Commodore AMIGA 1060 SIDECAR User manual

Personal Computer
AMIGA 1060
SIDECAR
USER MANUAL
Commodore

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.... ^..........^...... 3
1.1 Atiachmg Ihc Sidecar lo the Amiga ^..^..,^..... 3
2. Aclivating the PC from the Worlil>ench 6
3. Acliialing Ihu PC from aCLI 7
4. Emulaline the PC 8
4.1 Display modc^-. ..-.„.„. .,..-..-... 8
4.2 Kethoard 9
4.3 Patallcl Fort 10
5. The PC Display Windows 12
5-1 Boiders 12
5,2 Siie of the window --.,,.-,,--,,-,,---,-,.-,.-„-„-„, 12
5-3 Number ot Text colors ,.--.-,.-- .13
5.*l Changing colors -..-,,-,.--.--,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-14
5.5 Mulliple windows -......tS
5.6 Display priority-,,-,.-,.--.--.--.--.,-,,-,,-.,-..-..-..- 16
6. Pulldown ineniTJ of the PC-winJow ,,-,,-,,-,,-.--,--.,„,-., -17
Appendix A:DIP switches, -.,-,.-,,--,-,,-,. --.,-.,-., 20
Appendix B:Expansion slots for cards ,...-.,- 25
Appendix C:Connecting exlernal disk driyes ...27
Appendix D;Installing ahard disk .,-,.-..-,.-,,- 29
Appendix E:The S0B7 numeric cu-processnr -.--.--.-,.,-,,-.,33
Appcndi.x F:HAM expansion for Ihe PC 35
Appenjix G;RAM expaosion for the Amiga ....37

'• :.
PICTURE 1
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PICTURE 2
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'••-"••••'
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1POWER SWITCH
2POWER CORD
3FLOPPY DISK COWNECTOR
4EXPANSION PORT
5MOUSE CONNECTOR
SJOYSTICK CONNECTOR

1. Introduction
Welcome lo the Commodore Sidecar, asystem that combines
hardware and software lo give complete TBM-PC compatibility
to your Amiga 1000 computer This brief Eutorial describes how
to set up and use the Sidecar. It presumes thai 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
51? KB by means of installing the memory expansion cartridge
(A 1050) in the front of the main computer housing.
This document is not atutorial 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 Altachin^ 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).

To attach ihe SidecaT, fir?t you have to clear the way: unplug
the mouse« and remove the cap that covers the Amiga expansion
port. There's alittle 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 ia 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 plug? wlih 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 anew power cable to the Sidecar,
because the Sidecar has aconvenient power-cord e:^ tender.
Notice that acable 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 ihe 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 ihe Sidecar is on the back
of the Sidecar. Turn on the power switch for the Aniiga.
Because the Amiga gets its power through the Sidecar, the
Amiga won't power up until you turn on the po^ver to the
Sidecar. Now turn on the power switch for the Sidecar.

Then you go through the normal start-up procedure for your
Amiga* which includes using your own Kicksiart and
Workbench disks to initiate the Workbench display.
BEWARE: You must never turn on power to the Sidecar unless
Ihe Amiga is aiready powered up. Doing so can seriously
damage the Amiga hardware. Thi? is espedalfy important to
note if you do not use the Sidecar power-cord extender and you
choose insiead 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.

2, Opening the Sidecar display programs
When you pul the Sidecar disk inlo 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. Tn
(he 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-FC 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 IT3M-PC Monochrome
display cmulator.The other icon is in 4colors and is labelled
"PC Color. 11 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 Slay 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':
<RZTURK> <RETURH> MODE COSO <RETUEN>
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 EBM-PC software. You
should put aPC system disk of your choice into the Sidecar's
floppy disk drive. It might be aPC-DOS disk, an MS-DOS
disk, aCP/M disk, or any IBM- PC application.

3. Activating the PC mode from a CLI
On ihe Workbench disb that is supplied with the Sidecar there
are two programs that activate the PC mode. To use these from
the CLT, install Ihe Sidecar and turn on ihe sytem as described
above. Insert the KICKSTART disk in the drive and when the
Workbench prompt appears, insert the disk contaioing the
Sidecar software. When the disk Icon appears, double click on it
to open aworkbench.Next open aCLI window by opening the
system drawer and clicking on the CLI icon, if you wish to
operate the Sidecar as a monochrome PC type :
RUN 'PC MONO' <RETURN>
If you tvish to operate as acolour PC, type:
RUN 'PC COLOR' <RETURH>
You can then proceed as described above.

4. Emulating the PC
This section describes some of the IDM-PC characterisUcs and
how they are emulated by the Sidecar.
4,1 DhpUy 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 avideo
monitor attached to Ihe 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 asingle monitor.
The IBM-PC Monochrome mode normally displays only one
color (green) on adark 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 restriciions. In the Sidecar Monochrome mode,
the color of the i^xt^ the intensified text and the background
are independent of each other, and you are able to modify these
colors in arty way you choose by selecting the COLOR menu
option (see the MENUS section). Normally the text of the
Monochrome display appears inawindow 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 4colors 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 4colors. The various Color display modes
of the PC are generally incompatible with the display
8

characteiistics of the Amiga Workbench screen, so a new screen
is created for the Sidecar Color display. You can modify the
colors of the Sidecar CoIot display windows to any colors that
suit you by selecting the COLOR menu option (see the MENUS
section).
IBM-PC applications will require either the Monochrome or
Coior display modes. Some programs may support both. The
documentation provided with the appiication wili tell you what
display it will use. You should activate the appropriate Sidecar
display program to create the required display, in the same way
that you would turn on aPC video monitor to interact with the
application.
The only PC display characteristic that's not supported by this
release of the Sidecar is the blinking of teil. Extremely few
IBM-PC software packages use Ihe blink characteristic, because
it is widely regarded as distracting and hard on the eyes. It was
lefi out of the Sidecar display programs in order lo improve the
performance of text rendering.
4.2 Keyboard
You send input to your IBM-PC programs through the Amiga
keyboard. You simply activate any of the Sidecar display
windows by clicking on it, and then you type as normal.
For installing the national keyboard driver you have to load the
appropriate driver from your Sidecar System disk. There are
four keys on the PC keyboard that aren't on the Amiga
keyboard. However, by typing certain control sequences you are
able to send these key sequences to PC programs running on the
Sidecar. The following table lists the PC keys and the Sidecar
translations. Notice that the translations are mnemonic to help
you remember them.