Date   : Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:48:24 +0100
From   : julesrichardsonuk@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: PANOS / ACW user guide...

Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> Due to a dodgy disk I ended up installing them with a combination
> of automatically and manually doing it by reading the command
> files.

Hmm. I've got a few releases here in various states. I think I've got a 
complete set of R10 and R12, and an incomplete pre-release version C. Plus 
I've got a hard disk with PANOS already on it - I'll have to boot that up 
later and see what version it is.

> I couldn't get Panos to boot from my ADFS hard drive. Initially I
> thought it was because it's an IDE drive, but I couldn't even run
> Bas32 either. In fact, I couldn't load anything from the hard
> drive into the 32016 memory. Then, a fragment of memory surfaced.
> I remember reading somewhere that Panos won't work with ADFS, and
> you had to request a special version. Looking through my paperwork
> I found a photocopy of a delivery note from Acorn for "ADFS 32-M,
> which is required fto be installed into the Master 128K when using
> a 32016 with a Winchester"
>  
> Checking the New Advanced User Guide, page 351 says:
 > [snip]

Hmm, now that is interesting. I think all the 'small' (i.e. 1MB) boards in 
cheese-wedge cases I have are 6MHz ones (I don't really fancy going and 
pulling lids right now!). The two large (4MB) boards are both 10MHz. But one 
of my ACWs (ACW #10, an early one) has a 1MB board in it, and that one is 8MHz...

I know I saw something somewhere implying that PANOS was released on both DFS 
and ADFS media (I think all of mine are DFS, 80T).  Both my ACWs have stock 
ADFS ROMS fitted.

> So, all you need to do is track down an 8MHz or 10MHz 32016 CPU
> and FPU. (!)

done ;)

I *might* have the modified ADFS somewhere I suppose - it's possibly lurking 
with the some of the development PANOS stuff that I seem to have.

Now, I wonder if the modified ADFS is just needed when running against a 
Master? Or does it apply to any BBC I/O board (i.e. B and B+ too)?

Weird how they ran out of space for the floppy code in the modified ROM; I'm 
surprised that the changes weren't just a few timing delays rather than a big 
re-work (I know space in the ADFS ROM is supposed to be tight, but even so...)

Aside:

Wonder if 6MHz 32016's can be overclocked far enough to get them to work with 
stock ADFS code? ;) (I doubt they'd run up to 8MHz! But trying a 14.xxx 
crystal from an old PC motherboard to give around 7MHz might be interesting... 
I don't think TUBE ULAs are matched to a particular coprocessor bus speed, are 
they?)

> On a positive note, from all this rummaging around I found I
> actually had a copy of the Panos/Pandora Technical Reference
> Manual, that I posted a request for recently. I shall scan it in
> and upload it as soon as I get the chance.

Wow... that would be good to see. I still need to scan the ACW service manual 
at some point. I got what claims to be the PANOS source code backed up to 
modern disk at last, but I still haven't had time to see if it really is what 
it says it is :(  (I did unearth the FPU soak test program... not that 
anyone's seen a 32016 FPU in nigh-on 20 years...)

cheers

Jules