this with NitrOS-9 now? It would
>> work well with one of Roger's wireless paks or with Drivewire through a
>> bit-banger.
>> Speaking of Drivewire and Roger's CoCoNet... Many have a complete
>> Intel/AMC PC available to use as a server that they also use for other
>> things. But what about those who don't want a hulking case on their desk
>> just for drives? Would it be possible to program a PIC or some other minimal
>> board to work with one of those? I'm thinking the system could be as little
>> as a single half-height hard drive in a full height case. There are some
>> small 386 boards that could be used with USB ports that could load software
>> and provide for further expansion. All that's needed is a minimal Linux or
>> maybe even DOS system to boot and run on it, boot from a USB drive and be
>> able to install itself to the hard drive.
>>
>> ---------------------
>> Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:10:21 -0600
>> From: Joel Ewy <jcewy at swbell.net>
>>
>> 3.  I always knew that OS-9 was designed to be "ROMable" but the the
>> earliest OS-9 ads, describing a ROM-based system that even supported KC tape
>> systems makes me wonder anew why OS-9 on the CoCo wasn't available as a ROM
>> PAK with cassette support, at least as one optional configuration.  This was
>> Motorola's big idea, and Tandy certainly took to it for games, and even
>> applications.  It was certainly technically feasible.  Think how many more
>> CoCo users might have gotten into OS-9 if it was available on e.g. a $79.99
>> cartridge that could save programs and files on cassette.
>>
>
>
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