Option 370 for AT

[pkhoury]

Trying to see who else has the rare and elusive Option 370 for AT. I haven't yet installed mine, nor have I opened the software, which is still sealed. I'm not sure if it comes with a control/monitor program, so I can run my own OS (I was thinking of installing MUSIC/SP, which is currently public domain).

[Al Kossow]

There was a customized version of VM/CMS that works with it, called VM/PC.
Good luck getting any other version of software running if it doesn't know about the way the AT-370's I/O works through the PC.

[g4ugm]

Well despite being called Music/SP the free version is configured for ESA mode so it has no chance of running un-modified on an AT/370. I suspect that the P370 control program which you can download from

http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/IBM/VM_PC/

only supports the diagnose functions CMS uses for disk IO rather than StartIO which most IBM operating systems use...
.. you will also find more info ...

http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/

[MrArgent]

Would MTS run?

[g4ugm]

Would MTS run?

Even more unlikely IMHO. The current "easy run code" is also ESA only The 360 version only ran on a 360/67. It should be possible to build a pure 370 version but I that needs DAT and I have no idea if the AT/370 has DAT (virtual memory). CMS is a very simple operating system. Its single user, real memory only. No shared disk. Single threaded. Of course that doesn't matter because because CP(aka VM) creates lots of virtual 370's and deals with all the mess....

... actually reading the docs I say it says "SIO is not supported" so you can't run a "real" OS only the CMS provided with the machine...

... you might do well asking on the Hercules/390 list. There are a few folks on there that used to have S/390 machines.

[pkhoury]

I recall seeing in an IBM sales brochure for the Option 370 that it was capable of using the hard drive for virtual memory, but I don't remember how much was able to be allocated.

[WBST]

I recall seeing in an IBM sales brochure for the Option 370 that it was capable of using the hard drive for virtual memory, but I don't remember how much was able to be allocated.

The IBM PC XT/370 should give you some idea, but I don't know if the AT's Option 370 has the same card complement etc.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-bas...omputer_XT/370

[pkhoury]

Here's a better question - is there anything I can actually do nowadays with this card, aside from showing it off at our club's next GTG? I'd obviously prefer to show it off doing something, though I'm only really familiar with using Hercules.

[g4ugm]

Here's a better question - is there anything I can actually do nowadays with this card, aside from showing it off at our club's next GTG? I'd obviously prefer to show it off doing something, though I'm only really familiar with using Hercules.

Well you should be able to use it as it was designed to work. So run VM/PC and its based on VM/SP3 which gives you REXX and XEDIT. You should also be able to install any of the software on the VM n-pack Y-Disk onto the system, but it will run slowly.

[MrArgent]

Huh, sounds like there's some major asterisks with this one.