info about kits

[Brian D. Botton]

Hi Everyone,
  It's been a while since I last sent out the info about kits.  Please note
I have moved so I have a new address.  There are about half a dozen people that
have sent me orders over the last month that I haven't gotten to.  Sorry
about the delay, but getting engaged and moving took precedence.  I do have
to order some parts, but I should be able to ship all orders in about a week.
  I now have a standard blurb about the kits and Mgr, so here it is for your
reading pleasure.

******************************************************************************

  This is my standard blurb covering the kits I am selling.  If you have a
question that isn't covered by this blurb, feel free to send me e-mail.  Be
forewarned that I am in the process of getting married and designing some new
hardware for the 3B1, so I may take a little while before I get an answer
back to you.

VIDPAL KIT - $10
  This kit contains a PC board, a programmed PAL, and complete instructions.
You will have to purchase some components through alternate sources, of which
one is provided.
  What this kit does is it allows you to access the video ram of you 3B1/7300
directly from any user process.  The significance of this is you can now write
your own window manager with a lot less hassle.  The reason I came up with this
kit was because Brad Bosch and I wanted to run Mgr on our 3B1's and we didn't
want to write a new wind.o for Mgr.
  Vidpal is a little daughter board that is placed between the 68010 and the
mother board which intercepts and modifies the supervisor signal.  The PAL
checks to see if you are addressing the video ram, and if you are, the
supervisor signal is forced active.  This means the memory management PAL will
not cause a bus error because it thinks your are in kernel mode.  The vidpal
PAL makes sure that ONLY the video ram is made accessible, otherwise you would
loose all hardware protection.
  One of my design goals was there had to be NO modifications to the mother
board, and the daughter board allows this.  The kit requires a modest amount
of soldering skill and for your machine to be mostly disassembled.  Most
people will find that it isn't difficult to assemble and install.

P5.1 UPGRADE KIT - $6
  I am selling copies of the Convergent P5.1 upgrade kit.  This kit includes
a programmed PAL, a high quality socket, a capacitor, and instructions which
include several diagrams.  You will have to provide about 10 feet of wire wrap
wire and soldering tools.
  The P5.1 upgrade allows you to use hard disk drives, such as the Seagate
ST-4096, that have more than 8 heads.  To get more then 1025 cylinders you will
need a WD2010x chip, which I am NOT selling.  There have been several
discussions on the net about this topic, so I will refer you there.
  This kit is more difficult to install then the vidpal kit, but it is not out
of the reach of most people.  There ARE some alternatives to this kit.  ICUS
Software (Lenny and GIL) sells instructions on making a board that allows two
hard disk drives to be accessed by your computer.  While the P5.1 kit doesn't
interfere, it is a no-op as far as their kit is concerned.  Also, John Bly
Milton has a board that will let you access 4 hard disk drives and 2 floppy
disk drives.  From what I understand, you will need to do most of the P5.1
upgrade, but if you are going to use his board, don't bother getting the P5.1
kit from me.

EXTENDED DIAGNOSTICS DISK - $1 or $2
  If you are going to format a hard disk drive with more then 8 heads and/or
more then 1024 cylinders, you need to get a copy of the extended diagnostics
floppy disk.  I am providing copies of this disk for a modest fee.

MGR - $0
  Mgr is a great little window manager that is relatively easy to install and
works quite well.  As many of you know, it is still in beta, but don't let that
stop you.  It really is quite solid and is beta mainly because the device
drivers need to have their install scripts cleaned up, along with some minor
details.  If you like having windows similar to what you have on a Sun, this is
what you are looking for.
  There are a couple of things you should know about this package.  First, it
uses the public domain pseudo ttys package that has been posted to the net, so
if you have pseudo ttys from elsewhere, ethernet board and starlan?, you will
need to do a little reconfiguring.  Brad will probably be providing guidelines
in the next patch.  Also, Mgr will not compile with gcc, but works just fine
with the stock cc.  Both of us have 3.51/3.51m systems so we cannot test Mgr
with 3.5.  As long as you have a flexnames compiler FROM AT&T you shouldn't
have any problems.
  To get a copy of Mgr, use anonymous ftp or uucp to OSU.  There should be the
main file and 2 patch files.

ORDERING INFO
  The kits cost the following:

	vidpal				$10
	P5.1				$6
	extended diagnostics disk	$1 with P5.1 or vidpal kit
					$2 if ordered alone

  Send a mailing label and a check in US funds to my NEW ADDRESS:

	Brian D. Botton
	1748 Paddington Ave.
	Naperville, IL. 60563-2028

  For overseas people, you may want to contact me via e-mail for help in
getting the additional parts needed for the vidpal kit.

******************************************************************************

  I'm working with my shipping department, ;-), to get kits out, so I should
have all kits out "real soon now."

Brian


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