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HGCIBM.COM Version 2.02 Copyright (C) Athena Digital 1986, 1987 2351 College Station Road, Suite 567, Athens, Ga. 30605 Telephone 404/354-4522 This Manual Dated August 1, 1987 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS HGCIBM.COM: Acknowledgments ............................................. 3 Trademarks .................................................. 3 Using HGCIBM.COM ............................................ 3 Precautions ................................................. 3 Installation ................................................ 4 Using the Command Line ...................................... 5 HGCTEST program ............................................. 5 Sales and Distribution Policies ............................. 6 User Comments ............................................... 6 History ..................................................... 6 Future ...................................................... 7 Changes and Corrections ..................................... 7 Technicalities .............................................. 8 Problem Reports ............................................. 8 Athena Digital Video BIOS(TM): Purpose ..................................................... 10 Features .................................................... 10 Control Program ............................................. 12 Sales and Distribution Policies ............................. 12 Software Author Note ........................................ 13 Demo program ................................................ 14 This program is distributed as shareware. All rights are reserved except for distribution of the program, its documentation, and any DEMO materials IN ITS ENTIRETY and un- modified. You may test and use this program for 30 days, after which you must register it, destroy it, or pass in along to a friend. If you would like to keep HGCIBM, see the pricing within. This DOES NOT APPLY to those who contributed to HGCIBM Version 1.11. Those individuals are welcome to this upgrade without further remuneration. Please accept it with my THANKS!! Athena Digital's program and emulation algorithms were first copyrighted June 10, 1986. It is now the basis for the existence of Athena Digital and represents months of effort and a large personal investment. Any information presented in this document or available in the associated programs is and shall remain the copyrighted property of Athena Digital. Any attempt to use this information to create a competitive product, whether the product is distributed "free" or otherwise is in violation of copyright laws. 2 DISCLAIMER Athena Digital makes every effort to ensure that this documentation is accurate. However, because we are constantly striving to improve our products, we are unable to guarantee the accuracy of the contents of this document after the date of publication and we disclaim liability for any changes, errors or omissions. We have also made every effort to warn you of possible damage to your equipment from careless use of other applications with ours. If you do somehow damage your display or anything else, Athena Digital ASSUMES ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT. If it will make you more confident, no such claims have ever been made against us. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Athena Digital would like to thank IBM for creating the Personal Computer and Hercules(TM) Computer Technology for making PC graphics as pleasurable as PC TTL text and the direct cooperation and support they have given Athena Digital. TRADEMARKS MENTIONED Hercules, RamFont, InColor, are trademarks of Hercules Computer Technology. IBM, BASICA, are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft, QuickBASIC, CodeView, and MS, are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Athena Digital Video BIOS is a trademark of Athena Digital. USING HGCIBM.COM The purpose of this program is to provide owners of Hercules Graphics Cards (MGA) a means to run software written for the IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), and to introduce a commercial version of our software called Athena Digital Video BIOS which offers added functionality. PRECAUTIONS - MONOCHROME DISPLAY DAMAGE !!! This program will not damage your display, but certain application software certainly can. Programs which attempt to by-pass the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to set the CRT operating parameters may cause severe problems. Fortunately since most software operates in standard modes, most software developers permit BIOS to set up the controller for them even if they later write to screen ram directly. (cont'd) 3 HGCIBM will intercept the BIOS calls for all standard modes and program the controller correctly. Writing directly to screen ram is permitted and the emulator will still work properly. When trying an un-tested (with HGCIBM) program for the first time, watch your display carefully for signs of gross distortion or shrinking when the program sets graphics mode. IF THIS OCCURS, RE-BOOT OR TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER IMMEDIATELY. The display should return to normal quickly when you re-boot. HGCIBM INSTALLATION To install the emulator, you must tell it what mode to start in, and a little information about your hardware. There are three "modes" of operation for HGCIBM as follows: The /E[mulate] mode enables the emulator to respond to BIOS calls to set standard CGA modes and provides maximum compatibility with programs expecting to use the Color Graphics Adapter, but displays the information on your Hercules adapter. When the emulator is in this mode, the text buffer is at segment B800 and the equipment flag is set to indicate that a CGA card is present. Alas, you can't fool all the programs all the time. Some of them read the equipment flag and then try to manipulate the crt controller directly in order to provide faster screen output. Naturally they try to do this at the CGA port addresses (which don't exist) and will hang the system (This problem is overcome with Athena Video BIOS). A re-boot will cure the problem and you should then remember to either un-install the emulator before running these programs or simply place it in /M(ono) mode or /C[GA] mode (if you have a physical CGA) as described below. The /M[ono] mode effectively disables HGCIBM without un- installing it. The monochrome card is selected and Video BIOS control returns to the computer's ROM (Read Only Memory). The /C[ga] mode also disables HGCIBM and returns control to ROM except the physical Color Graphics Adapter is selected (if it exists). There are also 3 installation switches available to warn HGCIBM about special hardware. During initialization, the program tries to determine if a Color Graphics Adapter is present. If it is, the program will not install unless you assure it that the Color Graphics Adapter in your system is compatible with Hercules Graphics cards. If yours is or you have a Leading Edge computer, then you should use the following switches: The /H[ercules Compatible] switch instructs HGCIBM to install and allow the emulation mode even though a Color Graphics Adapter is present. You may use this switch on installation if you have a Hercules compatible CGA card in your system. If a CGA card is present, HGCIBM will abort installation unless the /H switch is used. (cont'd) 4 Also note that some software will output to the CGA registers (3D4, 3D5, 3D8, etc.) to adjust video parameters. This can wreak havoc on the real CGA adapter while in emulation mode. If the CGA is not physically present, this output causes no problems and is ignored by Hercules adapters. The /L[eading Edge] switch instructs HGCIBM to install if the Leading Edge Model D is connected to a TTL display. The /U[n-install] switch instructs the emulator to reset all vectors and remove itself from memory, freeing the space for other programs. You may un-install the emulator provided that other programs have not altered vectors 8h and 10h, but memory may become segmented if you have loaded another resident program after HGCIBM. The system will be left in the same condition it was in before the installation. (i.e. monochrome display). USING THE COMMAND LINE Simply type the command HGCIBM with a mode switch to install or change to that mode. If you have special hardware, ADD the hardware switch to the mode switch on the same command line as shown in the following examples: HGCIBM /M - installs in (or changes to) MONO mode (emulation disabled) HGCIBM /C - installs in (or changes to) CGA mode (emulation disabled) HGCIBM /E - installs in (or changes to) emulation mode. HGCIBM /U - un-installs the emulator HGCIBM /M/H - informs HGCIBM that a Hercules compatible CGA is physically present. HGCIBM /M/L - informs HGCIBM that you have a Leading Edge Model D computer. These commands may be issued from a batch file if desired. Hardware switches (/H or /L) are needed only on installation. To change modes after installation, just enter the command as above. HGCIBM always checks to see if it is already installed and will process the command correctly. HGCTEST PROGRAM This program is provided for you to test the operation of HGCIBM with your computer configuration. Before running HGCTEST, Load the emulator with the /E[mulate] switch. HGCTEST.BAS runs under BASICA. Just enter BASICA HGCTEST to run it (assuming BASICA is on the default disk drive with HGCTEST.BAS). The program is a simple graphics demo and is self explanatory. If you have a basic compiler, the demo program can be compiled to test the compiler. 5 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION POLICIES - HGCIBM.COM There is no limitation on distribution of HGCIBM.COM as long as no remuneration is accepted in connection with it's distribution, and as long as it is distributed un-modified, in it's entirety (including any DEMO materials), and BY ITSELF. IT MUST NOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITH your own application program or hardware, but you can mention that your software/hardware will or won't run with it and our name and telephone number (so your customer can obtain a copy of HGCIBM or Athena BIOS to run your program). You are permitted a 30 day trial period to decide whether or not you wish to keep HGCIBM or purchase Athena BIOS after which you must either register it with Athena Digital, destroy it, or pass it along to someone else. The registration fee for HGCIBM.COM is $10.00 (see REGISTER file in this package). OEMS and dealers are encouraged to support Athena BIOS with their products. HGCIBM is an extremely limited version of Athena Digital's software. Those interested should contact Athena Digital for details. USER COMMENTS Let us know what you think. Any criticism is better than none and will help to steer us along a path which is in the majority's best interest. Your suggestions need not be limited to graphics. Any comment regarding Athena Digital programs or documentation is welcome. Thank you for your support. HISTORY In June of 1986, Athena Digital copyrighted a simple "Freeware" emulator for Hercules cards which supported only the 200 by 640 CGA mode (HGCIBM.COM Version 1.11) and demonstrated our software emulation technique. To our knowledge, this was the first such program publicly released. At first glance there would appear to be no physical way to effectively display CGA graphics on a ttl card. It not only could be done, but done in such a way that the resulting display quality is actually better than the real CGA though it is in shades of one color. We received letters from three continents and eventually from CGA software developers. Though it represented no serious income, this support inspired Athena Digital to create HGCIBM.COM Version 2.00 which offers emulation support of all of the CGA modes and to start the development of Athena's own Video BIOS to support not only emulation, but to provide an upgradable and expandable BIOS which enhances any display system. 6 FUTURE Version 2.02 provides only a SUBSET of the Athena Digital support functions. It is a functional emulator only, and does not offer support for the mouse, extended Video BIOS calls, RamFont, or EGA. Due to restrictions imposed by the "resident" utility implementation, the commercial release of Athena's BIOS (ATHENA.SYS Version 3.01) is in the form of an MS-DOS device driver. Installed in this way, the program becomes as much a part of the operating system as is the ROM video BIOS, except that it can be easily upgraded and enhanced. Future enhancements will be limited to Athena BIOS, thus obsoleting HGCIBM.COM. If bugs are found in HGCIBM, they will be corrected. For more information about the commercial products, read the section called "Athena Digital Video BIOS" in this document. HGCIBM CHANGE AND CORRECTION NOTES o Version 1.11 would sometimes crash with programs that intercepted the timer interrupt while in graphics, and then changed to text. o If interrupts were redirected, version 1 could not find itself for a mode change and would install a second copy. Now it can find and control itself unless it is by-passed altogether. o Version 2.00 (beta test version) would not install on a Leading Edge due to differences in the way the Leading Edge video buffers are implemented. This was corrected with the /L[eading Edge] switch. o Version 2.01 failed to detect the EGA and would treat it as a CGA. Now HGCIBM will abort installation as it is supposed to. ENHANCEMENTS o Version 2.02 will support a wider range of compatibles as well as the AT. o All standard CGA video modes are now supported. The 320 x 200 mode supports three intensities(colors). Color 1 and color 2 will appear identical, where color 3 will be high intensity. Forty column text is supported but will be displayed on the left half of the screen only at the same resolution as eighty column text. All four pages of 80 column text (or 8 pages of 40 column text) are available on CERTAIN Hercules cards. Some cards will display only one page (Athena Video BIOS displays all pages on all Hercules Adapters and clones). 7 TECHNICALITIES HGCIBM installs itself between two BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) interrupts. The two interrupts used in this way are hex 10 (BIOS video) and hex 8 (timer). The later is used only while in emulation mode. HGCIBM will fail to function properly if it is not given control during the above interrupts. Other software using interrupt 8 will be called on a priority basis, pre- empting HGCIBM if necessary. HGCIBM version 2.02 no longer passes interrupt 10h (while in emulation mode) since it was learned that compatible ROM BIOS was not always entirely compatible. If you have other software using interrupt 10h, try loading it after HGCIBM. You can still control HGCIBM after the interrupt is changed but you will not be allowed to un-install it. HGCIBM need be loaded only once each time the computer is started since it attaches itself to BIOS and stays in memory until re-boot or it is commanded to detach. The memory usage has increased to about 5k now due to bypassing of ROM video BIOS in emulation mode, but does provide much improved color text emulation and should be compatible with a wider variety of machines. HGCIBM COMMON QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS HGCIBM loads, signs on, returns to the DOS prompt and the keyboard hangs: 1 You have ANSI.SYS installed. ANSI.SYS is incompatible with HGCIBM in emulation mode. Athena BIOS solves this problem. 2 You have other resident software which is not compatible with emulation. Try booting HGCIBM with a "clean" DOS installed (one which has no "config.sys" file or "autoexec.bat" file. Then you can try it with residents one by one, finding which ones work and which ones don't. Athena BIOS will allow a wider range of residents to work than HGCIBM. HGCIBM and Athena BIOS use a fair amount of the time available during timer interrupts (while emulating). Other software which also uses a lot of interrupt time can overload the processor, resulting in a system which does nothing except service timer interrupts. Software which draws moving clock faces on the screen may cause this problem. I see two or three screens on my monitor instead of one when I set emulation mode: o The VERTICAL hold control on your monitor probably needs adjustment. In come cases, the horizontal hold may have to be adjusted, but this is very rare. If the problem persists, TURN OFF your monitor. Do not allow this condition to 8 continue indefinitely. I can't get the application to run that I want to: o HGCIBM is a software-only emulator. Some applications try to read or write CGA registers directly. They WILL NOT WORK with HGCIBM. Athena BIOS also provides a degree of hardware emulation. This permits approximately 25% of the applications to run which otherwise would not. Some applications overwrite ram memory when they run (some games). Applications which do this will not work with HGCIBM or Athena BIOS. I have problems with other programs or with DOS programs when the emulator is installed: o There are versions of MS-DOS supplied with some compatibles or clones which have been modified by the clone manufacturer to do things that standard MS-DOS or PC-DOS does not do. Usually these sign on as DOS 2.11. Problem reports range from incorrect behavior of the DOS PRINT command, failure of the floppy drives, error reports about "System reserved area", etc. Athena Digital's development work is done with PC-DOS. If your DOS will not work, we suggest you purchase a standard PC-DOS operating system. At Athena Digital, we run under Athena BIOS continually using standard DOS versions, with buss terminators installed. The presence of Athena BIOS is only manifested in faster speed and additional services. HGCIBM is much less sophisticated, but likewise functions transparently. The problems occur when modified versions of the operating system use non- standard BIOS calls, or use BIOS ram space for purposes other than defined by IBM, or provide insufficient stack space. My monitor displays little dashes all over the screen while the computer is displaying text in emulation mode. o Your MGA is not capable of high speed video buffer access. The only solution to this problem is to replace the graphics adapter with one which will support high speed access. 9 Athena Video BIOS Version 3.01 Copyright (C) Athena Digital 1986, 1987. PURPOSE For some unknown reason, hardware and software vendors have not seen fit to establish adequate specifications and graphics support for the widely used Hercules graphics standard. The most peculiar aspect of this is the fact that the Hercules standard was the third available for the IBM personal computer and the first which offered truly high graphics resolution as well as the first to support graphics on the ttl monochrome display. Today, this standard is almost universally accepted as the display adapter of choice for ttl monochrome PC systems and its display quality is yet challenged only by the EGA standard which unfortunately requires an expensive color monitor to exploit it's capabilities. Athena BIOS solves this problem by making it as simple as possible for vendors to exploit the capabilities of the Hercules card, CGA, EGA and others. Athena BIOS now fully supports the Hercules monochrome card and/or color graphics adapter, the EGA (and eventually others) with fast support for standard modes, CGA emulation, and several new modes. One of the primary enhancements provided by ATHENA BIOS is emulation of the CGA on the Hercules graphics card. This allows Hercules owners to run the majority of graphics programs which do not already support the Hercules adapter. The list includes programs like BASICA, QuickBASIC, CodeView and approximately 95% of all others. The BIOS eliminates the need for a color monitor and graphics card in many cases with obvious price advantages. Athena also provides BIOS support for the higher resolution Hercules 350 vertical by 720 horizontal modes, and a new 350 vertical by 360 mode with three intensities and 4 logical pixel colors. ALL of the original BIOS call support for these new modes including character generation, scrolling, and adapter switching which greatly simplifies direct support of Hercules high resolution modes by software vendors, providing a high resolution set of MGA modes which parallel the behavior of CGA modes. ATHENA FEATURES o Supports 5 new Hercules only modes, which are as readily available to applications developers as are the standard modes. 10 o Provides extended equipment, system capability information for applications. o Supports CGA Programs on the MGA. o Fully compatible with Microsoft mouse or software look- alikes. o Includes a "Buss Terminator" which eliminates almost all of the application software incompatibility with emulation modes. This allows Microsoft's CodeView and QuickBasic editors to function normally in emulation mode. o BIOS character generation and scrolling in emulation modes is accomplished without ghosting and no appreciable loss in speed (it is usually faster than the CGA through ROM BIOS). o All 4 pages of 80 column CGA text (or 8 pages of 40 column text) are available on ALL MGA cards. o Fully supports Hercules - Enhanced Graphics (color monitor) combinations. o Fully compatible with the new Hercules Plus or InColor cards in 4K RamFont or rom text modes. o Supports new "Context Switching" between adapters and certain modes. o Supports faster video operation in ALL modes than the original ROM BIOS. o Installs as a device driver for MS-DOS version 2.10 or later o Adds PC-AT BIOS print string functions to the PC Once installed, Athena BIOS replaces the standard ROM video BIOS. Software installation is a matter of copying ATHENA.SYS to your boot disk, and inserting a one line command in your MS-DOS "CONFIG.SYS" file. Athena BIOS is compatible with a variety of MS-DOS computers, including the PC, PC-XT, PC-AT, and Leading Edge, and most other hardware compatibles. 11 Version 3.01 does not replace EGA BIOS, but is compatible with it and controls it. If a non-ega adapter is active, Athena BIOS controls the active adapter. While the EGA is the active display, EGA BIOS controls the EGA adapter. Athena BIOS supports the MGA in FULL modes WITH the EGA (if it is connected to a color display). The BIOS will continue to add features supporting as many of the popular adapters as possible and enhancing them wherever practical in order to maintain compatibility for your programs. CONTROLLING ATHENA BIOS AFTER INSTALLATION With ATHENA.SYS, you are provided a utility which allows you keyboard control over Athena's variety of modes. This utility operates as any other external DOS command. Simply place it in your program directory and use it with switches. If you forget the switches, typing ATHENA will give you a help screen. The commands may be issued from a batch file if desired. SALES AND DISTRIBUTION POLICIES - ATHENA.SYS For the purchase price of $40.00 retail, you will receive the program on a 5.25" IBM format diskette with the user's guide and buss terminator. Contact Athena Digital for programmer's versions, OEM versions, sub-license and additional information. Dealers, OEMS, and those desiring site licenses are welcome and encouraged to contact Athena Digital about liberal discounts. 12 SOFTWARE AUTHORS Using Athena Video BIOS modes and functions, you can easily upgrade your application to support the MGA. The BIOS provides all the support you need to exploit the Hercules graphics adapters with a minimum of programming on your part. With Athena BIOS installed, the Hercules becomes as easy to support as the CGA, whether you support it in CGA emulation mode, or in the provided high resolution graphics modes. Contact us about the "Programmer's BIOS". This package includes a customizable application loader which you can customize and distribute with your application. The package also comes with the BIOS Technical Reference, providing you with everything you need to make your application compatible with the BIOS without programming. Once your application package is ready, you have several options available for distribution of the BIOS with your application: o You can sub-license the OEM version of the device driver. This permits you to distribute the driver with your application on a per diskette basis. The OEM BIOS comes without the hardware buss terminator, which is not required for applications which communicate with our BIOS. o You can become a dealer for the OEM BIOS or the standard BIOS package. o Athena Digital licenses a semi-custom version, called the "Transient BIOS", which will execute your application only, making the BIOS available to your program whether a device driver is present or not. The transient BIOS performs and responds identically to the device drivers, except it is available only while your application runs and disappears when your program exits. No programming is required for the transient BIOS, and the you are granted permanent distribution rights. SUPPORTED HARDWARE o IBM PC /XT /AT and most hardware compatibles which have an expansion buss. (Expansion buss not necessary for libraries or for systems which will not need CGA emulation). o Microsoft mouse (device drivers) or software compatibles which provide Microsoft's defined function calls. 13 o The following video hardware is supported: Hercules graphics adapter, Plus, and InColor (MGA). IBM Monochrome Text Adapter (MTA). IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA). o These combinations are supported: Monochrome EGA with CGA. Color EGA or CGA with MTA or MGA. Those interested in Athena BIOS should contact Athena Digital for the latest information. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. DEMO PROGRAM This package is distributed with a short demo of the Athena BIOS, which includes additional information about it. To run the demo, you must have the files "QBDEMOC.EXE" and "FEATURES.PRX" in your default directory. Type "QBDEMOC" to execute the demo. 14