COMMODORE/KAYPRO COMPATIBILITY

[crustyasp46]

COMMODORE/KAYPRO COMPATIBILITY
by Toby Prim, Las Vegas KUG, July 1987

(CP/M compatibility between Kaypro and Commodore.)

Here is some information I've collected about how the Commodore-
128 using CP/M can use Kaypro formatted disks. I hope it helps
members and prospective members who started with a Commodore-128
and now have Kaypros, etc.

The Commodore-128 will default to the 128-mode when powered up.
The Commodore CP/M disk must be loaded. On a color monitor, the
CP/M text is displayed in purple. The Commodore-157 "smart" disk
will handle only double density (MFM) formats.

When a CP/M disk is inserted in the drive and accessed, the drive
will determine its format and display it in a box in the lower
left hand corner of the screen. The drive can sense only six (6)
formats. RETURN must be typed to enter this format and the disk
accessed again to read or write.

If the format is known, the display in the box can be scrolled by
using the left and right arrow keys before being selected by the
RETURN key. The disk drive will go through this selection
process every time the disk is accessed unless the format is
locked in by typing CONTROL/RETURN instead of RETURN.

The formats recognized by the Disk Drive are:

EPSON QX10 (double sided, 10 sectors per track)
IBM-8 (CP/M-86) (both single and double sided, 8 sectors per
track)
KAYPRO II/IV (both single and double sided, 10 sectors per track)
OSBORNE DD (single sided, 5 sectors per track)

The Commodore appears to run generic CP/M but has problems when
the program gets I/O specific, such as "output to 40H" instead of
"output to printer".