OS/2 Warp, PowerPC Version
OS/2 Warp, PowerPC Version
Initially I supposed this web page to be dedicated to “curios” equivalent to
Microsoft OS/2 2.0 betas (if I ever discovered one that’s), Presentation
Supervisor subsystem for Home windows NT, or OS/2 for PowerPC. Once I lastly
managed to acquire {hardware} and software program required to run OS/2 for
PowerPC, I rapidly realized that this actually unique piece of software program
calls for its personal web page.
After unexpectedly lengthy growth (however is that actually
surprising?), in December 1995 IBM lastly “shipped” OS/2 Warp,
PowerPC version. For comfort, any more I’ll confer with the
product as OS/2 PPC. Following years of hype and excessive expectation, the
launch was very low key and actually marked the top of growth of
OS/2 for PowerPC. The product was solely out there to restricted variety of
IBM clients and was by no means actively marketed. So far as I do know, OS/2
PPC did not even
have a field, though I do have the great trying authentic CDs.
The {Hardware}
OS/2 PPC solely supported extraordinarily restricted vary of {hardware} — IBM
Private Energy Collection machines. These have been desktop fashions 830 and 850,
and OS/2 PPC most likely additionally supported the Energy Collection ThinkPads 820 and
850, although I can solely guess from the truth that the graphics chipset
employed by these ThinkPads is a part of the very brief checklist of supported
units in OS/2 PPC.
The IBM Energy Collection computer systems have been IBM’s quite brief lived foray into
the PowerPC based mostly desktop private laptop market, circa 1995-1996.
The PowerPC CPU apart, the methods have been similar to Intel based mostly
{hardware} of that period. They have been designed across the PCI bus, but in addition
included ISA enlargement slots and onboard Crystal Audio ISA PnP chips.
The desktop Energy Collection machines have been IDE based mostly, ThinkPads used SCSI
disks. The computer systems had commonplace serial and parallel ports most of
typical PC {hardware} equivalent to interrupt and DMA controllers. The desktops
had onboard S3 864 video, ThinkPads used Western Digital flat panel
chipsets. A number of non-compulsory graphics playing cards have been supported, notably
Weitek P9100 based mostly accelerators. The desktops additionally had onboard Ethernet
chips.
The Energy Collection methods have been carefully associated to sure IBM RS/6000
workstations. The RS/6000 Mannequin 43P-7248 was almost an identical to the
Energy Collection 850. They used the identical motherboard, solely the RS/6000 had
onboard SCSI controller. In contrast to the RS/6000 methods supposed for the
workstation market and operating virtually completely IBM’s AIX working
system, the Energy Collection methods have been designed for the “common”
private laptop customers. The machines have been speculated to run OS/2,
Home windows NT, AIX or Solaris. I do not imagine Solaris for PowerPC was
ever completed. OS/2 PPC was solely semi-finished, Microsoft dropped
PowerPC help in 1996 not lengthy after NT 4.0 launch, and a lot of the
Energy Collection methods ended up operating AIX, which supported them till
model 5.1. Linux additionally helps the Energy Collection to some extent. I
have briefly used the PowerPC model Home windows NT so I can examine it to
OS/2 PPC. I’ve additionally used AIX and Linux on IBM PowerPC methods, however
Home windows NT was clearly the closest competitor of OS/2 PPC.
My OS/2 PPC system is a Energy Collection 830, though it lives in a
RS/6000 43P case. The CPU is a 100MHz PowerPC 604 with 256KB L2 cache,
and the machine is provided with 192MB RAM, which is the utmost it could possibly
deal with. The
graphics is PCI onboard S3 Imaginative and prescient 864 with 2MB video reminiscence and true
colour S3 SDAC. I am utilizing a 2.1GB IDE arduous drive — AIX can deal with as much as
8GB and Linux even larger disks, however OS/2 and NT weren’t proud of
something over about 2.5GB. By the way, the 830 was initially offered
with both 500MB or 1GB drives and 16MB RAM. The Energy Collection 850
methods have been geared up with 100 or 120MHz CPUs and barely extra RAM and
larger disks.
The Software program
OS/2 Warp, PowerPC version comes on two CDs. The primary CD
comprises the working system and BonusPak, the second CD is an
software sampler with a number of demo functions.
Set up is surprisingly straightforward and painless. The CD is bootable and
there are virtually no selections to make — solely about disk partitioning.
The PowerPC working methods (OS/2, NT, AIX and Linux) usually will not
coexist collectively as there is no such thing as a actual equal of a boot supervisor. The
OS/2 installer will repartition the disk and overwrite another
working methods. The boot partition should be FAT. It’s attainable to
create HPFS knowledge partitions, however the HPFS help seemed to be quite
unstable and sure a last-minute addition.
After quite lengthy set up, attributable to gradual CD-ROM most likely mixed with
a poor CD-ROM driver, OS/2 PPC set up completed and the system booted
from disk. I used to be greeted by this display screen:
No, this isn’t a mistake. OS/2 PPC actually seems identical to OS/2 Warp,
at the least at first look. The system booted up in 640×480 mode with 256
colours, utilizing the accelerated S3 driver. The desktop proper after
set up regarded like this:
Nonetheless very very similar to OS/2 Warp, aside from that little Techniques
Administration folder. This characteristic was not current within the Intel OS/2 Warp
launch, though it was added later. After putting in the BonusPak and
a couple of different additions and altering
the decision, the desktop nonetheless regarded like plain OS/2 Warp, with the
exception of the background bitmap after all (click on on the image to
see full dimension screenshot):
The system was now operating in 1024×768 decision, however nonetheless with 256
colours. The graphics chip helps 64K colours simply advantageous at this
decision, sadly Impos/2 was unable to take any screenshots.
256 colours it’s then, and time to extra carefully study the working
system. The README file is an effective start line, and it is fairly lengthy
in OS/2 PPC. It consists primarily of a listing of unimplemented or
incomplete options.
For one factor, discover the “Join” within the screenshot.
OS/2 Warp, PowerPC Version, would not have any
connectivity to talk of. Networking help, in a phrase, did not exist.
No LAN Server consumer, no TCP/IP, nothing. There was simply HyperAccess
Lite and CompuServe Info Supervisor, which labored (in concept at
least) over a modem. The identify appears to have been a final minute change.
Applications and documentation in lots of situations confer with OS/2 Warp
Join, PowerPC Version, however the remaining product was known as simply OS/2
Warp and never “Join”. One of many README recordsdata explains the identify
change and alludes to networking help in “future variations”.
For growth
variations of OS/2 PPC there was TFTP help that talked on to the
microkernel Ethernet or Token Ring driver and fully bypassed OS/2.
This transport layer additionally supported distant debugging. That is in sharp
distinction to Home windows NT
which totally helps networking (TCP/IP and file sharing) on the identical
{hardware}. Networking was clearly deliberate for OS/2, however the mission
was killed earlier than this half was executed.
Not every thing was so blatantly unfinished although. I used to be fairly
shocked by the DOS
help in OS/2 PPC:
For those who look carefully, you will see that OS/2 PPC included a full
fledged PC emulator, which equipped a digital x86 CPU in addition to frequent
PC {hardware}. Apparently, the DOS help in OS/2 PPC was based mostly
round PC-DOS 7 and never the outdated DOS 5 stage code that OS/2 on
Intel is caught with. The OS/2 PPC DOS packing containers thus had for example the
DOS E editor (similar to TEDIT) or REXX help. Why IBM by no means
up to date the DOS help on the Intel aspect is past me. OS/2 PPC
supported each windowed and full display screen DOS periods. The total display screen
periods at all times ran in graphics mode, even when the emulated DOS
software was utilizing textual content mode.
Not glad with “simply” DOS emulation, IBM additionally supported Win-OS/2,
each full display screen and windowed:
I’ve not extensively examined the DOS or Win-OS/2 emulation, however
no matter little utilities got here with the OS/2 system appeared to work
nicely, together with wave audio in Win-OS/2,
and the efficiency was higher than I anticipated. IBM will need to have spent a
lot of
effort on the x86 emulation help. Documentation hinted at a
chance of future help for native OS/2 x86 functions by way of
emulation.
IBM additionally clearly spent loads of time on the multimedia help in
OS/2 PPC. The multimedia help works unexpectedly nicely, particularly
for somebody used to the issues frequent on Intel machines.
The system performs video and audio with out issues, with MIDI help
both by way of a software program synthesizer or OPL3 suitable chip (software program
synthesizer sounds much better). The applying sampler CD got here with
a number of
movies, principally advertisements for OS/2. The PowerPC Toolkit additionally got here with a beta
model of OpenGL help, which shared code with IBM’s AIX workstation
class implementation.
OS/2 PPC was a hybrid midway between Warp 3 and
Warp 4. The person interface regarded like Warp 3, however lots of the options
of OS/2 PPC later confirmed in Warp 4 on Intel. One in every of them was the not
highly regarded Function Installer:
The Function Installer was used to put in the BonusPak, a number of instruments
and video games, and curiously sufficient, additionally the Command Reference which for
some mysterious motive wasn’t a part of the bottom set up. Here is certainly one of
these video games:
Once more, there is no such thing as a actual distinction from the Intel model, aside from
the about field textual content (discover the “Join” textual content).
OS/2 PPC was a wierd OS. In some ways it was precisely an identical to
the Intel model, but in different methods it was fully totally different. The
person interface was the identical and all the API virtually unchanged.
A few of the variations have been addition of full Unicode help and
32-bit console API (Kbd/Mou/Vio). Largely unchanged API was a motive
why it was comparatively straightforward to port present OS/2 software program to PowerPC.
The largest distinction was not even the CPU however quite the
compiler — IBM used the MetaWare Excessive C/C++ for PowerPC growth
(allegedly it was cheaper for IBM OS/2 division to contract MetaWare
quite than IBM’s personal compiler group). To my
data, the MetaWare was completely used as a cross compiler
operating on x86
OS/2 methods. IBM used MetaWare’s compiler for embedded
PowerPC growth typically, and MetaWare additionally had x86 help for
OS/2. Watcom was on the time engaged on PowerPC model of their
compiler, however OS/2 PPC was killed earlier than that mission was completed.
Toolkit documentation mentions VisualAge C++ for PowerPC, however I doubt
that was ever launched. I didn’t discover any point out of a compiler (or
debugger) operating natively on OS/2 PPC.
The OS/2 PPC growth instruments have been fairly totally different from their Intel
counterparts. For starters, as a substitute of the LX executable format, OS/2
PPC used the business commonplace ELF. A number of instruments have been fully
unchanged (IPFC for example), most have been solely new (linker,
librarian, useful resource
compiler). The ABI (Utility Binary Interface) utilized in OS/2 PPC was
based mostly on and similar to the UNIX SVR4 PowerPC ABI, though OS/2
after all ran in little endian mode, not like PowerPC Unices however simply
like Home windows NT.
Going deeper into the kernel, OS/2 PPC had treasured little in frequent
with the Intel model. The product was based mostly on the IBM microkernel,
which was a refinement of the Carnegie Mellon College MACH
microkernel. The microkernel bore no resemblance to the Intel OS/2
kernel in any way and it was additionally very totally different from different working
methods.
The preliminary grandiose plan was to construct the Office OS, the One
Ring to Bind Them All of working methods. Office OS (or WPOS for
brief) was speculated to be constructed on prime of the MACH microkernel and
help
a number of “personalities”. The personalities would implement present
working methods equivalent to OS/2, AIX, Home windows NT and even perhaps MacOS.
In the long run this by no means occurred and the one supported persona was
OS/2.
The preliminary design remains to be tangible in OS/2 PPC. The OS/2
persona is applied within the “OS/2 Server” and there are
sure “persona impartial” companies. Most system drivers have been
persona impartial and labored immediately with the microkernel. This
included disk and community drivers. A notable exception have been show
drivers,
the place OS/2 PPC launched the GRADD mannequin, later ported to Intel
OS/2. Documentation on OS/2 PPC internals is considerably sparse and
the web books shipped with PowerPC Toolkit are in lots of circumstances both
incomplete or just unmodified copies of OS/2 for Intel documentation.
supply of knowledge is redbook entitled “OS/2
Warp (Energy PC Version) – A First Look” printed by IBM
Worldwide
Technical Help Group in December 1995, doc quantity
SG24-4630-00 for these .
OS/2 for PowerPC Impressions
What was OS/2 Warp, PowerPC Version like? An unfinished
product, tough across the edges however concurrently technically very
fascinating and superior and exhibiting promise. Despite the fact that the OS/2 PPC
launch wasn’t known as beta, it’s apparent that it is a beta stage
product (if even that in some respects). Many options are unfinished
or fully lacking (networking within the first place). The kernel stage
code would not look very similar to manufacturing construct and prints out rather a lot
of
debugging output on the serial console. The HPFS help was very
unstable, and the soundness of Win-OS/2 left quite a bit to be desired. There
have been too many clearly unfinished elements of the product (documentation,
lacking utilities and many others.).
Then again a big portion of the system labored nicely. The person
interface and graphics subsystem typically did not exhibit any
anomalies. Multitasking was dependable and all issues thought-about,
responsiveness fairly good for a 100MHz CPU and code that was not going
to have been efficiency tuned. The multimedia subsystem labored a lot
higher than I anticipated. Many issues have been a lot improved in comparison with
Intel OS/2 — internationalization, graphics subsystem, up to date console
API and so forth. The system appeared to have sufficient uncooked energy,
even when it wasn’t harnessed too nicely. Boot time was quite lengthy however
as soon as up and operating, the system was snappy (with some exceptions,
notably the CD-ROM driver). To succeed in true manufacturing high quality, the OS
would have wanted at the least extra six months of intense
growth, most likely extra.
How helpful is OS/2 PPC? Not very. The truth is, it’s virtually fully
ineffective. It solely runs on three or 4 fashions of quite uncommon IBM
machines and helps virtually no extra units. The OS is clearly
unfinished and never solely secure. Worst of all, there are about zero
functions. As a result of OS/2 PPC was by no means actually in use, PowerPC variations
of OS/2 functions have been by no means offered (at the least to my data),
though a number of OS/2 ISVs ported their functions to OS/2 PPC as
evidenced by the appliance sampler. Porting wasn’t very tough and
instruments for constructing PowerPC functions have been out there, however since there
was no demand for them, there was little level in porting.
OS/2 for PowerPC was undoubtedly an fascinating experiment, albeit a
failed one. It’s inconceivable to inform whether or not this failure was induced
extra by shortcomings of OS/2 for PowerPC or the failure — maybe simply
falling far wanting expectations — of the PowerPC platform as a complete.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Mike Kaply and Chris Graham as a result of if it wasn’t
for his or her generosity, I would not have something to jot down about.
Due to the founders of eBay for offering a spot the place one can discover
essentially the most obscure goodies at an incredible worth (with sufficient persistence and
some luck). IBM Energy Collection 830: $50 + delivery. OS/2 Warp, PowerPC
Version: Free, if you recognize the place to ask. Hours and hours of enjoyable with
the following mixture: Priceless.
A few of the data offered right here is derived from IBM
documentation and redbooks, which itself could also be inacurate. A lot of the
relaxation is my commentary and conjecture. In case you have any extra
data, corrections, or fascinating tales about OS/2 for
PowerPC, don’t hesitate to contact me at <MichalN@prodigy.net>.