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1987-11-11
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---------------------------------------
AMPRO CP/M FORMAT TRANSLATION UTILITIES
---------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
-----------
A pair of AMPRO utility programs -- AMPROCPM.SYS and AMPROCPM.EXE -- allows an
IBM PC, AMPRO Little Board/PC, or other PC compatible system to directly
access files on diskettes which have been generated by an AMPRO Z80 Little
Board (TM) single board CP/M system. (The two utilities can also be used on
the AMPRO Little Board/186 to read and write AMPRO CP/M diskettes.)
The AMPROCPM software is especially useful for applications in which an AMPRO
Z80 Little Board is used to generate a data disk which must be read or written
by an IBM PC compatible system.
The AMPROCPM.SYS driver creates two CP/M access drive letters, corresponding
to the first and second floppy drive units, on the PC. The desired AMPRO CP/M
format must be selected under control of a second utility, AMPROCPM.EXE. Both
40-track and 80-track AMPRO CP/M formats are included, but your PC system must
have the appropriate drive for each AMPRO format. Standard 360K 5-1/4" PC
compatible floppy drives can read the single- or double-sided 40-track AMPRO
CP/M format; and 720K 3-1/2" or 5-1/4" PC compatible floppy drives can read
the double-sided 80-track AMPRO CP/M format.
Installation
------------
The first step is to install AMPROCPM.SYS, which allows PC-DOS to understand
the file system used by CP/M. Add the following line to the CONFIG.SYS file
on the drive from which your PC compatible system boots:
DEVICE = AMPROCPM.SYS
You must reboot your system with this line included in the CONFIG.SYS file,
for the driver to become installed. Two PC-DOS disk drive letters will be
assigned by the system to floppy units 0 and 1 as CP/M access drive letters.
As with other PC-DOS disk device drivers, the two CP/M access drives will
occupy two sequential drive letters, beginning with the next available drive
letter beyond those defined other drives and drivers. Typically, on a hard
disk system the CP/M drives would be "D" and "E".
Example: A system with two floppy drives and a bootable hard disk (floppy
drive quantity = 2). Using the CONFIG.SYS line given above, the system drive
letters following boot will be:
A: First PC-DOS floppy drive
B: Second PC-DOS floppy drive
C: Hard disk drive
D: First "CP/M drive" (using floppy drive A)
E: Second "CP/M drive" (using floppy drive B)
Operation
---------
Before you can use either of the "CP/M drives" you must select the desired
AMPRO CP/M format by means of the AMPROCPM.EXE utility. Simply type the
program's name on the PC-DOS command line:
A>AMPROCPM<Enter>
The program will display a menu of available AMPRO CP/M formats. Press the
letter of the format you wish to use. After you select the desired CP/M
format, the program will exit to the PC-DOS command line. Both "CP/M drives"
become the same selected format (i.e. you cannot specify two different CP/M
formats at the same time).
Once the driver is installed and a CP/M format selected, you can use the CP/M
drives as though they are PC-DOS drives, providing you access them under the
specially assigned drive letters (usually "D" and "E"). This includes copying
to and from CP/M diskettes as well as the use of PC-DOS commands. You can
even use the CP/M drive as a data drive from within application programs.
Just don't try to run a CP/M program on your PC (on any drive)!
With a drive defined as a "CP/M drive", use the special CP/M drive letter
whenever you want to access CP/M diskettes, and use the normal PC-DOS drive
letter ("A" or "B") whenever you want to access normal PC-DOS diskettes on the
same disk drive. In this manner, you can transfer files freely between AMPRO
CP/M diskettes and your regular PC-DOS floppy or hard disk drives.
AUTOMATIC OPERATION OF AMPROCPM.EXE
-----------------------------------
If you want the "CP/M Drive" function to be installed automatically when you
turn on your system, this is easily accomplished. All you need to do is place
the appropriate lines in your system's CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files:
CONFIG.SYS - As discussed above, include: DEVICE = AMPROCPM.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT - Include the following line: AMPROCPM <AMPROCPM.INP
One other thing is needed. You need to create a tiny text file called
"AMPROCPM.INP" containing a single letter, indicating the particular AMPRO
CP/M selection desired. For example, if you want to pick menu selection "A",
the file AMPROCPM.INP should consist of one character: the letter "A". Then,
menu option "A" will be automatically selected on system powerup. For your
convience, a sample AMPROCPM.INP with menu option "B" (the most likely) is
included in the AMPROCPM package.