ISIS-II emulators

[Paul Birkel]

ISX - An ISIS-II emulator   http://p112.sourceforge.net/index.php?isx

 

Possibly of general interest.  I haven’t tried it out.

 

Are there any other known ISIS emulators?

 

I did find this: https://www.bloovis.com/geek/isis.html

 

-----

[Herb Johnson]

On 4/26/2021 2:18 AM, Paul Birkel wrote:
> ISX - An ISIS-II emulator http://p112.sourceforge.net/index.php?isx

> <http://p112.sourceforge.net/index.php?isx>

This page suggests the person found in the "unofficial CP/M Web site",
an ISIS-II emulator, and then disassembled it. They do not identify what
they found! The unofficial Web site is at: http://www.cpm.z80.de/

> Possibly of general interest.  I haven’t tried it out.
>

about the P112 sourceforge files:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/p112/files/ISX/1.4/isx14.zip
https://sourceforge.net/projects/p112/files/ISX/1.4/isx14dir.ziphttps://sourceforge.net/projects/p112/files/ISX/1.4/isx14-os3bdos.zip


are in files of "P112 software" by "hperaza" Luis Hector Peraza
Gonzalez, from year 2007. There's no documentation on the
sourceforge.net site. I strongly suggest, therefore, saving the
descriptive text on the Web page http://p112.sourceforge.net/index.php?isx

Looking at the sourceforge documents in isx14.zip a source is titled
"Digital Research's ISIS emulator ISX.COM". Other files also show
"Digital Research". So it's a CP/M 80 (some version) means to overlay
CP/M with support for ISIS II 8080 programs. Possibly the ISIS
object/executable programs have to be "converted" and a CP/M EOF
mark/byte established.

I thought the origin might be here:

http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html

under LANGUAGES; PL/M 80;

http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/plm80.zip

PLM compiler : 343K ***UPDATED 05/25/98*** Here is the PLM compiler v.
4.0 .....

as "PLM compiler... along with ISIS emulator...." The apparent origin of
these executables is from Intel, and was alledged to been used to "to
build CP/M 2.2". which might have been true.

But examination of these self-extracting EXE's says these tools are
based on MS-DOS - to run an ISIS emulator which will run the PL/M
compiler. They are apparently from Intel; when Intel moved some PL/M 80
tools to MS-DOS by emulating the ISIS OS they ran upon.

Also:

quote "Another PLM Compiler : I am told that this is v. 3.1, an earlier
version of the above compiler."
http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/plm80x80.zip
http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/plm80x86.zip

The 80X80 ZIP has a .COM file "IS14.COM" and "ISX.COM"; those may bhe
the un-disassembled binaries referenced. A README says:

"This ZIP file contains the ISIS-II PLM-80 v3.1 compiler. These files
were pulled from the MPM2 source code disks and from the ISIS
environment for MS-DOS provided by INTEL."

The 80X86 ZIP has two files, a EXE and a README which starts quote: "The
accompanying software is being provided by Intel Corporation in
response to your request for this software."

(It's damned annoying, when people "borrow" other software without
specifying its origins and providing documentation already made
available. This is how I spend my time, tracking down this stuff,
cleaning up after others.)

>> I did find this: https://www.bloovis.com/geek/isis.html

"bloovis" apparently wrote an simulator "in the early '80's" for ISIS-II
under MS-DOS/Turbo C. (I've just used that compiler myself days ago.)
Then they updated it 2 years ago for Linux, Windows/MinGW. THat's as far
as I went with that, today.

> Are there any other known ISIS emulators?

https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/isis.html
my "20th century ISIS" Web page
has a link to the Bloovis work.

Also a link to Z80pack (broken) which has an ISIS emulator, search the
page for "ISIS":

https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/#documentation

https://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/isis.html#links
my "21st century ISIS" Web page.

has a section titled "Running ISIS or iRMX today" which has other links.
I'll update that section with information gleaned today.

regards, Herb Johnson





--
Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net
preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing
email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com
or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

[Vale, Martyn]

 

Hi Paul,

 

There’s a full emulation of an MDS II implemented in Mame, however it’s not exactly what you might call fast !

 

https://www.mamedev.org/release.php

 

I’ve got a working version which I could upload to the google drive if you want as you need to search out the Roms and tweak it etc……..

 

There’s also Thames

 

https://www.seasip.info/Unix/Thames/thames.html

 

Mark has an modified DOS version of this in his repository. It’s similar to ISX however has more working functionality.

 

Thanks

Martyn.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "intel-devsys" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to intel-devsys...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/intel-devsys/12b001d73a64%2401c77b30%2405567190%24%40gmail.com.

[Herb Johnson]

On 4/26/2021 11:38 AM, Herb Johnson wrote:

> https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/isis.html
> my "20th century ISIS" Web page

> has a section titled "Running ISIS or iRMX today" which has other links.
> I'll update that section with information gleaned today.

Well, I've done that. Paul in particular, if you please, see if I've got
things right about the works on the "unofficial CP/M archive site" at
http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html. After looking at this stuff on
multiple Web pages and establishing relationships, I just get dizzy and
lose track.

> There’s a full emulation of an MDS II implemented in Mame, however it’s not exactly what you might call fast ! https://www.mamedev.org/release.php

I'll add that to my Web page. - regards Herb

[mark.p...@btinternet.com]

All
I am aware of a number of emulators
ISX - loads the core of ISIS as a CP/M application then allows it to run ISIS applications. As noted it uses a utility CPMEOF to mark text files so that ISIS lengths work ok. Needs CP/M to remain resident hence the space for ISIS apps is reduced. Note it makes some assumptions about CP/M so is unlikely to work with all CP/M variants.

Thames - allows ISIS applications to be run but does not emulate full ISIS behaviour. I have enhanced the original version to provide supplementary features to allow a level of automated directory to ISIS disk mapping and synthesis of error return codes. Other features include mapping tmp files so that multiple instances can be run at once. It is designed to run single applications with external windows/unix shells providing submit or make functionality. It makes no attempt to be cycle time accurate and as such it is fast.

Zemu - this has an ISIS boot option. It runs z80 but most ISIS apps should work. I haven't tried it

MAME - this apparently has an ISIS boot option. I haven't tried it.

Beaver - this is an X11 based emulator which can run ISIS 4.3. Some limitations on port mapping e.g. for serial port usage. It does not support the video control codes used by the Intel boxes as far as I can determine, but can be made to compile under windows WSL, with a little effort.

SIMH - Bill Beech as implemented a number of bios options to allow ISIS to be booted using the SIMH emulator core

Bloovis - I haven't used it as it I was originally unable to build it. But checking the github site it appears to have been update so may try again.

ISIS - this is an intel emulator for ISIS that runs under DOS. Internally it uses UDI i.e. the core emulator was designed to run under iRMX. It does not correctly support the DAA instruction as it was designed to run the main ISIS applications which do not use this instruction. The emulator is 16bit and comes with the normal ISIS file name limitations. Environment variables are used to map drives to directories, but the paths need to be pure 8.3 alpha numeric, so the auto generated ones with the ~ in do not work.

Note a number of the fuller emulators I have tried occasionally have minor issues with keyboard input

Mark

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "intel-devsys" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to intel-devsys...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/intel-devsys/85da8f7a-fa0f-fca2-0c26-07a60b7ce667%40retrotechnology.com.

[Bill Beech (NJ7P)]

I have simulators for the MDS-800, -810, -210, -220, -225, -230, SDK80,
iSBC-80/10(*), 80/20, 80/20-4, 80/24 and 80/30 in the SIMH/Intel-MDS
simulator.  These simulators run actual Monitor ROM and Disk images of
ISIS-II and CPM-80.  I am working to get the Monitors cleaned up and the
OS images.  I have successfully run the disk images built by Marks tools.

Bill

On 4/26/2021 2:03 PM, mark.pm.ogden via intel-devsys wrote:
> Alln the

[Eric Smith]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 9:39 AM Herb Johnson <hjoh...@retrotechnology.com> wrote:

This page suggests the person found in the "unofficial CP/M Web site",
an ISIS-II emulator, and then disassembled it. They do not identify what
they found!

It appears to me that the web page explains what they found. For example, how the hacked CP/M of the emulator stores the file length in bytes, the IOBYTE changes, the memory map, and (linked) the disassembly and the modified BDOS "sources".

[Herb Johnson]

http://p112.sourceforge.net/index.php?isx

"explaining what" is not the same as explaining where and who!
"Browsing through the CP/M unofficial pages, I found an interesting
piece of software..." the software is unnamed and unlinked-to! That's
the "who" and "where". And there's two choices, which my Web pages
puzzles out.

The "what" that is explained, is technical details of some operations of
the ISX program. There is also a description of ISX emulator commands.
So I stand corrected in that regard. However that documentation is not
part of the files archive (as best I could puzzle out).

The Sourceforge pages by this person, are after all a "P112 support"
pages, that being a Z180 single board computer; the ISIS emulator is one
of many programs and OS's provided.

Thanks for the feedback, Mark. It's tough to run through all these Web
sites and sort out the leads, get the history right. It's my practices
to do that.

-------------

Also: thanks, Bill Beech, for pointing out your SIMH work. That's
getting to be another puzzle to solve, as SIMH fractured over the last
decade or more. It's apparently the 4.X branch that you and others have
added to. My Web page is updated accordingly!

Regards, HErb

[Paul Birkel]

Thank you all for working to bring this information together into a single accessible site, especially Herb.

Starting at: https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/isis.html

-----Original Message-----
From: intel-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:intel-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Herb Johnson
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2021 7:50 PM
To: intel-...@googlegroups.com; Eric Smith
Subject: Re: intel-devsys ISIS-II emulators

[mark.p...@btinternet.com]

Just a minor update, on retrotechnology website
I updated the information on ISIS on my website a while ago. I confirmed the 4.2w information and ISIS 1.1 (16k) is also now available.

As a preliminary note ISIS III appears to use the same floppy disk format as ISIS 4.x, I have more work to do re hard disks, syscalls etc.
Regards
Mark

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "intel-devsys" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to intel-devsys...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/intel-devsys/14fb01d73b39%24df832ed0%249e898c70%24%40gmail.com.

[Herb Johnson]

On 4/27/2021 6:22 AM, mark.pm.ogden via intel-devsys wrote:
> Just a minor update, on retrotechnology website
> I updated the information on ISIS on my website a while ago. I confirmed the 4.2w information and ISIS 1.1 (16k) is also now available.
>
> As a preliminary note ISIS III appears to use the same floppy disk format as ISIS 4.x, I have more work to do re hard disks, syscalls etc.
> Regards
> Mark

I added the 1.1 info to my Web page, also the ISIS III info:

https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/isis.html

I'm pretty excited about recently moving ISIS 1.1 to another floppy
controller. When time permits I'll see if i can make a more dramatic
change of hardware. But it's not a high priority over other work I have.
Also, recent discussion of ISIS emulators blunts the need to migrate the
binaries. It's still a good piece of work, the "acid test" to be able to
move to another platform.

But I'm surprised by the reference to "ISIS III". So I added your
comment about it, "cold". Mark, what's the deal on ISIS III, what is it
about? Web searching today, I see it's mentioned in association with
networking (NDS-II ISIS-III) or "ISIS clusters"

Not to be confused with Intel's "Series III" products which apparently
added a "resident processor card" (apparently an alternate processor
like an 8086) versus the "integrated processor card" that ran the OS and
some development software. http://joe.classiccmp.org/mds/mds.htm

regards, Herb

[mark.p...@btinternet.com]

Herb
I have two versions of ISIS-III(N) versions 2.0 and 2.2.
As you note they appear to be associated with the NDS networking feature.
Some differences I am already aware of
1) ISIS.BIN is in standard OMF85 format and it loads code in multiple areas, unlike the ISIS-II version
2) The 2.2 version has an ISIS.86 file which appears to be ISIS-IV V1.2, so presumably used as a bridge
3) There is an ISIS.LM file which is also MOF85 format, not sure what it does
4) There are 3 ISIS overlay files, the .OV0 file appears to implement GETDIR as per some ISIS-II variants
5) There is an ISISC.BIN file, which appears to be a raw image file.

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: intel-...@googlegroups.com <intel-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Herb Johnson
Sent: 27 April 2021 16:38
To: intel-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: intel-devsys ISIS-II emulators

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "intel-devsys" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to intel-devsys...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/intel-devsys/c5449671-ecff-92e8-e0ee-4d41a5784be6%40retrotechnology.com.

[Herb Johnson]

On 4/27/2021 12:54 PM, mark.pm.ogden via intel-devsys wrote:
> Herb
> I have two versions of ISIS-III(N) versions 2.0 and 2.2.
> As you note they appear to be associated with the NDS networking feature.
> Some differences I am already aware of
> 1) ISIS.BIN is in standard OMF85 format and it loads code in multiple areas, unlike the ISIS-II version
> 2) The 2.2 version has an ISIS.86 file which appears to be ISIS-IV V1.2, so presumably used as a bridge
> 3) There is an ISIS.LM file which is also MOF85 format, not sure what it does
> 4) There are 3 ISIS overlay files, the .OV0 file appears to implement GETDIR as per some ISIS-II variants
> 5) There is an ISISC.BIN file, which appears to be a raw image file.
>
> Mark

OK, thanks. I assume these are unreleased-by-you at this time. Let me
know when you have these available in some form for other's consideration.

--

[mark.p...@btinternet.com]

Herb
They are available on my website as part of my intel collection. I have however not reverse engineered them
Regards

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: intel-...@googlegroups.com <intel-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Herb Johnson
Sent: 27 April 2021 18:39
To: intel-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: intel-devsys ISIS-II emulators

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "intel-devsys" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to intel-devsys...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/intel-devsys/bcac477a-ac27-2c98-4c8e-40631a39bda8%40retrotechnology.com.