Uniform DOS support

Uniform DOS support

1. Introduction

DOS is an operating system, which was used 30-35 years ago. There is still hardware - in the industrial, embedded, scientific, medical fields, which uses this operating system.

We are providing uniform support for software written for DOS operating system, servicing ISA and PCMCIA cards used with our usb2isa and usb2pcmcia products - under popular today's operating systems.

DOS software can be used under veriety of modern operating system using DOS emulators. We did select to use the DOSBOX-x emulator - it can build and run on a wide number of operating systems.


In addition to running pure dos programs DOSBOX-x emulator can boot and run images of older operating systems - as a guest operating system under a modern 64bit host operating system.

DOSBOX-x emulator can boot and run - windows 3.1, windows 3.11, windows 98 and windows me. We provide as products images of - windows 98 se and windows me.

We provide currently DOSBOX-x builds for Windows, Linux and Mac OS perating systems.

Binary of the 'dosbox-x' is included in the install software for the specific OS.



2. Use

2.1 Pre-requisites

In order to use the binaries of the dosbox-x builds, our software must be installed, and our enumerator must be running.

At the initial start of the enumerator there is a dialog box asking to choose what os to bting up. The choices include:
- dos
- windows 98 se
- windows me
- no os boot


2.2. Connecting / disconnecting

When using the dosbox-x connecting / disconnecting events of usb2isa + ISA cards, or usb2pcmcia + PCMCIA cards, an operating system is launched, if previously selected.

The following section assumes dos is selected and booted.

The connecting event shows the detected resources in the enumerator.

The process of autodetection is not always precise - there may be a need to add resources.
To do this please check our user's guide on the particular environment for - adding resources in the ARSTech enumerator.



2.3. Running DOS software

After opening the main dosbox window, you will need to select the location of where the DOS software is.

If for ex. the DOS software is placed in the 'dosprog' folder, please type -

  • on Windows enviroment
    mount c c:\dosprog

  • on Linux and Mac OS X enviroment
    mount c /dosprog

    then type -
    c:

    and run the DOS software.





    3. Utilities

    There is currently one DOS utility included with the install software - tst16.exe .



    3.1. Resources access The utility allows read / write to i/o ports, and memory areas.

    Please note that the address range for i/o ports is : 0 to ffff , with the most widely used area of : 0 to 3ff , in hex addresses.

    The address range for memory area is : 0 to ffffff , with the most widely used area of : b000 to fffff , in hex addresses. This is a 'memory hole' where some hardware peripheral cards and the system's BIOS are located.



    3.2. Tests

    The tst16 utility includes 2 tests - serial port, and disk tests.

    Both tests requite an isa card which includes - rs232/rs422/rs485 serial ports, or an ata/atapi ide disk controller.

    Please follow the prompts to select i/o ports and irq channel.

    It is recommended to use dosbox in the debug mode, and check the debug screen for the actual DOS accesses.

    Please note that selected irq channels must be free and available for use. While use of the irq 3/4 may be allowed , if the serial ports on a system's motherboard are not present or used, the use of irq 14/15, will interfere with the use of the system's motherboard ide controller.