Cromix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system – for the Z80!
It shocked me at the time that anyone would think of such a thing, much less attempt something so clearly far beyond the realms of possibility. It can’t be done because: Continue reading Running Cromix on Windows
SIMH is a simulator that supports the Z80 CPU. It has great goals and a commendable history. You can find it at http://classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/cpm/mirrors/www.schorn.ch/cpm/intro.php. There are links on that page to the simulator and to a CP/M configuration. You’ll need both, even if you already have CP/M disks / images. Continue reading The SIMH Z80 Simulator
The Cromemco 256KZ card was an S100 bus computer card. It slotted into the card cage of an old computer and provided 256 KB of RAM for the computer.
This was surprising because, at the time, the computers using the S100 bus could only access up to 64 KB of memory. Why pay for all that extra space if you can’t use it? Here’s why … Continue reading The Cromemco 256KZ Card
dBase II was a database program from Ashton-Tate released in the 1980s.
It ran on CP/M computers and provided an easy way of creating complete database systems. This was because it included a way of displaying input forms, validating the entered data and of retrieving and reporting entered information. You could write programs in its database language.
I thought it pretty amazing at the time, especially as it ran on 8bit microcomputers with, often, less than 64K of memory. (That’s not the Gigabytes that we see today, nor even Megabytes, it’s a tiny fraction of a thousandth of what you have in your desktop computer or even your phone). Entire inventory control systems and accounting systems were developed with it and they were the mainstay of many businesses.
To run an old dBase II program on a modern Windows computer is pretty straight forward with the right tools. Here’s how it’s done… Continue reading Running dBase II on Windows
cpmfs is a tool for copying files in and out of CP/M disk images.
It allows you to copy any files you like from Windows onto a “disk” for an emulator or simulator. This also means you can copy files off old diskimage files and put them, in whatever combination you need, on new blank “disks”.
Version 0.03 supports a lot more disk formats. The list (from the program) is: Continue reading cpmfs version 0.03 released
I’ve updated the CP/M File System tool to support some additional disk formats. The tool allows you to copy files to and from the disk images that you use in CP/M emulators (see Edit CP/M Disk Image for details).
The disk types supported are now:
Here’s some of the details of the disk image formats … Continue reading CP/M Disk Formats
How do you change what CP/M programs are on a disk image file?
If you are running CP/M within an emulator, you can copy (PIP) files from one disk to another. But, you have to have them within a disk image to start with. If you need to get a file from a Windows computer into a disk image for a CP/M computer, that presents problems. Hey, the CP/M disks were 128 bytes per sector and Windows computers use 512 bytes per sector. This means even writing a physical disk (if you still have a floppy disk drive) is ruled out too.
Some emulators might have the ability to copy a file in. If you’re using one like that, this won’t be a problem for you. If not, here’s a solution … Continue reading Edit CP/M Disk Image
