NEC Dos or asian DOS was released two days before Microsoft released their DOS 5, and Microsoft accused NEC of copying their operating system because apart from the kernal differences they were essentially the same. In fact they had not but had done what Microsoft had done and engineered it logically around what existed before to come up with the basic 640k (1 Mb) operating system. Of course all tehir switches were exactly the same, but since I had already released the same thing a year earlier in 1990 (with the Microsoft manual in a shrink wrapped plastic seal AND THE MICROSOFT HOLOGRAM ON THE SPINE, IT COULD BE ARGUED THAT MICROSOFT COPIED MY SOFTWARE AND MANUAL.
As stated elswhere, we received our copies of DOS 5 in 1990, while at the Bay of Plenty Polytech studying for a Certificate of Business Computing, (programming) under Greg Wagstaff, with Alex Wilson as technical advisor. My copy cam shrink wrapped.
Dos 5 was not released until 1991- as stated in the DOS 5 Manual. (see).
Mirror commands were also released on Microsoft DOS 3, unbeknownst to Microsoft, who only included them in DOS 5.
You may also want to check out the DOS 5 manual which I wrote (and filed on my computer)- not the little Magraw-Hill condensed version, but the big THICK official one with the Microsoft Hologram on the spine.
Or you may even wish to make Vanilla pods. See Genetic Engineering, my other passtime and thing which distinguishes me from other mortals.
What Else?
Back in 1990/91 when Microsoft released DOS 5, which became windows, thre was really only one operating system for the PC, but thre was also something else called IBM OS/2.
"OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation personal computers. OS/2 is no longer marketed by IBM, and IBM standard support for OS/2 was discontinued on 31 December 2006.[1] Currently, Serenity Systems International sells OS/2 under the brand name eComStation."
NEC computers in Japan also released a version of DOS5 called NEC DOS. It was essentially the same as Microsoft DOS 5 but with some different architecture in the ""Kernal.
In computing, the kernel is the main component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware and software components).[1] Usually as a basic component of an operating system, a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources (especially processors and I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function. It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls.""Microsoft Windows was first released in 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS. Because of its dependence on another operating system, initial releases of Windows, prior to Windows 95, were considered an operating environment (not to be confused with an operating system).
If you look at page 610 and 611 of your DOS 5 manual under Himem.sys you will see a list of code numbers to be used in conjunction with the A20 handler, in the xxxx range, where 1 through 14 are listed:
e.g.
Code Number A20 handler
at 1 IBM PC/AT
ps2 2 IBM PS/2
pt1cascade 3 Phoenix Cascade Bios
Acer1100 6 Acer 1100
Toshiba 7 Toshiba 1600 and 1200XE
fassthp 14 HP Vectra
While Microsoft had three programmers working on this problem, they had to meet every day to discuss what they had done the previous day and how it would fit with each other's work. Working alone I had no such problems and could approach the (640K) operating system logically. There was already a certain logic to the design, and making it all fit together was not so much of a problem as one would think, which is why NEC came up with exactly the same software as Microsoft, completely independently.
| DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) version 0.9 is formally released by a consortium of eleven PC companies.[135] Unlike VCPI, DPMI was designed for a multitasking operating system.[136] | ||
| Microsoft releases Windows 3.0, which would become the first widely successful version of Windows. Its File Manager became a popular alternative to the DOS Shell. Windows 3.0 runs on DOS 3.1 or higher.[137] This is the last version of Windows that could run on the IBM PC/XT (i.e., in real mode, which DOS runs in). | ||
| July | Digital Research ships DR DOS 5.0 to retailers.[138] This was the first version of DOS sold directly to end-users. About 40 percent of the nearly 7 million Intel-based PCs shipped this year will be shipped without an operating system, spelling big bucks for retail DOS sales.[139] | |
| September | IBM and Microsoft announce a realignment of their OS/2 development relationship.[140][141] | |
| 1991 | March | Microsoft said that it had received a letter in June from the Federal Trade Commission advising it of an investigation of its competitive practices, limited to the November 1989 joint announcement with IBM regarding OS/2. Some industry executives think the investigation will lead the F.T.C. to a range of what they consider to be anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. Digital Research said that after it introduced its DR DOS version 5.0 in April 1990, Microsoft immediately announced a version of MS-DOS, with "amazing similarity," which has yet to appear.[142] |
| AddStor Inc. announces the first version of SuperStor on-the-fly disk compression software.[143] | ||
| May | IBM DOS 5 is released. It featured the moving of the DOS kernel and command.com into the high memory area. | |
| June | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 5.0. The full-screen MS-DOS Editor is added to succeed Edlin. It adds undelete and unformat utilities, and task swapping. GW-BASIC is replaced with QBasic.[144] | |
| July | Novell announces that it intends to acquire Digital Research.[145] Completion of the merger is expected in October. Both companies intend to augment DR DOS to handle basic Novell NetWare functions.[146] | |
| September | Digital Research releases DR DOS 6.0 with AddStor's SuperStor disk compression. |
The A20 or addressing line 20 is one of the plethora of electrical lines that make up the system bus of an x86-based computer system. The A20 line in particular is used to transmit the 21st bit on the address bus.
The A20 handler is IBM PC memory manager software controlling access to the high memory area (HMA). Extended memory managers usually provide this functionality. A20 handlers are named after the 21st address line of the microprocessor, the A20 line.
In MS-DOS, high memory area managers, such as HIMEM.SYS has the "extra task" of managing A20. HIMEM.SYS provided an API for opening/closing A20. DOS itself could utilize the area for some of its storage needs, thereby freeing up more conventional memory for programs. This functionality was enabled by the "DOS=HIGH" directive in the CONFIG.SYS configuration file.
Note if the machime you are using is not listed, see the README.TXT online file for additional values. The default value for the /machine:xxxx switch is at or 1.
http://www.ta7.de/txt/dos/dos0015.htmThe Traitorous Eight, as they became known, are eight men who left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to form Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957.[1] More neutral terms include the "Fairchild Eight" and the "Shockley Eight." They have sometimes been called "Fairchildren," although this term has been also used to refer either to Fairchild alumni or to its spinoff companies.[2]
The Eight are Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Sheldon Roberts. Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce were later known as the cofounders of Intel.
In 1979, Neil Colvin formed what was then called Phoenix Software Associates after his prior employer, Xitan, went out of business. Neil hired Dave Hirschman, a former Xitan employee. During 1980–1981, they rented office space for the first official Phoenix location at 151 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
In this same time period Phoenix purchased a non-exclusive license for Seattle Computer Products 86-DOS. Phoenix developed customized versions of 86-DOS (or sometimes called PDOS for Phoenix DOS) for various microprocessor platforms. Phoenix also provided PMate as a replacement for Edlin as the DOS file editor. Phoenix also developed C language libraries, called PForCe, along with Plink-86, an overlay linker. These products only provided a small revenue stream to Phoenix during the early 1980s and the company did not significantly expand in size.
With the success of the IBM PC in 1983, Phoenix decided to provide an IBM PC compatible ROM BIOS to the PC market. A licensable ROM BIOS would allow clone PC manufacturers to run the same applications, and even the MS-DOS that was being used by IBM. However, to do this Phoenix needed a strategy for defense against IBM copyright infringement lawsuits. IBM would claim that the Phoenix programmers had copied parts of the IBM BIOS code published by IBM in its Technical Reference manuals.[citation needed] Due to the nature of low-level programming two well-written pieces of code that perform the same function there will inevitably be some degree of similarity. As such it would be impossible for Phoenix to defend itself on the grounds that no part of its BIOS matched IBM's. Phoenix developed a "clean room" technique that isolated the engineers who had been contaminated by reading the IBM source listings in the IBM Technical Reference Manuals. The contaminated engineers wrote specifications for the BIOS APIs and provided the specifications to "clean" engineers who had not been exposed to IBM BIOS source code. Those "clean" engineers developed code from scratch to mimic the BIOS APIs. This technique provided Phoenix with a defensibly non-infringing IBM PC-compatible ROM BIOS. Because the programmers who wrote the Phoenix code had never read IBM's reference manuals, nothing they wrote could have been copied from IBM's code, no matter how closely the two matched.[4] The first Phoenix PC ROM BIOS was introduced in May, 1984, and helped fuel the growth in the PC industry.
The availability of an IBM PC-compatible ROM BIOS helped fuel the 70% increase in sales that Phoenix experienced in 1988. Phoenix also developed IBM Personal System/2 Micro Channel BIOS, including the ABIOS, and EISA compatible BIOS during 1988 and 1989.
In 1987, Phoenix began the first of many expansion, acquisition, and collapse cycles. It acquired Softstyle, Inc, and Softset, Inc, and began a printer emulation product line, and a Phoenix publishing division. Phoenix also tripled the number of employees from late 1986 to 1989.