Virtual PC for old CNC

VMware and Parallels are similar products.

Wes

VMWare are also giving away a couple of versions. Personally I think they are superior to Microsoft's product.

Maybe, but in situations where an application needs exclusive CPU time or direct access to hardware registers (ie. parallel ports), it may still not work.

Why not simply install a Dos on a box?

Caldera Opendos is an MS-DOS compatible operating system, the descendant of DR DOS and Novell DOS. It can replace the MS-DOS system, and it's free for non-commercial usage. The full version (with additional networking capabilities) should be registered at the Caldera's Web site. The registration is free, they just want to know about thir users... The registration of the Lite version is not reuired. Starting from the earlier version (called Novell DOS 7) there was a built-in task switcher. Now Caldera extended this feature by providing some kind of multitasking features. Current Version: 7.01

Copyright Type: free for non-commercial use Home Site:

Source Code Availability: partially

Download files:

ftp://esca.atomki.hu/pub/pc/dos/opendos/

Software/Hardware Requirements: IBM compatible PC with floppy dive and hard disk

Btw....OmniTurn CNC lathes run on Caldera open dos right from the factory.

Works well, tastes great, less filling!

Then there are others....

If the links above don't work or are currently unreachable please try ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pub/pc/caldera.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Fantastic product - I have a client running a PICK database - his machines were 13 years old and the developer said he was stuck - could NOT run it on P4 machine with or without XP. I put Virtual PC on the new XP Pro P4, loaded win 95 on the virtual PC, and copied the pick drive from the old P1 - works perfectly. Even allows the 2 dumb terminals to connect via RS232 to extended (com 3 and com 4) ports.

The beauty of the MS product is it DOES work. Some flavours of VMWare do not. DosBox does not. The Virtual Machine program handles the APIs (Application Program Interfaces) and redirects the ports to the VM seamlessly. Another client is using VM to run an OLD Basic program that talks to a handful of old handhelds through media converters on com ports. Talking directly to the "virtual hardware" works perfectly.

Also FreeDOS

I do miss those dos days in way. First read this newsgroup under Dos on KA9Q software.

Wayne....

Given that we are currently running 228 Virtual machines on VMWare and none on Microsoft's product on our site (I just counted them) I must agree that VMWare is superior :-).

We run VMs with Win2k, Win2k3, NT4, DOS, RHEL and Suse without any problems.

Mark Rand RTFM

We've evaluated both (well, at my previous employer) as well and bought VMWare. However, something to keep in mind - if whatever controller you are using needs direct interface with the OS, it might not talk nice via a virtual machine. I've found a _few_ hardware components I couldn't deal with, all on old non-standard stuff of course, but I suspect old CNC stuff might be just that.

We even installed Win2k3 server on a Sun 4200, just to see if we could. It was...disturbing... to say the least... to have a nice piece of Sun equipment boot up with a Windows instance. I felt dirty for a week.

Does the Dos In A Box system handle the new parallel ports? And the new serial ports? Some of the new computers will NOT run the old dos packages due to different port assignments or protocols. (Dos runs, but serial and parallel communications fail) Running MS VirtualPC under Win XP or Win 2K allows the new generation of ports to be addressed with no problems, AND allows you to also run windows programs AT THE SAME TIME. So you can run the old DRO or CNC program, and at the same time run solidworks or A-Cad 2000, or whatever your heart desires - and with a second video card you can run the DOS app on one screen and Windows on the other.

The problem with virtualization is that it has a virtual set of hardware as well, no direct access to peripherals. I've run programs in VPC under XP that wouldn't run directly, mostly 95 and 98SE stuff, they're usually sluggish and slow to respond to mouse clicks, but nothing that accessed hardware directly. You get what you pay for with VPC.

The problem these days isn't the OS, it's the hardware that's available new. No ISA slots, no EISA slots, PCI slots are going away. If the CNC interface uses a custom board, chances are there's no replacement motherboard available that it's going to fit. Then there's the problem of getting the on-board peripherals to work with the old OS, nobody is progamming for them. Getting hard to find stuff for Win2K, let alone DOS, ME, 95 or 98. Only solution is to haunt the PC boneyards for old motherboards and hope they aren't too far gone.

Stan

your arm, plus it's probably bundled with an odious POS that can't be removed without disabling something you need on its way out..

Nope.

Yeah, amazing how keeping that competitive edge is easier when you refuse to disclose proprietary APIs, despite court orders to do same.

You can run almost any X86 OS on VMware, and have it communicate with any of the host hardware selectivly.

IIRC, the FAA has been running software for old ibm mainframes on newer IBMs running an emulator.

Wes

Likely the true face will show after they put vmware out of business.

Wes

Microsoft is only capable of working in a small section of the marketplace that VMWare occupies. I won't lose any sleep over _that_ concern.

I've had good luck with a couple of old DOS programs using "DOSBox". It's a free open source DOS emulator developed by a bunch of gamers who want to be able to run their old DOS games. It's a little slow, but it does some things better than the XP DOS implementation from Micro$hit. I haven't heard if it works in Vista, but I'm sure they are working on it.

Doug White

Won't happen. There are enough people out there who hate Microsoft enough to not use their products even when they are free. There will always be a market for a niche company like VMware if they are smart enouh to position themselves properly and not overestimate their position of influence.