New Programs for Old Osbornes and Kaypros
There was a time about five years ago when, within the space of a few months, three trend-setting computers were introduced--the Osborne and Kaypro portables and the IBM PC.
We all know what happened. The Osborne is long gone from the marketplace; one version of the Kaypro portable is still being manufactured, and it seems as though everybody (including Kaypro) makes a machine that looks like or works like the IBM PC.
What also happened is that major software publishers quickly quit writing new programs for 8-bit machines such as the Osborne and Kaypro and dozens of other important small business computers that used the CP/M operating system. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on the 16-bit computers and MS-DOS operating system that IBM brought into the world.
Of course, those 8-bit CP/M machines didn’t lose their usefulness just because a newer and more powerful technology came along. They continued and still continue to do what they did, and they do it well. WordStar and dBase II, for instance, are every bit as good on CP/M machines as they are on MS-DOS computers.
So all of you Osborne and Kaypro owners might be glad to know that someone is actually targeting your computers with new software. Spectre Technologies Inc., 22458 Ventura Blvd., Suite E, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91364, (818) 716-1655, offers two programs.
One is Presto, a utility program that works like Sidekick does on the IBM PC. It hides itself in the computer’s memory while you work on other programs and pops out in the middle of the screen when you call it with a special two-key combination.
What you get is a half-screen note pad or a month-to-month calendar and appointment book, a clock (for some models) and even a chart of the ASCII computer codes just like Sidekick. At $39.95--and given the limitations of the small operating memories of CP/M-based computers--Presto is not as slick or functional as Sidekick.
Spectre’s other offering is called Rembrandt, and it allows you to make drawings and produce bar, line and pie charts. There is even a version for old Kaypro II and Kaypro 4 models that comes with a replacement graphics chip to replace the original that contains no graphics characters.
Rembrandt sells for $79.95 for graphics-capable Osbornes and Kaypros and $89.95 for the early Kaypro models, including the replacement graphics chip.
The graphic results on your screen are serviceable but scarcely elegant. I doubt that anyone would find the quality adequate for actual business presentations. In my opinion, you’ll have to buy an IBM or compatible or Apple Macintosh to get acceptable business graphics.
Disk Conversion Programs
Which brings me to the next subject. If and when you CP/M owners do upgrade to an IBM or compatible, it would be nice not to have to leave all of your old programs and files behind. Unfortunately, disks used by CP/M computers and programs run by them cannot be simply inserted into an MS-DOS computer and be expected to run.
Programs have been marketed for both CP/M and MS-DOS computers for a long time that make these kinds of disk conversions. Examples are Uniform by Micro Solutions Inc. of DeKalb, Ill., for CP/M computers such as Osborne and Kaypro and Media Master by Intersecting Concepts of Moorpark, Calif.
What such programs let you do is make your computer believe that one of its floppy disk drives is a drive for another kind of machine.
The only hitch in the process is that not all computers can be made to simulate all kinds of drives. For instance, my old Kaypro II cannot create a standard IBM-formatted disk because it can only use one side of a diskette, while the IBM and other MS-DOS machines use both sides of a disk. And my IBM cannot be reconfigured to make or use a disk compatible with the original Osborne portable because the IBM drives pack more data per square inch onto a disk than the Osborne.
If you combine a disk emulation program with a program that makes an MS-DOS computer behave like a CP/M computer, you have Media Master Plus, which is being sold for $59.95 in an unusual joint marketing effort by two software companies, Intersecting Concepts, mentioned above, and the Software Toolworks of Sherman Oaks. It uses a Software Toolworks program called ZP/EM that allows an MS-DOS computer to emulate a CP/M computer, running CP/M programs, although much slower than they would run on the computers that the programs were designed for.
A faster solution to the problem is called Acceler8/16, a $99.95 combination of software plus a replacement microprocessor chip that gives a faster CP/M emulation. The new microprocessor is the NEC V20. The replacement procedure is simple but best left to your dealer unless you feel comfortable working inside your computer.
The NEC chip recognizes and executes the instruction codes for Intel’s 8-bit 8080 chip, which is the chip on which CP/M originated. It does not recognize the instruction codes unique to the Zilog Z-80 chip, however, which causes problems.
Most popular CP/M computers were built with the later Z-80 chip instead of the older 8080 chip, and many CP/M programs took advantage of the Z-80’s added features by including specific Z-80 instruction codes. Thus, neither Media Master Plus, utilizing ZP/EM, nor Acceler8/16, working with the NEC V20 chip, would allow my IBM to run the WordStar program that came with my old Kaypro II.
Walt Bilofsky, chief guru at Software Toolworks, suggested that either program would run the WordStar that came with my Osborne 1. That wouldn’t work either, however, because the Media Master program won’t allow the IBM to read those old single-density Osborne disks. The lesson here is not to get your hopes up too high that you’ll be able to use all of your old CP/M software on your MS-DOS machine. Certainly you’ll be able to run some of it, though.
Some Problems
I was able to run a number of games written in BASIC and a variety of useful but minor utility programs that did not make use of any Z-80-specific instructions. I did have some problems getting the IBM keyboard to behave like the Kaypro keyboard with some programs, however, with the result that they ran erratically.
Bilofsky said he plans to add Z-80 emulation to later versions of both ZP/EM and Acceler8/16. NEC is reportedly working on a new chip, the V25, that will add Z-80 codes as well. When those efforts are completed, it should be possible to run virtually all CP/M software on an MS-DOS computer.
Incidentally, replacing your 8088 microprocessor with the NEC V20 offers some speed advantages in running MS-DOS programs because of the way the V20 operates.
Intersecting Concepts is located at 4573 Heatherglen Court, Moorpark, Calif. 93021, (805) 529-5073. Software Toolworks can be reached at 14478 Glorietta Drive, Sherman Oaks, Calif. 91423, (818) 986-4885.
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