AST RESEARCH SixPakPlus User manual

User's Monuo
ASl'nesenncn mc.

SixPakPlus
Memory Expansion and IIO Card
for the
IBM Personal Computer,
IBM Pc-XT, and
Other IBM-Compatible Machines
User's Manual
000123—001 A
June, 1983
AST RESEARCH. INC.
Irvine, California
(714) 863—1333

FIRST EDITION (June, 1983)
IBM is aregistered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
Compaq is atrademark of Compaq Computers. Inc.
SixPakPlus, SuperPak. SuperDrive, and SuperSpool are trademarks of
AST Research, Inc
Copyright ©1983 AST Research. Inc. All rights are reserved, including those to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form without permission in writing from
AST Research. Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1GENERAL OVERVIEW ................... 1-1
1.1 Compatibility ....................................... 1-1
1.2 Standard Features ................................... 1-2
1.3 Available Options iiiiiiiiii 1—3
1.4 “Do IReally Need to Read This Manual?” ............. 1-3
1.5 System Requirements: Non-PC-DOS Operation .......... 14
1.6 SixPakPlus Board Layout ............................. 14
SECTION 2SIXPAKPLUS MEMORY
CONFIGURATION ...................... 2-1
2.1 SixPakPlus Memory Switch settings .................... 2-1
2.1.1 SixPakPlus Starting Memory Address ............. 2—2
2.1.2 Amount of Memory Installed on the
SixPakPlus ................................... 2-3
2.1.3 Parity Check Enable ........................... 24
2.2 PC System Board Switch Configuration ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 24
2.2.1 PC~1 System Board Switch Settings ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 2-5
2.2.2 PC-2 System Board Switch Settings ............... 2—6
2.2.3 PC~XT System Board Switch Settings ............. 2-7
2.3 Installing Multiple Memory Cards ..................... 2-7
2.3.1 Installing aCard “Below”
the SixPakPlus ................................ 2-8
2.3.2 Installing aCard “Above" the SixPakPlus ......... 2-9
2.4 Installing Additional Memory on the SixPakPlus ......... 2—9
2.5 Troubleshooting Memory Problems ................... 2-11
SECTION 3SERIAL PORT ............................ 3-1
3.1 Configuration of the SixPakPlus Serial P011 ............. 3~1
3.1.1 Installing Multiple Serial Ports in aPC ............ 3—1
3.1.2 Configuring the RS-232C Interface Lines .......... 3—1
3.1.3 Disabling the Serial Port ........................ 3—4
3.2 Programming the Serial Port .......................... 34
3.3 Serial I/O Port Assignments and Pinouts ................ 3-5
3.4 Diagnostic Testing of the Serial Port ................... 3—6

TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Continued)
SECTION 4PARALLEL PRINTER PORT ............. 4-1
4.1 Configuration of the SixPakPlus Parallel Port ............ 4-1
4.1.1 Installing Multiple Parallel Ports in aPC .......... 4-2
4.1.2 IBM Monochrome Display /Printer Adapter Card . . 4-2
4.1.3 Disabling the Parallel Port ...................... 4-2
4.2 Installing the Parallel Interface Cable ................... 4-2
4.3 Programming the Parallel Port ........................ 4-3
4.4 Parallel Port [/0 Assignments and Pinouts .............. 4-4
4.5 Diagnostic Testing of the Parallel Port .................. 4-5
SECTION 5CLOCK-CALENDARFEATURE ............ 51
5.1 Configuration of the SixPakPlus Clock-Calendar ......... 5-1
5.1.1 Disabling the Clock-Calendar .................... 5-2
5.2 The ASTCLOCK Utility: Setting the PC
TIME and DATE ................................... 5-2
5.3 The SETCLOCK Utility: Setting the AST
TIME and DATE ................................... 5-2
5.4 Preparing Your Working DOS Diskettes ................ 5-4
5.5 The Clock-Calendar Battery ........................... 55
5.6 Technical Information ................................ 5-6
5.6.1 Clock-Czflendar Interrupt Generation .............. 5-6
SECTION 6GAME ADAPTER PORT ................... 6-1
6.1 Configuration of the SixPakPlus Game Adapter Port ...... 61
6.1.1 Installing the Cable ............................ 6-2
6.1.2 Disabling the Game Adapter Port ................. 6-2
6.2 Software Compatibility ............................... 6-3
6.3 Technical Information ................................ 6-3
6.4 Diagnostic Testing of the Game Port ................... 6-3
SECTION 7INSTALLING YOUR
SIXPAKPLUS CARD ....................... 7-1
7.1 Testing the New Installation .......................... 7-2
SECTION 8USER UPGRADE INFORMATION .......... 8-1
iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Continued)
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Recommended Serial Port Cabling ............. A-l
Appendix B: Switching Between LPTl and LPTZ ............ B—l
Appendix C: Wiring RS—232 Serial Interfaces ,,,,,,,,p....... C-I .
Appendix D: Patches for Specific I/O Problems ............. D-l
FIGURES
Figure 1»]l SixPakPlus Board Layout ...................... 1-5
Figure 2-1. Starting Address Settings rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 2-2
Figure 2-2i SixPakPlus Memory Size Settings ............... 2-3
Figure 2-3i Parity Check Enable Setting .................... 2-4
Figure 24‘ PC-l System Board Switch Settings ............. 2-5
Figure 2-5. PC»2 System Board Switch Settings ............. 2-6
Figure 2v6. PC-XT System Board Switch Settings ............ 2-7
Figure 3—1, Serial Port Factory Configuration ............... 32
Figure 3-2. Creating a“Forced True” State ................ 3-3
Figure 4-1. Parallel Port Factory Configuration .............. 4-1
Figure 5-1. Clock—Calendar Factory Configuration ........... 5-2
Figure 5-2. Clock Interrupt Block Locations iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 5-8
Figure 6-1. Game Adapter Port Factory Configuration ........ 6~1
Figure C-l. Ideal Case: DTE to DCE Interface ............. C-3
Figure C-2. Typical (Non-Ideal) Case:
DTE to DTE Interface ........................ C—5
Figure 03 DTE to NEC 7700 Printer Interface ............ C—6
Figure C-4. Serial Interface Form ......................... C—7
TABLES
Table 5-1. Clock-Calendar Chip I/O Addressing ............. 5-7

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SECTION 1
GENERAL OVERVIEW
The AST Sixl’akPlusTM is aflexible and powerful multifunction
enhancement product for the IBM Personal Computer (PC) family.
The SixPakPlus provides memory expansion upgradeable to the
maximum addressable user memory in the new PC and PC-XT
systems. It is also apowerful data I/O accessory; standard features
include the real-time Clock-Calendar with battery backup, an
RS»232 asynchronous Serial communications port, and aParallel
printer port. An optional Game adapter port is also provided.
Your SixPakPlus is supplied with two valuable utility programs:
SuperDriveTM, a disk emulation program allowing you to use
part of your memory as asuperfast “electronic diskdrive," and
SuperSpoolTM, an intelligent print spooler allowing you to output
files to aprinter without tying up your PC. These utilities are
discussed in the SuperPak User's Manual.
1.1Compatibility
The SixPakPlus is completely compatible with all existing IBM
PC types. It is also compatible with the Compaq and other IBM
look-alikes. The three existing IBM PC models are defined as
follows:
1. The P0] is the original IBM Personal Computer. The
system board contains 64K of memory. The system
maximum memory capacity is 640K. System board
switches, however, recognize amaximum of 544K.
2. The PC-2 is the newerhupdated version of the PG]. The
system board must be fully populated with 256K of
memory-before utilizing any expansion card memory. If
your PC-2 is not fully populated, then the AST Memory
Upgrade Kit can be used for this purpose. Switch settings
are given in Section 2. The maximum memory capacity of
this system is 640K.
1-1

The PC-XT comes standard with 128K of memory. The
system board is expandable to 256K. Unlike the PC-2, the
system board does NOT have to be fully populated before
using expansion card memory; you may, however, use
AST memory upgrade kits on your system board if
desired. The XT computer automatically recognizes
memory up to amaximum of 640K.
The XT comes with astandard serial port configured as
COM1. Your SixPakPlus card comes with astandard
serial port that should be reconfigured as COM2 to avoid
addressing conflicts with COM]. Section 3of this manual
contains the necessary reconfiguration instructions.
1.2 Standard features
The following are standard features of the SixPakPlus:
64K RAM memory.
An RS-232C Serial interface to be used with amodem,
serial printer, remote display terminal, or other serial
device, or as an asynchronous communications port to
another computer or peripheral operating under separate
asynchronous communications software control. (Note: a
current loop teletype interface is not supported.)
AParallel printer port to be used for connecting a parallel
printer to the PC.
Areal—time Clock-Calendar with battery backup so that
you don’t have to reenter the time and date every time
you start your system. The battery power is only used
when your system is turned off.