mmruzek
Experienced Member
There is an 8K ROM program that goes in the U33 Socket of the IBM PC computer using the 8088 CPU. The ROM performs diagnostics and displays on a screen. The program is know as the Landmark / Supersoft Diagnostics ROM. You can find a binary image at the www.minuszerodegrees.net website. The program communicates with the video card directly, without interrupts, because the chip has replaced the BIOS. So, basically the challenge is communicating directly with a VGA card. I did happen to find one example of that being done, it is here: http://bos.asmhackers.net/docs/vga_w...ppet_5/vga.php
Attached is a listing from the binary code created using Sourcer. Also attached is an example of the program output to the screen. The video initialization is near the front of the code, as you would expect. I am preparing to offer a kit to build the motherboard of the original IBM 5150 as a clone. It would be very helpful to kit builders if they could use a VGA card to run this diagnostic, since older graphic cards and monitors are becoming difficult to find.
Does anyone have an interest in trying to tackle this project, or have suggestions for the programming? Thank You, Michael
Attached is a listing from the binary code created using Sourcer. Also attached is an example of the program output to the screen. The video initialization is near the front of the code, as you would expect. I am preparing to offer a kit to build the motherboard of the original IBM 5150 as a clone. It would be very helpful to kit builders if they could use a VGA card to run this diagnostic, since older graphic cards and monitors are becoming difficult to find.
Does anyone have an interest in trying to tackle this project, or have suggestions for the programming? Thank You, Michael