Wayne asked if DOS was in E-10.
The answer is sort of.
The Aplication program interface for the compact flash cards etc is to a FAT
(File Allocation Table) type system. This was the basic low level API
(Apllication Program Interface") used by DOS for handling disk storage. This
is not exactly the same as saying that Dos is inside the E10. The actual source
code will likely be quite different , it just has to meet the specifications
for the software API and FAT model (CF hardware interface: essentially an ATA
type interface with lower voltage, I believe) and since the processor is not
x86 the object code will be different even if by some strange chance the same
DOS source were to be used. There is so much mythology surrounding the
operating system religious wars that a lot of these differences get swept under
the rug, and people who are not programers don't care about the nuances.
Remember, originally DOS was largely a clone written to mimic the CPM
operating system API. In the subsequent OS wars CPM lost out to DOS, which w
as a
great pity as by then CPM was a much better multi-tasking system, which DOS
was not. Trying to do multi-tasking on top of single tasking Dos, was a problem.
Windows today can still be used with FAT formated disks which is what the CF
camera cards look like, but the prefered file system is NTFS, which is a huge
improvement, especially for database management and more secure transactions
for financial institutions etc. NTFS is supposedly more similar to Vax VMS, as
the primary architect also designed VMS, but I don't actually know. Using FAT
on cf cards etc is a typical pragmatic choice of simplicity and lowest common
denominator compatibility. Remember even Apple had to read floppies from PC's
and had to interface to ATA drives, so there exsisted expertise in dealing with
FAT style software and hardware interfaces for most platforms.
Regards,
Tim Hughes
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