Software / Micro Solutions / UniForm-PC // retrocmp / retro computing

Use CP/M diskettes in your IBM PC

There's no etter way to describe it:

Attention: UniForm-PC should not be confused with UniForm for CP/M, also from MicroSolutions. There are a total of 16 different UniForm versions, each running on a specific CP/M computer like Kaypro, Micromint SB-180, Bondwell 1x, ... . See brochure below!

Whereby the naming UniForm-PC probably only exists from version 2.X on. Before that the name was also UniForm.

Uniform-PC Versions

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I am currently aware of eight versions of UNIFORM.SYS/EXE:

1.00: 1984 / no 3.5" support
1.01: 1984 / no 3.5" support
1.05: 1984 / no 3.5" support
1.07: 1984 / no 3.5" support, on my IBM PC/XT
2.05: 1986
2.16: 1988
2.17: 1989 / on my 286 AT with CompatiCard I
3.0b: 1990 / on my 386DX AT with CompatiCard IV!

Version 1.0x - 2.0x

Version 1.0x and 2.0x still have the command line parameters as described in the manual (1st edition, Oct 1984) below. This versions only support one primary floppy controller. For an IBM PC/XT this can be the CompatiCard I or the standard controller.

I use the Uniform-PC 1.07 on my IBM XT 5160 with PC-DOS 3.30 and the normal IBM floppy controller (NEC 765). This version works fine. Of course in this case only DD and not SD.

With the 1.0x versions you can still select the 48 tpi floppy drive via the option DIP Sw (Dip Switch).

Inside the computer (IBM PC/XT) is a DIP switch which should be set to indicate the number of floppy disk drives attached to your system. When DOS boots up, UniForm reads this switch and determines the physical drive address of the last floppy disk drive from the switch. If the DIP switch accurately reflects the number of floppy drives attached to your system, UniForm-PC will have the correct physical drive address to use.
UNIFORM-PC Version 1.0x Technical Notes

Version 2.1x

Version 2.1x does NOT provide the command line parameters anymore. Starting with version 2.1x you have to select the floppy controller(s) explicitly. On the one hand this is an advantage, but on the other hand you lose some freedom. For example, if you don't have a CompatiCard (CC1), you can't select the option "Single Density SD", although your floppy controller can write FM formats. It's a big disadvantage!

From version 2.1x on you can select the four possible floppy disk controllers very easily via the configuration program. For me, for example, the CompatiCard I is installed as the third controller with a total of three floppy disk drives.

UniForm-PC v2.17 Configuration Program — UniForm-PC v2.17, Configuration Program

You can not select/install the CompatiCard IV in UniForm-PC 2.17, because it came out later. UniForm 3.0 is similar to version 2.17, but you can select/install the CompatiCard IV (CC4).

Version 3.0x

The version 3.0 is a beta version and can be used for testing purposes. Apart from this beta version, I do not know of any license version.

This release has been supplied without charge for informational and evaluation purposes only and is provided without warranty, either express or implied.
UNIFORM-PC Version 3.0 BETA Release, Release 3.0 Technical Notes

Installation under DOS 6.22

You can install the device driver UNIFORM.SYS with DEVIVCEHIGH in the CONFIG.SYS file and UniForm-PC runs quit well. But you can not run the setup routine UINSTALL.COM. Solution: First run CONFIG.SYS with DEVICE and setup your drives with UINSTALL. If all runs quit well, change to DEVICEHIGH.

Formatting IBM PC-DOS floppies with UniForm-PC

Basically UniForm-PC is intended for accessing and formatting CP/M floppy disks. But! With version 3.0x you can also format IBM PC-DOS floppy disks (SSDD, DSDD, DSHD; 3.5", 5.24") and access them as normal, for example as drive A: or B:. With Norton DiskInfo (DI) the correct media descriptor is displayed. The identifier (system id or vendor volume identifier) is: "Uniform".

Formatting DOS floppies — UniForm-PC IBM PC-DOS formats

See letters L to R, these are standard IBM PC-DOS formats. In addition to these standard IBM PC-DOS formats, a variety of non-IBM DOS formats are supported, see letters D, G, H, T, ...

I formatted a 360K floppy disk with the UniForm-PC format „IBM PC-DOS Version 2/3 [DSDD:48:DOS]“‚ and was able to access the floppy disk in the standard B: drive and copy files without the „help“ of the special UniForm-PC drive. I tried the other DOS formats too.

UniForm-PC formats a DOS disk perfectly, but with a small but fine difference to the normal FORMAT command. UniForm-PC writes only the mandatory BIOS parameter block (BPB) into the boot sector and nothing else. DOS can read a floppy disk formatted in this way without problems, since all the necessary disk parameters are known. However, if you test a UniForm-PC formatted disk with the Norton Disk Doctor (NDD), the program will warn you that the boot sector is not correct.

In the next three „figures“ (Volume Boot Records, VBR) you can see the differences between three formats: UniForm, Norton SafeFormat and DOS format. The BPB is always the same except for the system ID (UniForm, IBM PNCI, MSDOS5.0), how should it be different! The system ID „IBM PNCI“ stands for „IBM Peter Norton Computing Inc.“ VCF thread: Floppy Disk OEM FAT IDs

All floppy disks are formatted as: 360K, 48 tpi (DSDD). I made the following screen shots with DEBUG and a little bit editing.

The Volume Boot Record (Boot Sector) is the very first sector (logical sector 0 with physical CHS address 0/0/1) of a floppy disk.


      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  EB FE 90 55 6E 69 46 6F-72 6D 20 00 02 02 01 00   ...UniForm .....
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 00 00   .p..............
0020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0080  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00A0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00B0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00C0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00D0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0100  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0110  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0120  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0130  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0140  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0160  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0170  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0190  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01A0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01B0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01C0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01D0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA   ..............U.

Fig. 1: Volume boot record - UniForm

      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..-.. .. .. 00 02 02 01 00   ................
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 .. ..   ................

Fig. 1a: BIOS parameter block (BPB) - UniForm
-> Format of standard DOS 3.0 BPB for FAT12 (19 bytes)


      00 02 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  EB 28 90 49 42 4D 20 50-4E 43 49 00 02 02 01 00   .(.IBM PNCI.....
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 00 00   .p..............
0020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC   ...........3....
0030  F0 7B FB B8 C0 07 8E D8-BE 5B 00 90 FC AC 0A C0   .{.......[......
0040  74 0B 56 B4 0E BB 07 00-CD 10 5E EB F0 32 E4 CD   t.V.......^..2..
0050  16 B4 0F CD 10 32 E4 CD-10 CD 19 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D   .....2..........
0060  0A 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D-0A 0D 0A 20 20 20 20 54   ...........    T
0070  68 69 73 20 64 69 73 6B-20 69 73 20 6E 6F 74 20   his disk is not 
0080  62 6F 6F 74 61 62 6C 65-0D 0A 0D 0A 20 49 66 20   bootable.... If 
0090  79 6F 75 20 77 69 73 68-20 74 6F 20 6D 61 6B 65   you wish to make
00A0  20 69 74 20 62 6F 6F 74-61 62 6C 65 2C 0D 0A 72    it bootable,..r
00B0  75 6E 20 74 68 65 20 44-4F 53 20 70 72 6F 67 72   un the DOS progr
00C0  61 6D 20 53 59 53 20 61-66 74 65 72 20 74 68 65   am SYS after the
00D0  0D 0A 20 20 20 20 20 73-79 73 74 65 6D 20 68 61   ..     system ha
00E0  73 20 62 65 65 6E 20 6C-6F 61 64 65 64 0D 0A 0D   s been loaded...
00F0  0A 50 6C 65 61 73 65 20-69 6E 73 65 72 74 20 61   .Please insert a
0100  20 44 4F 53 20 64 69 73-6B 65 74 74 65 20 69 6E    DOS diskette in
0110  74 6F 0D 0A 20 74 68 65-20 64 72 69 76 65 20 61   to.. the drive a
0120  6E 64 20 73 74 72 69 6B-65 20 61 6E 79 20 6B 65   nd strike any ke
0130  79 2E 2E 2E 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   y...............
0140  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0160  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0170  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0190  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01A0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01B0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01C0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01D0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA   ..............U.

Fig. 2: Volume boot record - Norton SafeFormat

      00 02 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..-.. .. .. 00 02 02 01 00   ................
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 .. ..   ................

Fig. 2a: BIOS parameter block (BPB) - Norton SafeFormat
-> Format of standard DOS 3.0 BPB for FAT12 (19 bytes)


      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  EB 3C 90 4D 53 44 4F 53-35 2E 30 00 02 02 01 00   ...MSDOS5.0.....
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 00 00   .p..............
0020  00 00 00 00 00 00 29 08-19 25 3B 52 45 54 52 4F   ......)..%;RETRO
0030  43 4D 50 20 20 20 46 41-54 31 32 20 20 20 FA 33   CMP   FAT12   .3
0040  C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C 16 07-BB 78 00 36 C5 37 1E 56   .....|...x.6.7.V
0050  16 53 BF 3E 7C B9 0B 00-FC F3 A4 06 1F C6 45 FE   .S.>|.........E.
0060  0F 8B 0E 18 7C 88 4D F9-89 47 02 C7 07 3E 7C FB   ....|.M..G...>|.
0070  CD 13 72 79 33 C0 39 06-13 7C 74 08 8B 0E 13 7C   ..ry3.9..|t....|
0080  89 0E 20 7C A0 10 7C F7-26 16 7C 03 06 1C 7C 13   .. |..|.&.|...|.
0090  16 1E 7C 03 06 0E 7C 83-D2 00 A3 50 7C 89 16 52   ..|...|....P|..R
00A0  7C A3 49 7C 89 16 4B 7C-B8 20 00 F7 26 11 7C 8B   |.I|..K|. ..&.|.
00B0  1E 0B 7C 03 C3 48 F7 F3-01 06 49 7C 83 16 4B 7C   ..|..H....I|..K|
00C0  00 BB 00 05 8B 16 52 7C-A1 50 7C E8 92 00 72 1D   ......R|.P|...r.
00D0  B0 01 E8 AC 00 72 16 8B-FB B9 0B 00 BE DF 7D F3   .....r........}.
00E0  A6 75 0A 8D 7F 20 B9 0B-00 F3 A6 74 18 BE 9E 7D   .u... .....t...}
00F0  E8 5F 00 33 C0 CD 16 5E-1F 8F 04 8F 44 02 CD 19   ._.3...^....D...
0100  58 58 58 EB E8 8B 47 1A-48 48 8A 1E 0D 7C 32 FF   XXX...G.HH...|2.
0110  F7 E3 03 06 49 7C 13 16-4B 7C BB 00 07 B9 03 00   ....I|..K|......
0120  50 52 51 E8 3A 00 72 D8-B0 01 E8 54 00 59 5A 58   PRQ.:.r....T.YZX
0130  72 BB 05 01 00 83 D2 00-03 1E 0B 7C E2 E2 8A 2E   r..........|....
0140  15 7C 8A 16 24 7C 8B 1E-49 7C A1 4B 7C EA 00 00   .|..$|..I|.K|...
0150  70 00 AC 0A C0 74 29 B4-0E BB 07 00 CD 10 EB F2   p....t).........
0160  3B 16 18 7C 73 19 F7 36-18 7C FE C2 88 16 4F 7C   ;..|s..6.|....O|
0170  33 D2 F7 36 1A 7C 88 16-25 7C A3 4D 7C F8 C3 F9   3..6.|..%|.M|...
0180  C3 B4 02 8B 16 4D 7C B1-06 D2 E6 0A 36 4F 7C 8B   .....M|.....6O|.
0190  CA 86 E9 8A 16 24 7C 8A-36 25 7C CD 13 C3 0D 0A   .....$|.6%|.....
01A0  4B 65 69 6E 20 53 79 73-74 65 6D 20 6F 64 65 72   Kein System oder
01B0  20 4C 61 75 66 77 65 72-6B 73 66 65 68 6C 65 72    Laufwerksfehler
01C0  0D 0A 57 65 63 68 73 65-6C 6E 20 75 6E 64 20 54   ..Wechseln und T
01D0  61 73 74 65 20 64 72 81-63 6B 65 6E 0D 0A 00 49   aste dr.cken...I
01E0  4F 20 20 20 20 20 20 53-59 53 4D 53 44 4F 53 20   O      SYSMSDOS 
01F0  20 20 53 59 53 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA     SYS.........U.

Fig. 3: Volume boot record - DOS FORMAT (6.22)

      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07-08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000  .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..-.. .. .. 00 02 02 01 00   ................
0010  02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0020  00 00 00 00 00 00 29 08-19 25 3B 52 45 54 52 4F   ...........RETRO
0030  43 4D 50 20 20 20 46 41-54 31 32 20 20 20 .. ..   CMP   FAT12   ..

Fig. 3a: BIOS parameter block (BPB) - DOS FORMAT (6.22)
-> Format of standard DOS 4.0 BPB for FAT12 (51 bytes)

You will only notice the difference if you accidentally inserted a floppy disk in drive A: during the boot process. In the former case, absolutely nothing is displayed on the screen and the system hangs up, because the jump address is a dummy jump instruction „EB FE“, unassembled „JMP 0000“. In other words, it is a endless loop.

The other two boot sectors have valid jump instructions: EB 28 - > JMP 002A / EB 3C -> JMP 003E:

As you can see, the most important part of the BPB (0x0B-0x1D, 19 bytes) is exactly the same. This area contains the so-called drive parameters. Without these, it is not possible to access the disk.

But to say it again, a DOS disk formatted with UniForm-PC has a valid boot sector (ends with 0x55, 0xAA) with a correct boot parameter block. The formatted disks are fully usable.

Special note: SD format and CompatiCard II (CC2)

Single-density disk diskette formats are not supported unless a Micro Solutions CompatiCard I, Compaticard IV or Backpack Drive is installed. In each case the device driver software must also be properly installed since it is the device driver that provides Interrupt 13h functions. If a format is not supported by the installed hardware and device driver (where required) that format will not appear on the Uniform-PC menus.
UNIFORM-PC Version 3.0 BETA Release, Release 3.0 Technical Notes

The CompatiCard II does not support single-density operation with 5.25 inch CP/M formats! The CompatiCard II does not support 5.25 inch 96 TPI (1.2MB) single speed floppy drives!
Brochure 1987 and CompatiCard user's guide

A Thread in the Vintage Computer Federation (VCF) Forum

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VCF thread: April 2019
haglebu: that's me
Chuck(G): Charles (Chuck) Guzis / Sydex, Inc. (TeleDisk/AnaDisk/22Disk products)

About: CompatiCard IV and UniForm-PC

(haglebu)
Does anybody of you use the CompatiCard IV (CC4) together with UniForm (CP/M)? Note the CompatiCard IV, not the CompatiCard I (CC1) or CompatiCard II (CC2).
The CC1 runs fine with UniForm-PC 2.17. But! UniForm-PC 2.17 does not support the CC4, only the CC1 and CC2.
According to a brochure of MicoSolutions "Computer Products" from 1987 the CompatiCard IV is explicitly mentioned with UniForm-PC and CP/M. This UniForm-PC version should therefore be different from the 2.17 version.
The strange thing is: The READ.ME file of UniForm-PC 2.17 is from 1989, two years older than the above mentioned brochure. Maybe there have been different UniForm-PC versions for the CC1/CC2 and for the CC4?
The CC4 is installed on my IBM PC 5160 as an additional controller and works fine. All additionally connected floppy disk drives can be addressed correctly. There are no problems.

Chuck(G)
The internal port setup of the CC1 and CC2 is very different from the CC4. The CC1 and 2 use their own unique method for setting the data rate; the CC4 uses the PC AT standard that the rest of the world adopted. I've got a late copy of Uniform (ca. 1992) that may support the CC4--I've never checked. So much software, so little time.
22Disk, if my memory is correct, still supports the CC1 and CC2, but you have to call it out in the DISKETTE.CFG file.

(haglebu)
I had almost thought about the thing with the different internal port setup. Somewhere on the Internet I had already read this. But I don't know where anymore. It may even have been a comment from you! Well then. Thank you for your information.
The file DISKETTE.CFG I created in my opinion also correctly.

(haglebu)
After a long search on the internet I was able to solve the problem. The extended functions (SD/FM, 8inch) of the CompatiCard IV are supported by UniForm-PC from version 3.0X on. The well-known UniForm-PC version 2.17 does NOT support the extended functions of the CompatiCard IV.

Chuck(G)
I'm having trouble understanding why. The CCIV sans BIOS is nothing more than a bog-standard PC AT style controller (uses a NS 8477, just like a lot of 486-style controllers). Are you certain you're not overthinking this?

(haglebu)
The last article was a little short, so now a little more detailed.
Basically this thread is only about the program UniForm-PC and in particular about the interaction with the CompatiCard I, II or IV (CC1, CC2, CC4). In order to use the program Uniform-PC correctly, it must be configured with UINSTALL. And this is exactly where the differences lie. I have three versions of UniForm-PC in use. These are versions 2.05, 2.17 and 3.0.
Version 2.05 is described in the User's Guide (First Edition, Oct 1984). For version 2.17 and 3.0 I don't know any manuals. Even after a long search on the internet I found nothing.
UniForm-PC 2.05 is configured in the file CONFIG.SYS (DEVICE=UNIFORM.SYS ...) via parameters (see Appendix A). Example: "The SD8" parameter is used to tell UniForm whether your floppy disk Controller supports single density for 8 inch drives. If this flag is true, UniForm will assume that single density will work on your 8 inch drives, and additional formats will appear in the menu".
This configuration via parameters is NOT supported anymore in versions 2.17 (ca. 1989) and 3.0 (ca. 1991). Here the installed floppy disk controller must be explicitly selected. With UniForm-PC 2.17 only CC1, CC2 and MatchPoint PC are available besides standard PC/AT. However, CC4 (approx. 1990) cannot be selected because it did not exist at all around 1989.
For this reason UniForm-PC 2.17 can basically be used with the CC4, but single density (SD) and 8 inch drives cannot be used, although the CC4 of course supports SD.
And in this context, my statement: "The well-known UniForm-PC version 2.17 does NOT support the extended functions of the CC4." is to be understood.
The CC4 is of course able to read and write SD and SD (128 Byte/Sector) but not with UniForm-PC 2.17. With the next version UniForm-PC 3.0 (ca. 1991) the CC4 will be supported as well. Here I can explicitly select the CC4 in UINSTALL!
I hope that this comment explains the different UniForm-PC versions a little bit better.

Chuck(G)
While I never used Uniform (I have a few copies), why FM is disabled when a standard PC AT controller is selected must be purely a programmer's choice. Perhaps they didn't want to allow any of the competing floppy controller providers into their market. I suspect that it's mostly a matter of a flag somewhere. Certainly, one does nothing different with the FDC other than omitting the MFM bit in the commands.
I guess this is where the programmers and the hobbyists part company. As the former, I'd probably take apart the executable and modify it if I had to use it.

(haglebu)
For this reason I use UniForm-PC version 2.05 on my 386 AT with the SCSI controller AHA-1542B (controller chip DP8473V), because the SD/FM functions can be set with the described parameters. With 22Disk and the CC4 I can also read and write in FM format with the corresponding DISKETTE.CFG file. No problems.