Commodore A1060 Sidecar User manual

Personal Computer
AMIGA 1060
SIDECAR
USER MANUAL
Commodore

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................... 3
1.1 Attaching the Sidecar to the Amiga
............................... 3
2. Activating the PC from the Workbench
.......................... 6
3. Activating the PC from a C I
.......................................... 7
4. Emulating the PC
................................................................ 8
4.1 Display modes ...................................................................... 8
4.2 Keyboard............................................................................... 9
4.3 Parallel Port..........................................................................10
5. The PC Display Windows
................................................... 12
5.1 Borders.................................................................................. 12
5.2 Size of the window
............................................................. 12
5.3 Number of Text colors
....................................................... 13
5.4 Changing colors
................................................................... 14
5.5 Multiple windows.................................................................15
5.6 Display priority.....................................................................16
6. Pulldown menus of the PC-window
................................. 17
Appendix A : DIP switches
...................................................... 20
Appendix B : Expansion slots for cards
................................ 25
Appendix C : Connecting external disk drives ..................... 27
Appendix D : Installing a hard disk ...................................... 29
Appendix E : The 8087 numeric co-processor.....................33
Appendix F : RAM expansion for the P C ............................35
Appendix G : RAM expansion for the Amiga
...................... 37
1

PICTURE 2
1 POWER SWITCH 4 EXPANSION PORT
2 POWER CORD 5 MOUSE CONNECTOR
3 FLOPPY DISK CONNECTOR 6 JOYSTICK CONNECTOR
PICTURE 1
2

1. Introdu tion
Welcome to the Commodore Sidecar, a system that combines
hardware and software to give complete IBM-PC compatibility
to your Amiga 1000 computer. This brief tutorial describes how
to set up and use the Sidecar. It presumes that you have already
put together your Amiga and that you know how to operate it.
Please refer to the manual "Introduction to Amiga” for
information about setting up and operating your Amiga.
NOTE: The Sidecar can only be used on an Amiga expanded to
512 KB by means of installing the memory expansion cartridge
(A 1050) in the front of the main computer housing.
This document is not a tutorial on using the IBM-PC. For
information on the correct usage of the PC, you will have to
study the documentation that comes with the IBM-PC operating
system and any application software you choose to use with
your Sidecar.
If you are wondering what IBM software will work with your
Sidecar, the answer is simple: all IBM-PC software will work
with the Sidecar.
1.1 Attaching the Sidecar to the Amiga
WARNING: Before you start, you must make sure that your
Amiga is powered off.
The Sidecar plugs into the side of the Amiga. It fits onto both
the Amiga expansion port and the connectors where the mouse
is attached. The expansion port and connectors are located on
the right side of the Amiga box (when facing the front of the
Amiga).
3

To attach the Sidecar, first you have to clear the way: unplug
the mouse, and remove the cap that covers the Amiga expansion
port. There’s a little slot beneath the cap, where you put your
fingertip to pry the cap off. Apply gentle pressure and the cap
will come loose. Save this cap in case you ever want to detach
the Sidecar from your Amiga. Next, place the Sidecar to the
right of the Amiga and line up the Sidecar’s plugs with the
Amiga’s connectors. The face of the Sidecar should be flush
with the face of the Amiga. When all the Sidecar plugs are
lined up with Amiga connectors, slide the Sidecar gently but
firmly into the Amiga sockets.
You do not have to run a new power cable to the Sidecar,
because the Sidecar has a convenient power-cord extender.
Notice that a cable comes out of the back of the Sidecar. This is
the power-cord extender. Find the cable that runs from the
power outlet to your Amiga, unplug this cable from the Amiga
and plug it into the Sidecar. Then plug the Sidecar’s power-cord
extender into the Amiga, in the socket where the power cable
had been attached to the Amiga. Electricity flows into the
Sidecar, and then through the extender to the Amiga.
On the front of the Sidecar cabinet are the connectors for the
mouse and other controllers. Plug the mouse into the left
connector.
Now you can turn on the power for both the Sidecar and the
Amiga. The power switch for the Amiga is on the left side of
the Amiga, and the power switch for the Sidecar is on the back
of the Sidecar. Turn on the power switch for the Amiga.
Because the Amiga gets its power through the Sidecar, the
Amiga won’t power up until you turn on the power to the
Sidecar. Now turn on the power switch for the Sidecar.
4

Then you go through the normal start-up procedure for your
Amiga, which includes using your own Kickstart and
Workbench disks to initiate the Workbench display.
BEWARE: You must never turn on power to the Sidecar unless
the Amiga is already powered up. Doing so can seriously
damage the Amiga hardware. This is especially important to
note if you do not use the Sidecar power-cord extender and you
choose instead to have separate power cables for the Amiga and
the Sidecar. If you follow the normal procedure of plugging the
Sidecar power-cord extender into the Amiga, you can prevent
this problem entirely.
5

2. Opening the Side ar display programs
When you put the Sidecar disk into one of the disk drives, an
icon for the disk will appear on the Workbench screen. Double
click on the Sidecar disk icon to open the disk’s top drawer. In
the top drawer you will see, among other things, two icons that
look like graphical representations of IBM Personal Computers.
These two icons allow you to open programs that emulate the
two IBM-PC display types: Monochrome and Color.
Notice that one icon is in two colors and has the words "PC
Mono" beneath it. This icon opens the IBM-PC Monochrome
display emulator.The other icon is in 4 colors and is labelled
"PC Color. It opens the program that emulates the IBM-PC
Color display. To open either display, double-click on the
appropriate icon.
When you first unpackage your Sidecar, it is configured to
power up in Monochrome mode, so if you double-click on the
Monochrome icon you will see the diagnostic messages that
come up when the Sidecar is powering up. If you double-click
on the Color icon, you will see a blank window. The displays
will stay like this until you put some software into the Sidecar
disk drive.
If you want to use the colour PC screen, no system messages
will appear. When the screen is opened the cursor will be in the
home position and you must type the following ’blind’:
<RETURN <RETURN MODE C080 <RETURN
Then the DOS prompt ( A> ) will appear and you are ready to
enter commands in the usual fashion.
At this point the Sidecar is ready to run IBM-PC software. You
should put a PC system disk of your choice into the Sidecar’s
floppy disk drive. It might be a PC-DOS disk, an MS-DOS
disk, a CP/M disk, or any IBM-PC application.
6

3. A tivating the PC mode from a CLI
On the Workbench disk that is supplied with the Sidecar there
are two programs that activate the PC mode. To use these from
the C I, install the Sidecar and turn on the sytem as described
above. Insert the KICKSTART disk in the drive and when the
Workbench prompt appears, insert the disk containing the
Sidecar software. When the disk Icon appears, double click on it
to open a workbench.Next open a C I window by opening the
system drawer and clicking on the C I icon. If you wish to
operate the Sidecar as a monochrome PC type :
RUN 'PC MONO' <RETURN
If you wish to operate as a colour PC, type:
RUN 'PC COLOR' <RETURN
You can then proceed as described above.
7

4. Emulating the PC
This section describes some of the IBM-PC characteristics and
how they are emulated by the Sidecar.
4.1 Display Modes
The PC has two standard display modes: Monochrome and Color
Display. Both of these display modes are available on the
Sidecar by using the PC Mono and PC Color Display programs.
Running one of these programs is similar to turning on a video
monitor attached to the PC, except that the PC requires a
separate monitor for each mode while the Sidecar requires only
one monitor. The Amiga conveniently creates windows and
screens which allow multiple display types (such as the IBM-PC
display types) to appear on a single monitor.
The IBM-PC Monochrome mode normally displays only one
color (green) on a dark background. Programs can display an
intensified version of the one color, and can also reverse the
color with the background so that dark characters appear on a
color background.
The Sidecar Monochrome display emulates this mode without
these chromatic restrictions. In the Sidecar Monochrome mode,
the color of the text, the intensified text and the background
are independent of each other, and you are able to modify these
colors in any way you choose by selecting the CO OR menu
option (see the MENUS section). Normally the text of the
Monochrome display appears in a window on the Workbench
screen, although the Monochrome display window will move to
its own screen if you choose to use fewer colors than the
normal 4 colors of the text display.
In the IBM-PC Color Display mode, both text and graphics can
be displayed. Text can be rendered in up to 16 colors, and
graphics can be up to 4 colors. The various Color display modes
of the PC are generally incompatible with the display
8