S100 Computers

CPM, MSDOS etc. CF Card Images
This page contains complete CF Card downloadable images that should allow you to immediately have CPM3 up on running with S100Computers disk controller boards.
It is assumed you are familiar with CPM3, its BIOS and how it works. Please see here if not.

Here is a list of the boards themselves.
IDE/CF Card Board (all versions).
FPGA_DC Disk Controller Boards (The IDE and IDE+FDC versions)
Z80 SBC
FPGA Z80 SBC

For CPM3 there are two major configurations:-
A "Non banked" version which is essentially any S100 bus RAM board with ROM free memory from 0H to EFFFH. The boot monitor ROM is assumed to reside at F000H upwards. It is further assumed that on command, (The "P" command for the Z80 Master monitor), the monitor can read at least 12 contiguous sectors from the CF card starting at Track 0, sector 1 and deposit them in RAM starting at 100H. When done, the monitor jumps to 100H in RAM and boots up CPM.

A "Banked" version which is essentially one or more IEEE 696 S100 bus RAM boards with ROM free memory from 0H to EFFFH but with more memory available above F000H. The boot monitor ROM is assumed to reside at F000H upwards. It is further assumed that on command, (The "P" command for the Z80 Master monitor), the monitor can read at least 12 contiguous sectors from the CF card starting at Track 0, sector 1 and deposit them in RAM starting at 100H. When done, the monitor jumps to 100H in RAM and boots up CPM. The banked CPM3 versions assumed that the RAM board address lines are switched using the S100 Computers Z80 master CPU board.   The two most common boards that can be used are the 4MB Static RAM board or the 16MB Static RAM board (all versions).

The only other board requirement is a Console IO Board. In all the Operating system CF card images here, it is assumed the console IO board is the Propeller Driven Console IO Board (all versions).   Actually it does not have to be that, any console board that has a status port at 0H and an ASCII data port at 1H will work using the following routine will work:

CI:   IN    A,(CONSOL_STATUS)
      AND   02H
      JR    Z,CI
      IN    A,(CONSOL_IN)
      RET

CO:   IN    A,(CONSOL_STATUS)
      AND   4H
      JR    Z,CO
      LD    A,C
      OUT (CONSOL_OUT),A
      RET

The "CPM3 boot loader" resides on the first sectors of the CF card. The loader (at 100H in RAM) then loads in the "main" CPM3.SYS system file which in turned loads in the CPM3 hardware specific CCP.COM file.   This process is always the same for all the CPM3 board configurations used below. The board/version differences that exist below are due to either the different disk controller hardware used or some extra ports use by CPM3 (e.g. printer, speech, serial ports, RAM disk etc.).

If you are bringing CPM3 up for the first time start off with the simpler Non-banked systems.
Also later on, be real careful not to copy the CPM3 banked system file to a non-banked system disk with it's own boot loader. They have the same name (CPM3.SYS).

Making a Functional CPM3 CF Card.
These days one usually writes a CPM3 BIOS and makes a CPM3.SYS file on a PC using Peter Schorn's AltairZ80 Simulator. The challenge is getting files on to your S100 disk system when you don't yet have a functional system. We get around this chicken and the egg problem by using a complete functional CPM3 "disk image" on a CF card and booting CPM3 directly in your S100system which has programs to download further files etc. from your PC. We don't need to dwell how the first S100 bus CF card was made here. Suffice to say, with such a CF card you immediately have a fully functional CPM3 system from which you can developed more elaborate hardware and software.

We will use the program called HDD Raw Copy Tool to make a fully functional CPM3 'disk' from a file that resides on your PC. The program can be found here. It can also be found at the bottom of this page. There are a number of disk image files below corresponding to different S100 bus hardware setups. You can download them from this page (see below). Because they are actual sector by sector CF card copies they are quite large (typically 6-7MB). Typically I use 4GB CF Cards. This is way overkill for CPM3 (but not MSDOS etc.). I found that HDD Raw Copy Tool does not copy reliably with older small size CF cards. Likewise the new high capacity cards caused me some problems. If possible use Kingston or Verbatim 4GB cards.

Here is a picture of HHD Raw Copy being used to unpack the FPGA_DC_CPM_Image.imgc on to a CF card. Actually since our CPM3 disk is only 0FFH tracks, with 0FFH Sectors/Track maximum, you can probably stop the unpacking process after sector 0FFFFH (65,535). Here is how the "unpacking" dialog looks:-

It seems all CF cards were not created equal! There is an issue with CF cards not working in the IDE/CF card drive if you don't use an NEC 82C55A chip.
On top of that I have found that some CF cards do not boot correctly - particularly the older <2GB capacity cards.
Please try an use the 4GB Verbatim CF Cards. While more expensive than some, I have never had a programming/boot issue with these cards with any of our Disk controller boards.

I should also point out the above image file is NOT the same format as the well known CPMTools disk .img file. You cannot us that package to manipulate the CPM files in the image
When done, simply plop the newly formed CF card into your S100 bus hardware and off you go!

Non-Banked CPM CF Card Images
These are the simplest systems to get up and running. So long as you have 60K of RAM and the Propeller Console IO Board you should be able to boot CPM3 immediately.

CPM3 CF Card Image #1.
This is probably the simplest Non-banked CPM3 system you can have. It uses only two CF cards on the IDE/CF card board and has no Floppy disk access.
It will boot from all the S100Computers Disk Controller boards:-


	IDE/CF card board (All versions)	FPGA-DC +IDE Board	FPGA_DC_IDE+FCD Board	FPGA Z80 SBC	Z80 SBC

Just use the Z80 Master Monitor "P" command. For the FPGA-DC boards make sure you have the IOBYTE/Dip switch in the Monitor Commands mode (Switch 7 open) and allow enough time for the board to initialize.

Click FPGA_DC_CPM_Non-Banked_2D (1. Universal 2 Drive System).imgc  to download the CF card image.

It is a sector image of a 2 CF Card Drive Bootable CPM3 on a 4GB Verbatim CF Card  (From 1/23/2022)

Here is how it should signon:

You can use the onboard program IDE$DIAG.COM program to completely copy this disk/CF card (in A:) to a one in B:

Alternatively you can erase any old files in B: and use PIP B:=A:*.*[V] to copy everything across (including CPM3.sys and CCP.COM).
However in that case if you want to boot from that card you must write the CPM3 Boot loader to Track 0.
The program WR_BOOT.COM does this. Here is a session picture.

CPM3 CF Card Image #2
This is a CPM3 Disk with two CF cards on Drive A: and B: and up to four floppy disks. It requires the Propeller Console IO Board for I/O and a 64K RAM board with RAM from 0H-EFFFH uninterrupted by ROM's etc.
It will only work with the FPGA_DC+IDE Board or the FPGA_DC+IDE+FDC Board. You can in fact boot and use CPM3 on the Dual IDE/CF Boards its just the floppy disks will not be recognized.


	IDE/CF card All versions	FPGA-DC +IDE Board	FPGA_DC_IDE+FCD Board

Just use the Z80 Master Monitor "P" command. Make sure you have the IOBYTE/Dip switch in the Monitor Commands mode (Switch 7 open) and allow enough time for the board to initialize..

Click FPGA_DC_CPM_Non-Banked_6D (2. FPGA_DC+Floppys).imgc  to download the CF card image.
It is a sector image on a 4GB Verbatim CF Card  (From 10/20/2021)
ere is how it should signon:

CPM3 CF Card Image #3
This is in fact a simplifier CPM3 BIOS than Image#1. Its really only for basic debugging issues since it has only one IDE/CF Card and has no Floppy disk access.
It will boot from all the S100Computers Disk Controller boards:-


	IDE/CF card board (All versions)	FPGA-DC +IDE Board	FPGA_DC_IDE+FCD Board	FPGA Z80 SBC	Z80 SBC

Just use the Z80 Master Monitor "P" command. For the FPGA-DC boards make sure you have the IOBYTE/Dip switch in the Monitor Commands mode (Switch 7 open) and allow enough time for the board to initialize..

Click FPGA_DC_CPM_Non-Banked_1D (3. One Drive system).imgc to download the CF card image.
It is a sector image of a 1 CF Card Drive Bootable CPM3 on a 4GB Verbatim CF Card (From 1/23/2022)
ere is how it should signon:

CPM3 CF Card Image #7
"ZSOS" (Z80 SBC OS) is a CP/M 3 distribution written by Dave Fry (and Dave Mehaffy - now deceased), that rearranges the CPM3 BIOS sectors/track so the are no 'holes" in the track/sector numbering.
The image files contain an extensive set of user areas:-

User Area 0: CP/M 3 Base Files

User Area 1: XMODEM + Kermit + MBASIC 5.29

User Area 2: SuperSoft Utilities

User Area 3: DDTZ Debugger (will need to be built from source)

User Area 4: BDS Tiny C

User Area 5: Games

User Area 6: Turbo Pascal 3.0

User Area 7: Development Utilities

User Area 8: <Available for additional user files>

User Area 9: <Available for additional user files>

There is no Floppy disk access.
It will boot from all the S100Computers Disk Controller boards:-


	IDE/CF card board (All versions)	FPGA-DC +IDE Board	FPGA_DC_IDE+FCD Board	FPGA Z80 SBC	Z80 SBC

Just use the Z80 Master Monitor "P" command. For the FPGA-DC boards make sure you have the IOBYTE/Dip switch in the Monitor Commands mode (Switch 7 open) and allow enough time for the board to initialize..
Click FPGA_DC_CPM_Non-Banked_2D (7. ZSOS System).imgc to download the CF card image.
It is a sector image of a 2 CF Card Drive Bootable CPM3 on a 4GB Verbatim CF Card (From 1/25/2022)

Here is how it should signon:

Note the use of CPM3 User Groups.
Remember you cannot read files from the (normal) 61 sectors/track CF cards since the disk format is different. You would have to setup another BIOS drive with 61 sectors/track to do so.

Banked CPM3 CF Card Images
These are more complicated systems to get up and running. The BIOS assumes you have at lease 256K of RAM. Normally we use either our 4MB 4MB or 16MB RAM boards.
It assumes IEEE-696 extended RAM addressing and the S100 Computers Z80 CPU Board (any version). Of course you also need the Propeller Console IO Board.
With that hardware however setup you get a very fast and flexible CPM3 system. The bank switching process is a little tricky. You should read in detail the process here.

CPM3 CF Card Image #4
This is a minimal Banked CPM3 Disk with two CF cards on Drive A: and B: The floppy disk hardware is ignored on the FPGA_DC boards.

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