Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!princeton!udel!gatech!mandrill!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!spl1!ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport Subject: Re: DosMerge under SV/AT on a Tatung TCS-7000 Summary: What?! This is something we discussed at length with Uport Message-ID: <1159@ddsw1.UUCP> Date: 3 Jun 88 03:44:20 GMT References: <1217@maccs.UUCP> Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Distribution: comp.unix.microport Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL Lines: 66 Posted: Thu Jun 2 23:44:20 1988 In article <1217@maccs.UUCP> nusip@maccs.UUCP (Mike Borza) writes: >Apologies for bringing up something which has probably been hashed >out before, but I couldn't find a specific reference to this in >our news archives. Has anyone been able to get DosMerge running >under Sys V/AT on a Tatung TCS-7000 AT-clone. The last time I spoke >to John Sully, he indicated that the Tatung was listed as a >machine that Merge won't run on. As I understand it, the problem >can be either in the implementation of the keyboard driver or >in the BIOS. I'm hoping that the problem is in the BIOS, so >that installing either an Award or Phoenix BIOS should fix the >problem. While we're at it, does anyone have (un)favorable >comments about either of these products? What about Merge on >AT's? I'm interested in using Merge to run: > 1) a 3Com 3C501 Ethernet card > 2) a Complete Handscanner > >thx, >--mike borza Hi there. Merge will run on a TCS-7000 as long as you replace the BIOS with a Phoenix bios having a revision of > 3.05. Anything after that should be ok. Also check the memory cards you use VERY carefully, the Tatung is extremely picky timing-wise and will crash left and right with a cheap board at 10 Mhz (presuming you are speaking of a 6/10 and not a 6/8 machine). Oh yeah -- get rid of the Tatung disk controller -- it is NOT a complete WD1003-WA2 clone and will trash the entire disk if you ever have a physical I/O error (ie: you get one, EVERY disk I/O after that is junk. Bye-bye superblock (and nearly everything else important). Dos Merge on the '286 has one fatal flaw -- the "standard" serial I/O just doesn't work when there's a DOS session running. UUCP will barf, spit and die if you attempt to use it without an intelligent I/O board. If the additional cost of a good smart board isn't too prohibitive you should be ok (this is presuming you want to use the communications capabilities of Unix). The bottom line? Get a Phoenix BIOS, WD1003-WA2 controller and good memory and it will work. It's not great, but it does work. Now, on the TCS-7000. If you haven't bought it yet, I'd stay clear. We're a third-party service center, and have had a good number of TCS-7000s in for main board replacement from one of our largest accounts (!) Yes, the big-bucks kind of failures. All out of warranty too. At MCS we also had a TCS-7000 which failed while in warranty and was replaced with another unit -- we immediately sold it and replaced it with a '386 :-) We've done 4 out of 20 or so that I know of at one location (and all at different times, same failure mode. Yuck.) Of course, they may have improved since these machines were manufactured; there is no way to know as the failures show up 6-12 months after purchase if you're lucky, and 13 months after purchase if you're not :-) (Ps: We filed a complete beta test report on this exact system (TCS-7000) along with the needed changes in the hardware to get it running more than a year ago with Microport. That got us the "real" copy, which is what my statements above are based upon. What happened to that data is anyone's guess.) [Disclaimer: We've no affiliation with Tatung or Microport other than our third-party repair of Tatung systems and of course as a customer] --- Karl Denninger | Data: +1 312 566-8912 Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910 ...ihnp4!ddsw1!karl | "Quality solutions for work or play"