[GEM Development] Ventura Publisher again

[Davey Brain]

John Elliott wrote thusly:
> : If you think they're 'picky' about RAM wait thill you try swapping a
> : HDD! Oh, is that what you're thinking of trying? Advice. Don't. It just
> : may be that like some PS/2 desktops they have a PROPRIETORY interface.
> : For example, there is IDE and then there is IBM IDE!!! ... and then
> : there is IBM 8-bit IDE. I know I've got one in my PS/2 25-286. 

This isn't an early PS/2 like my Model 30 or my Model 50Zs.  This is a 
later, pretty compatible odd little computer.  It seems to have been 
targeted as either an educational system or as an power-saving 
workstation for business.  It came with an EduQuest XGA monitor.

>   There are, in fact, at least three IDEs:
> 
> * 16-bit ISA IDE (ATA). The sort we use nowadays.
> *  8-bit ISA IDE (XTA). The sort in later Amstrad XTs and some hardcards. 
>    It looks exactly like 'normal' ATA, but it certainly doesn't quack like
>    it. A few drives can do either (selected with jumpers).
> * MCA IDE. What you get in at least some PS/2s.
> 
>   In each case, it's called IDE because the controller is integrated with 
> the drive; but in each case, it's a different type of controller. 
>  
>   If all else fails, find a SCSI card and use that :-)
> 

Actually this "IBM PS/2 E" is an interesting system (I googled for it 
but can't find anything so I'll take a pic and put it up on my website). 
  It is the size of an early laptop or about the size of two medium 
pizza boxes stacked.  It has 4M RAM onboard with 2 72P SIMM slots. 
Since it has a 486SLC25 CPU (a 16/32-bit hybrid) it can't address more 
than 16M RAM.  I successfully got one 8M SIMM recognized out of about 12 
I tried (in 5 hours) so I have 12M right now.  Bad thing is you have to 
go through a complete setup from floppy twice everytime you change the 
RAM which takes forever.  From my experiments it seems to take parity 
(9-chip) SIMMs and non-EDO only.  I tried an 8M MAC parity SIMM  though 
and it actually gave a "not-recognized" error in addition to the size error!

Other interesting features are:
Built in 1M XGA video
Thinkpad compatible floppy drive (it's even black)
Thinkpad compatible 2 1/2" IBM notebook HD with a standard IDE to laptop 
adater cable; has room and proper plug for a standard IDE drive
1 16-bit ISA slot which presently has a 4-slot PCMCIA card with 2 slots 
front (1,2) and 2 slots rear (3,4) so any upgrades I do would probably 
be through PC Cards like a notebook.  No MCA at all.

Note: in a box of old cards someone gave me was this 4-slot PCMCIA card. 
  I couldn't figure out how you'd use it as only 2 slots would be 
accessible when it's installed in a normal system.  It turns out it's 
this exact card, so I now have 2!  It actually could be used in a 
standard system using only slots 3 & 4 or preinstalling the PC Cards in 
slots 1 & 2 and leaving them in.

It looks like most everything is pretty compatible on this system.  As 
it's a little limited with XGA (not SVGA) video & 16M RAM max I thought 
it would make a pretty kewl machine to play with GEM and other DOS 
stuff.  Anyone know how the GEM VGA drivers work on XGA or if there is 
an XGA driver for GEM?

Can't play too much tonight.  Its halloween and there's some good scary 
flicks on TV!  Happy Halloween everyone ;)
-- 
Davey Brain
dsbrain at NOSPAM!neosplice.com or
dsbrain2001 at yahoo.NOSPAM!com

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth" - John F. 
Kennedy

Gigabyte 7VKML AMD Athlon 1700XP+ Savage 4 AGP 4X 32M
This eCS-OS/2 system uptime is 0 days 01 hrs 16 mins and 52 secs